Friends Of The San Juans

Friends’ primary goals are to foster wild and healthy shorelines, promote thriving and sustainable communities, conserve forests, farmlands, freshwater and prairie habitats, and ensure the health of the marine ecosystem. Friends uses science to inform decisions that conserve the county’s environment and economy. Friends works locally and throughout the region using innovative public-private partnerships, applied science, legal advocacy, and community-based initiatives to protect the land, water and sea for those of us here today and for future generations. Friends of the San Juans respectfully honors the fact that this beautiful place we strive to protect and restore is comprised of the ancestral lands, waters, and natural resources of the Coast Salish peoples. These Tribes have cared for and stewarded the San Juan Islands and the Salish Sea since time immemorial—and continue to do so—and we honor their inherent, aboriginal, and treaty rights that have been passed down from generation to generation. A citizen group formed Friends of the San Juans in 1979 to help preserve the beauty, character, and wildness of the Islands in the face of increasing development. Our first major effort was helping the County adopt its first Comprehensive Land-Use Plan.