Islands Around the World
Islands Around the World
Have you ever wondered about how islands are created? Join us on a journey around the rim of the mighty Pacific Ocean and discover the geologic story behind the origins of different types of islands. Your voyage will end here in the Salish Sea on beautiful Whidbey Island!
When: July 30th at 6 PM
Where: The WWS Environmental Learning Collaborative
723 Camano Ave , Room 109, Langley, WA 98260
RSVP and/or Questions: Info@WhidbeyWatersheds.org
Price: By donation
Post Event Notes -
On July 30, Rick Baker gave a fascinating and informative talk about islands! Rick dug into the “What? Why? Where?” in the creation of the different types of islands on our planet. He shared the history of movements and processes occurring on our planet and the dynamic shifts that are constantly happening; some in more obvious fashions (i.e. recent movement off Russia’s eastern coast that led to tsunami warnings here in the Pacific northwest!) and some less immediately obvious (like the ongoing northwest movement of the Pacific plate at 3-4 inches per year!).
Learning a bit more about the processes that occur to create and affect incredible environments like the special one here on Whidbey Island, can really help us appreciate this place where we live. We are fortunate to be able to enjoy this bit of our planet’s surface! Let’s continue working together to preserve it!
Movie and More!
A Day on Whidbey - Film, Forest and Food!
WWS has partnered with the Sno-Isle Sierra Club for a fun filled day on Whidbey Island! You are welcome to join for all or any part of this event.
Schedule Saturday, July 26, 2025
2 pm Orcas - Life in Black and White film screening at The Clyde Theater, Langley
4 pm Hike at Putney Woods or Saratoga Woods
6 pm Dinner at a restaurant in Langley (TBD)
The Clyde Theater in Langley will host a showing of Orcas - Life in Black and White, by local filmmaker and marine biologist Florian Graner. Graner spent years collecting incredible images of orcas from around the world, focusing on two coexisting orca cultures right here in the Salish Sea. If you love orcas and the natural world, or enjoy stories of intimacy, family, and community, this movie is for you!. There will be a Q&A with the filmmaker after the show.
General Admission - $10, ages 7-16 - $8, free for 6 and under at the door. Proceeds will benefit the local filmmaker and Whidbey Watershed Stewards.
Stinging Nettles Festival
Join Whidbey Watershed Stewards for a lesson on:
Foraging spring edible shoots,
Quick basket making, and
Maintenance of the property at Freeland Wetlands Preserve.
WWS Board members will be demonstrating harvesting of young nettle tops, cooking with nettles (nettle soup, nettle tea, and nettle pesto), making baskets from bramble vines, and other spring edible shoots. Join a tour on the property, then join in on helping control the nettle and brambles before the spring growing season. Soup, tea, pesto, and coffee provided to all volunteers.
Bring heavy gloves and clippers If you intend to help out and maintain this amazing property. All are welcome!
Whidbey Water
Whidbey doesn’t have rivers or glaciers. So, where does our water come from? How long will it last? Perry Lovelace will be discussing this and much more. Join us for an always entertaining and educational evening with Perry Lovelace.
Earth Day at Camp Casey
Organizations from across Whidbey Island will offer immersive experiences along the beach, in the forest, and throughout our unique island environment. Free, family friendly, and open to all!
For additional information visit https://whidbeyearthday.org/fair/
Invasive Species Extraction Event
Join Whidbey Watershed Stewards at the Freeland Wetlands Preserve on Monday February 24th at 3PM for the removal of invasive plant species.
Please RSVP to: Stewardship@WhidbeyWatersheds.Org
WWS’s stewardship group will be onsite to identify, extract, and remove invasive and non-native plants. On Monday the team will be focusing on holly trees.
We hope you will join us for this event. Please bring sturdy work gloves and dress for the weather and plants with spiney leaves.
Entrance to the Freeland Wetlands Preserve is at: 1820 Newman Road, Freeland, WA 98249
Fir Tree Sale
Whidbey Watershed Stewards has nearly 100 young potted Douglas Fir trees for sale. They have been nurtured for the past year in what we call our little home nurseries. These are healthy 3-4 foot trees. We are asking for a minimum $10 donation for each potted tree. The funds will be used to help us continue to work on stewardship and restoration of the Freeland Wetland Preserve and other stewardship projects.
Think about planting a tree for our environment. Perhaps use the potted tree decorated for the season on your patio or deck. Then after the holiday plant the tree. If you do not have a place to plant the tree, you probably know someone who has a place, and the potted tree would make a wonderful, thoughtful gift. Fall and early winter are the best times to plant trees. This gives them the winter months to grow good root systems and be generously watered by our winter and spring rains.
Whidbey Watershed Stewards were generously donated about 225 Douglas Fir saplings by Sievert Rohwer and Barb Schiltz for use to plant and restore the native trees at our properties. Since last spring we have planted over 150 trees, mainly at the Freeland Wetland Preserve and the Maxwelton Outdoor Classroom to replace trees that have either come down or been removed due to age or rot.
Please order by December 20th. We are providing a link below for you to order and pay for the potted Douglas Fir below. If you are not paying online, please email us at stewardship@whidbeywatersheds.org and let us know you will paying onsite (cash or check).
Whidbey Watershed Stewards will have the trees at the Freeland Wetland Preserve on Saturday, December 21, from 10AM to Noon.
(If you cannot make the pickup time, please contact us with your email and phone number and we will arrange another time.
Finding Your Civic Voice Workshop
Our friends and colleagues at the Whidbey Island Environmental Action Network (WEAN) will be hosting this event on December 8th. It will be led by Marnie Jackson. The event is free and open to the public, but space is limited.
See Flyer: https://bit.ly/findyourcivicvoice
Register Here: https://forms.gle/QigFvSzYJpQzLNRWA
Discussion on Marine Mammals and the Puget Sound Stranding Network!
How well do you know your marine mammal neighbors? Can you tell the difference between a seal and sea lion? Do you know what to do if you saw a whale in trouble?
Come learn about local marine mammals! Find out about the Marine Mammal Stranding Network, who your local chapter is, what they do and how you can help all wildlife by safely admiring from a distance.
Join WWS on November 16th at 2PM for a discussion at the South Whidbey Community Center. Our marine educator - Rachel Mayer - has prepared a 90 minute event filled with marine mammal facts and fun wildlife stories. Come and learn how to share the shore with seals and get answers to your burning questions about these underwater masters!
South Whidbey Community Center
723 Camano Ave
Room 109
Langley, WA 98260
Freeland Wetland Preserve Celebration
Freeland Wetland Preserve is celebrating perpetual access to the Wetlands and trails!
Sept 15th 2-4PM
1820 Newman Rd, Freeland, WA 98249
Special Presentations, Acknowledgements, Refreshments & Wetland Trails! A year ago WWS received a Conservation Futures Fund Grant to secure the 2.8 acre Freeland Wetland Preserve access and parking adjacent to our trails and wetland, protecting access to all 48 acres of wetlands, forest, trails & wildlife in perpetuity!
We hope you will join us as we acknowledge many of those who facilitated preserving the Freeland Wetland Preserve — today & for future generations. Whidbey Island’s water comes from ground water collected by rainfall and held by our wetlands, a critical element for our diverse birds, reptiles, amphibian, mammals and forest. You can expect lively remarks by LEPS’ Don Meehan & Linda Kast whose family once farmed the property and continuing to work with local environmentalists to steward the wetlands. Ray Green, a former Rotary President, took the lead on several of the access improvements at the FWP and he helped build our Maxwelton Outdoor Classroom. Island County Commissioners, local non-profits, and local environmentalist continue to bolster our efforts, and they share their knowledge to make us better stewards! Thank you all, come share refreshments, mingle with friends & take home a Port Orford Cedar, courtesy of Bayview Farm & Garden, to plant as we learn to ‘plant forward’ in a changing climate!
Post Event Report:
On September 15th Whidbey Watershed Stewards hosted an open house event at the Freeland Wetland Preserver. It was the perfect fall day to celebrate receiving the Island County 2023 Conservation Futures Fund (CFF) Grant — used to purchase 2.8 adjoining acres which insures access & parking, in perpetuity, for the 45+ acre Freeland Wetlands Preserve!
The WWS Board & Staff were honored to welcome the many guests that attended, including: IC Commissioner Melanie Bacon, CFF members Linda Kast & Susan Bennett, Don Meehan (Lighthouse Environmental Programs Grants Lead). Linda Kast recounted stories of her family's stewardship of the wetlands over several decades.
Supporter Sievert Rohwer, a forest Steward and ornithologist, spiced up the event with tales of island wood ducks, complimenting input from Wetland Ecologist Dyanne Sheldon, Earth Sanctuary's Chuck Pettis and Wetland Restoration contractor & Board Member Jeremy McKnight!
The chain of ponds and wetlands along Newman Road support wide diversity of birds, reptiles, mammals, amphibians, gastropods, upland forest, woodlands and fungi! Many locals enjoy the loop trail through the woodlands to the pond and report greeting many bird watchers enjoying rejuvenating nature walks The preserve is an easy Island Transit stop for a nature walk and bird watching!
Whidbey Watershed Stewards expressed their appreciation for the support from the Rotary Club of South Whidbey, the Whidbey Camano Land Trust, Sound Water Stewards, Steve Ellis, Dyanne Sheldon, David Parent & 10th District Rep. Clyde Shavers, Island County Commissioners Bacon, Johnson & St. Clair and the Conservation Futures Fund members.
The Whidbey Watershed Stewards (WWS) welcomes community members to enjoy all the properties we steward including the Freeland Wetlands Preserve, the Maxwelton Outdoor Classroom and Robinson Beach! You are invited to upcoming events there and at our Environmental Learning Center at the South Whidbey Community Center where we host groups & share learning! Volunteer & learning opportunities abound!
Freeland Wetland Preserver
1820 Newman Rd
Freeland, WA 98249
Clinton Beach Park - World Beach Clean-up Event
Saturday September 14, 2024 9:30-11am at Clinton Beach Park, Whidbey Island
Join us to learn about local beach contamination and learn safe ways to protect and clean our beaches.
Parking is available across the road and at the Clinton Park and Ride.
Please RSVP and let us know to expect you. Space will be limited.
Click HERE for more details.
World Otter Day
World Otter Day takes place on the last Wednesday in May each year. The day was established by International Otter Survival Fund to help draw attention to otters, celebrate them, and raise awareness and support for their conservation globally. The aim is to put otters on the map, and at the forefront of people’s mind.
Whidbey Watershed Stewards is very please and excited to share our local otters with our South Whidbey neighbors and visitors. That’s right! We have otters living in the Freeland Wetland Preserve! The Whidbey Watershed Stewards hopes you’ll visit the preserve, and with a little luck, you may see otters living in a natural habitat. Our efforts and your support have helped us to successfully establish and maintain this peaceful and beautiful natural environment in Freeland WA. You can read more about the Freeland Wetland Preserver here and here.
Is Whidbey's Water Sustainable?
What are aquifers and why are they important? How does aquifer recharge occur? How big is the aquifer for Whidbey Island? What can be done to enhance it? How much water are we using from the aquifer? What implications does this have for Whidbey Island?
Last night Whidbey Watershed Stewards hosted a presentation by hall of famer Perry Lovelace. Perry has 25 years experience in groundwater management. He is the Bayview Beach Water District Commissioner and serves as a Langley Public Works Advisory Commissioner. Perry's special interests are rainfall patterns, aquifers, wells and resource management.
At the presentation Perry explained and discussed the issues around the sustainability of our water resources on Whidbey Island. He also provided insights and explanations about what other communities – local to Whidbey and throughout the world – are doing about water resources.
The session was very well attended with 50 people at the session. The presentation lasted just over an hour and there was ample time for questions, answers, and discussion. There was also an active 3D groundwater model operating for the guests. The model shows how water flows (or not) through various soil compounds such as sand, gravel, and clay.
Perry’s presentation began with some important questions about aquifers and then explored each of them as they relate to the local Whidbey Island aquifer. The level of the attendees' attention was very high. The attendees had a number of great questions which created healthy and productive discussion.
Whidbey Watershed Stewards would like to thank Perry for making time to meet with our community and for his ongoing and tireless work and stewardship of our local water resources. We look forward to seeing him again very soon.
Clint Hatton
Executive Director
Whidbey Watershed Stewards
Summer Camps at the Outdoor Classroom
Nature Explorers Explore the wonders and beauty of the natural world through art and nature-based crafts at the Maxwelton Outdoor Classroom. Ages: 4 & 5 years old Dates: July 11-July 14 9:00am-12:00pm Cost: $100.00
Planet Protectors Help improve the world around us by learning about local environmental issues and discovering important solutions! Ages: 6 - 8 years old Session 1 Dates-July 25- July 29 9:00am-3:00pm Session 2 Dates-August 15th- 19th 9:00am-3:00pm Cost: $300.00
Biomimicry Builders Investigate how the natural world inspires the work of scientists & engineers, and create your own biomimicry invention! Ages: 9-11 years old Dates: August 8th- 12th 9:00am-3:00pm Cost: $300.00
Nature Walk and Treasure Hunt at Freeland Wetlands Preserve
Join us for an easy half mile walk around the Freeland Wetland Preserve on Newman Road as a part of Whidbey Island Earth and Ocean Month. Find out what plants and animals make their home here and if you are lucky you might find a painted rock to take home.
More detailed location infomration for the Freeland Wetland Preserve can be found in the book “Hiking Close to Home” by Maribeth Crandell and Jack Hartt.
