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2018Annual Report
What’s Inside:
● President’s Message ………..… page 2
● Fidalgo Forest Monitoring … page 3
● FutureFest .….….………….…….. page 4
● Fix-It Days .………………………… page 6
● Rise for Climate ….….…………. page 6
● Gatherings …….………………….. page 7
● Gleaners (FIGG) …………….…… page 8
● Community Gardens …….…… page 8
● Grants, TFF LION …..…..….….. page 9
● Who We Are …………………….. page 10
● You Can Help ……………….….… page 11
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During 2018, Transition Fidalgo &Friends (TF&F) continued working to-ward our goals of decreasing fossil-fuel dependence and increasing com-munity and personal resilience in theface of rapid change.
In April, our group took a big stepforward by putting on FutureFest, atwo-day happening at the TransitShed Event Center. This community-focused project was created to helpinspire people about their ability topositively affect the future. Nearly200 people attended.
FutureFest birthed two new proj-ects: the Anacortes Community For-est Land Monitoring project, and theTFF LION project (Local InvestmentOpportunity Network). TF&F hascommitted to providing $5000 for thefirst year of the ACFL Monitoring proj-ect.
Our monthly presentations, the An-acortes Community Gardens, Fidalgoand Guemes Gleaners (FIGG), and Fix-It Days continued helping to raise ourcommunity’s awareness and resil-ience through 2018.
In July, we were sorry to say good-bye to our Administrative Assistant,Mary Beth Conlee, who so ably shep-herded us for several years. We werefortunate to find another highly-qual-ified person who has our mission verymuch at heart ---Jack Hartt.
July brought another big change aswe transitioned to a new monthlymeeting format. This was promptedby phone surveys gauging people’sinterest in continuing the SeventhGeneration Suppers. Survey resultsshowed a high regard for the presen-tations and a low need for the sup-
pers. Because of that, and to simplifywhat had become a good deal ofwork for too few people, the boarddecided to have only the presenta-tions (now called “Gatherings”).
In October, The Catalyst, edited byEvelyn Adams, changed its name andfocus in light of the latest warningfrom the Intergovernmental Panel onClimate Change (IPCC). The monthlynewsletter is now called The Path-finder. Evelyn stated in a recent issue:“The Pathfinder will explore how tolive with uncertainty and how tostrengthen ourselves to act in waysthat serve a suffering Earth.” I en-courage you to forward The Pathfind-er to your friends/relatives since itdeserves broader distribution andreadership.
Also in October, the story of howwe created our Vision 2030 documentappeared on Transition’s nationalwebsite called "10 Stories of Transi-tion in the US." See it at:http://transitionus.org/stories/10-stories-transition-us-transition-fidalgo-friends%E2%80%99-vision-2030
All of our board officers are newthis year. Eric Shen stepped downfrom being president but continues tobe a valuable voice on the board.Ron Larsen retired after manyyears as treasurer; Sylvia Coo-per stepped forward to servein that role. Bud Anderson is vice-president and also heads the financecommittee. Roger Fuller is secretary.
The TF&Fboard is facingits own sustainability issues.We’ve been blessed with ad-equate funds over the years because
of income from solar projects, gener-ous donations, and carefully con-trolled expenditures. However, thesolar income will soon be runningout.
Consequently, we have revised ourgrant program to conserve funds.We’ve decided to discontinue thebusiness incubator and communityclimate project grants, while keepingthe Anacortes school system grantand the student scholarship. We arelooking at fundraising ideas. Bottomline about our bottom line: we needto get serious about fundraising. Theurgency of climate change demandsthat we ramp up our projects and in-volvement in furthering our mission.
I mentioned earlier the latest IPCCreport, which notes that the worldhas only a decade or so to essentiallytransform civilization to avoid cata-strophic warming. That gives a newurgency to our mission and reaffirmsour resolve to help our communitynot only prepare, but do its part tomeet this unprecedented challenge.
Board President
President’s Message
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Why should we monitor forests? TheAnacortes Community Forest Lands(ACFL) are a defining feature of ourcommunity and key to our sense ofplace. How many small towns canboast of a 2,800 acre forest reserve,with 50 miles of trails literally out ourback door?
The ACFL is changing, as it has from itsvery beginning. Now, though, it faces aclimate that has started changing atrates that will become faster than eco-systems, or humans, have ever experi-enced.
Transition Fidalgo & Friends is startinga new citizen science project to moni-tor change in the ACFL. We have threeobjectives:
(1) to get to know our forest better (we care for thingsthat we know more intimately);
(2) to document current conditions and then to track howthe forest is responding and changing; and
(3) to make that data available to researchers and landmanagers, so that we learn how forests respond andif/how we can help them adapt more successfully.
Climate change is a global challenge unfolding over manydecades. Its vast scale across both space and time canmake it difficult to understand or observe. By studying our
local forest, we can make both the challenges and the so-lutions to climate change a tangible reality for our com-munity.
We've secured a Memorandum of Agreement with theCity of Anacortes, and plan to launch our new project inthe spring of 2019. This is a volunteer-led effort, guided byan advisory board that includes experts in forest ecology,resource management, and the administration of volun-teer programs. We'll need many volunteers to ensure suc-cess. And not just people who want to study the forest,but also those interested in data entry, education, record-ing people’s stories, writing articles about forest critters,organizing and contacting volunteers, and many othertasks.
We'll also need donations to make this work. While this isa volunteer-led project, the management of a swarm ofvolunteers and a blizzard of data takes dedicated timefrom a part-time paid volunteer manager. We're exploringdifferent scenarios, but all will involve some cost.
We hope that community members who value the ACFLwill support this program both as volunteers and asdonors.
Fidalgo Forest Monitoring ProjectBy Roger Fuller, Board Member
Photos provided by Jonn Lunsford
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Board Member Emeritus
There’s no denying we live in unprecedented, heart-wrenching times.
In the midst of climate meltdown and a sixth massextinction, many are feeling hopeless and in despair thatthey can make a difference for the good. Thatrealization is what drove us to create FutureFest, an
event on Earth Day weekend, April 21-22, at the TransitShed Event Center.
With FutureFest, we resolved to bring our communitytogether to call up our best thinking and creativity tobring the world we want into being. We aimed toremind people they have great things within themselvesand that now is the time to do great things.
Nine months of effort resulted in a free weekend ofinformation, art, music, fun, film, and beauty as a wayof capturing people’s imaginations and inspiring them towork for change. Evelyn Adams, Rich Bergner, MaryBeth Conlee, and Roger Fuller were the organizingcommittee for an event that drew on the talents of over50 volunteers, and included organizations such as
Transition Lopez, MONA, theAnacortes Music Project, the SkagitClimate Science Consortium, theAnacortes Arts Festival,Transmedia Vision, Friends of theForest, the Anacortes Food Co-op,
the Center for Happiness, and eight local organizationsworking with citizen scientists.
Around 200 people attended this first-time event.Keynote speaker Sarah van Gelder, co-founder of YesMagazine, talked about "The Revolution Where YouLive– Stories From a 12,000 Mile Journey Through aNew America". Vicki Robin, author of the internationalbest-seller , brought theweekend to an inspiring close. Workshops included“Strengthening our local economy through community-sourced funding and co-ops”, “Homes for all: how do weget there?”, “Artful Living: exploring the role ofcreativity in resilient communities”, “Regenerativeresistance: facing the mess we’re in without goingcrazy”, “The Future needs you: citizen science in arapidly changing world”, and “Where do we go fromhere?”
To help stoke the fires of imagination and creativity, weincluded an art show, the "Grove of Life", the "Qube",the "Walk of Why Not?", a luminary parade, theTempestry Project, a graffiti wall, a song-writing
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contest, and a forest immersion walk. We also had livemusic, a Happiness Cafe, and food vendors.
What did FutureFest achieve?
For one thing, we were glad to broaden our reach in ourown and surrounding communities by working withmany different organizations and individuals. Foranother, we gained some good projects. A new TF&F
effort, the ACFL Monitoring Project, was introduced atthe event and interested nearly two dozen volunteers inhelping to bring it to life.
Another TF&F project, the TFF Local InvestmentOpportunity Network, was spurred by the economyworkshop and materialized this autumn. There was alsostrong interest in the citizen science opportunitiespresented by various groups, as well as in learning moreabout regenerative resistance, which we are followingup on by starting a group to help increase personalresilience.
The impact of FutureFest is difficult to measure.Although we're happy to see some tangible results ofour efforts, we really can't know how many seeds weresown that will bear fruit. A few people decided to take aleap with FutureFest, and we'll always be grateful to theTF&F Board for taking a chance and supporting uswholeheartedly. We worked exceedingly hard to set the
stage for good thingsto happen, and in theend we can only hopeand trust that they will.
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Fix-It DaysBy Eric Shen
Board Member
This is the 7th year that Transition Fidalgo & Friends hasheld the popular Fix-It Day events at the AnacortesFarmers Market. Fix-It Days are a public service to ourcommunity where friends and neighbors bring theirbroken appliances, lamps, electronics, etc. to be repaired.In return for repairing an item, we ask that a donation be
made to our new partner, The Anacortes Family Center(AFC). The AFC’s mission is to serve homeless women,children and families in crisis by providing shelter inaddition to comprehensive transformational services toachieve long lasting personal success and self-sufficiency. The donations we generate are used by theAFC to maintain their facilities and programs.
A spin off of the Fix-It Days event is a program where thevolunteers periodically go to the AFC facilities and dorepairs that normally require engaging professionalservices. Avoiding the need to hire professionals saves theAFC’s limited budget and also allows the donations madeduring Fix-It Days to be used for other needs.
For Transition Fidalgo & Friends, the Fix-It Days programis a two way win. First, we provide a way for people toavoid throwing away items that, in many cases, only needa simple repair, thus avoiding the need to purchase areplacement. Second, TF&F is able to support a successfulprogram that helps with the growing homeless problemsin our community. Our goal of creating a sustainable andresilient community will require solutions to both theseproblems.
By Evelyn Adams
On September 8,Transition Fidalgo &
Friends participated in a nationwide event organized bythe People's Climate Movement to draw attention tothe climate crisis. Lyndon Greene, Bud Anderson, andJohn Morgan organized an educational event thatincluded a well-attended demonstration on CommercialAvenue and several info tables to let people know thefacts about the climate crisis and how they could helpput a fee on big carbon polluters. We also hadinformation available about the Ready for 100% CleanEnergy campaign.
A comment from one of the volunteers at an info table:"98% of the responses we got were positive or at leastopen to investigation -- very encouraging. I am so proudof little Anacortes. One person I spoke with had come all
the way down from Bellingham because he couldn't findanything happening up there. WOW!!! Big kudos are dueto our little community here!!"
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From Suppers to Gatherings:
For the past eight years, TF&F’s monthly presentationshave offered a smorgasbord of topics for people to feastand chew on. This year’s lineup added to that menu.
The monthly presentations were called SeventhGeneration Suppers for the first half of the year becausethe evening began with a jointly shared meal. Mid-summer this changed to simply having announcementsfollowed by the feature presentation, which served as ameal of ideas for us to digest. These events are now called“Gatherings”.
Two of this year’s talks focused on issues we voted on inthe November election. One challenged us to raiseanother issue for our community – banning single-useplastic bags. A few discussed natural science issues, fromforests to wetlands to pollinators, and a couple appliedthese sciences to help us grow better gardens or study ourenvironment for future knowledge.
One hard-hitting presenter, Dr. Bindschadler, took us tothe ice caps and back to see our coming future in the starklight of reality. He returns for our first presentation in thecoming year, Earth’s BiPolar Disorder. This one is not to bemissed!
Come be a part of these friendly gatherings at theAnacortes Senior Center, starting at 6:30 pm, on the lastTuesday of every month except for December.
● Blue Carbon: The role of eelgrass meadows, tidalwetlands, and carbon markets in mitigating climatechange-
● Skagit County’s Clean Tech Sector: ExploringTrends and Opportunities
● You, too, can be a Citizen Scientist!
● FutureFest review/project planning
● Home Rule Skagit
● Water-wise Vegetables
● Attracting Pollinators
● Initiative 1631
● What Ice Sheets Hateand Why You ShouldCare -
● Thinking Outside thePlastic Bag
● The Future of Fidalgo’s Forests
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By Sylvia Cooper Board Member
It is hard to believe that 2018 was our tenth year ofgardening at the 29th Street Community Garden.
This year was a very productive year. We distributed a totalof 683 pounds of produce to the two local food banks(Anacortes 100 & Salvation Army) and the Anacortes FamilyShelter. Produce included lettuce, tomatoes, zucchini,cucumbers, carrots, chard, kale, beets, peas and beans.
The two school gardens were also very productive andeducational. The staff, students and parents enjoyed thefruits of their labor.
Great job to the gardeners and everyone who helped makethis year so successful.
By Sylvia Cooper
This year started a little early and lasted a little longer.We gleaned every day for a full two months with manydays having two gleans.
We had more volunteers and helpers to deliver the foodto the food banks, churches, and the family shelter. Dailydeliveries were made to the Anacortes Senior Center,which was a wonderful improvement this year. We had
close to no waste, and more students and families comingto get fruit from the I Avenue FIGG Stand. Usually wewould have extra apples to make cider during the season;but this year there was no extra fruit for cider pressing.Although we missed making cider, this is a great problemto have as the fruit was being taken and used by membersof our community.
This was our third year with the gleaning program. As theseason was going on, we could tell it was going to be a big
year. The prior two years combined totaleda little over 15,000 pounds; this year wedistributed a total of 20,442 pounds. Thegenerosity of the WSU Extension officescontributed to that increase, allowing us toharvest pie pumpkins and corn after theirtesting was done, which added up to a littleover 3,100 pounds of produce.
Thank you to all who called on us to gleantheir trees – over 53 homeowners. Andthank you to all of the volunteers, and tothe great community we live in. Thank youfor a very productive 2018 season!
Fidalgo Island & Guemes Gleaners (FIGG)
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GrantsBy Bud Anderson,
Board Member
The Finance Committee has recommended that TF&Fsuspend the annual $5,000 Business Incubator Grant andthe annual $5,000 Project Grant.
The funds for the grant program came from a one-timedonation from a donor who wishes to remain anonymous.Those funds are largely expended or encumbered ( onFutureFest, several community donations, the Forestmonitoring project, etc) and the grant program will beclosed.
This donation has enabled TF&F to accomplish manyprojects it would otherwise not been able to take on andwe are grateful to our donor to making these projectspossible. At this point, we are asking for your donationsto continue to take on new projects and to continue theprojects we are already working on.
TF&F is proposing to keep the $1,000 Anacortes andGuemes School system scholarship grant and the $1,000Anacortes and Guemes School system project grant. OurBoard meeting in December will look at this policy change.
Additionally, the Finance Committee has recommended a$5,000 award to the Forest Monitoring Project that willdocument the environmental changes to our local forests.
TFF LION
By Eric Shen, Board Member
This year Transition Fidalgo & Friends started exploringthe startup of a local lending group, one that focuses uponproviding bridge funding opportunities for local business-es. In the current lending environment, new and youngbusinesses are unable to obtain loans because of verystrict loan restrictions. The lack of funding opportunities islimiting the start-up of businesses that would be assets toour community and vital to creating a diverse character toour town.
An informal group has come together to establish howthis program will function. Though loans will be individualpersonal loans to budding businesses, the group hopes tohost occasional meetings where entrepreneurs have theopportunity to meet people interested in supporting theirbusiness. From there, the parties can then arrange pri-vately to talk further about forming business relationships.
This is a project that several TF&F members have wantedto explore for many years. We hope it is a project that ourmembership will embrace to create a community that re-flects our vision for the future.
Anacortes Energy FairBy John Morgan
Transition Fidalgo and Friends participated in theannual Anacortes Energy Fair on September 15 atthe Anacortes Depot. The event is sponsored byAnacortes Community Energy.
We had a table with information about renewable energy systems like wind, solar and waveenergy, and about Initiative 1631, "Washington Wants Clean Air", which TF&F supported inmany ways.
We were honored to also share the event with several folks promoting electric vehicles.
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Who We Are
Eric Shen, Sequoia Ferrel, Heather Burke,Vice President Bud Anderson, Treasurer Sylvia Cooper
Secretary Roger Fuller, President RichBergner.
Board Member Bios:Rich Bergner, President, is a former educator who is nowa gardener/caretaker who enjoys promoting native plants.He started Fidalgo Backyard Wildlife Habitat in 2005 andworked with a dedicated group of volunteers to certify600 yards as wildlife habitats. That grew into hisinvolvement in climate change issues. He enjoys tennis,reading, strolling through his 6 acres of yard landscapes,and family---especially being with and being silly with histwo young grandchildren, Marisol and Azuul.
Bud Anderson, Vice President, grew up in Bellevue andwent to Washington State University where he graduatedwith BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering. GoCougs! He went to work at the Shell Refinery in Anacortesas an electrical engineer and stayed there until retirement44 years later. Currently, he operates an electricalcontracting company and is extensively involved inbuilding remodeling.
Roger Fuller, Secretary, is a habitat ecologist whocoordinates a natural resource restoration andstewardship program, and studies how ecosystems
respond to climate change and restoration. He isparticularly fascinated by estuaries and forests. He worksat the Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserveand is an Adjunct Professor at Western WashingtonUniversity. He is also a member of the Skagit ClimateScience Consortium.
Sylvia Cooper, Treasurer, has been involved withevents and programs since the mid 80's, obtainingexperience working with marathons, centennialcelebrations, tournaments and the Olympics. Shemanages the community gardens in Anacortes andthe FIGG gleaning program. She also recently becamea Ham Radio operator, manages the West EndCitizens patrol, mentors students at the AnacortesHigh School, and works for the City of Anacortes. Herhobbies include photography, golf, gardening andjewelry making. She has an autistic brother who stayswith her half of the year, two very loving dogs, Picasaand Dakota and one cat named Puna. She has beenon the board of TF&F since 2009.
Eric Shen is a retired mechanical engineer who spent hiscareer in the research, design, and construction of energygeneration systems. Since retiring, he has devotedhimself to finding solutions that help our communityaddress the impacts of climate change. He believes it isimperative to take steps now to avoid the dire future thatwill become reality if the people around the world do notdedicate themselves to reducing their carbon footprint.
Heather Burke was raised on a dairy farm in upstate NewYork. Graduating from the NY State of Agriculture, shewent on obtain a Masters in Biochemistry at ClarkUniversity. Interested in sustainable agriculture andhealthy, locally grown whole foods, she stays active withthe Anacortes Farmers Market and the Anacortes FoodCoop.
Sequoia Ferrel has been an artist and designer, naturelover and peace activist among other things. As an avidgardener with great concerns for the future of the humanrace she developed a strong interest in issues of foodsecurity. To that end she started Gaia Rising Farm severalyears ago, to promote and educate about local, organic,and holistically raised food. She loves being part of thegreater community and also spending time with friends,family and two amazing granddaughters.
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“…to raise awareness and develop solutions tothe challenges of climate change, energyuncertainty, and economic instability.Transition Fidalgo & Friends promotes a moveaway from fossil fuels through decreasingdemand, increasing efficiency, supportingrenewable energy, and fostering the localproduction of food, energy, and goods.”
Contact Us:
PO Box 62Anacortes, WA 98221
www.TransitionFidalgo.org
Further Resources:(These are available on our website for download.)
Vision 2030At a meeting hosted byTransition Fidalgo & Friends,Fidalgo islanders from youngadults to grandparents cametogether to visualize acommunity of the future thatthrives despite the challenges ofclimate, energy, and economicupheaval. This document is ablueprint for change and a vision of Anacortes that we canmake happen – together.
Living Well, Living GreenLiving Well, Living Green in Skagitand Whatcom Counties – WiseChoices for a Warming World
The Pathfinder(a monthly e-newsletter)The Pathfinder explores “how tolive with uncertainty and how to strengthen ourselves toact in ways that serve a suffering Earth.” Excellent reading.
Get informed: Study the resources above, andread the reports being released by the IPCC and otherscientific studies. Visit our website and click on theLEARN tab.
Get involved: Join us at our monthlypresentation gatherings; Sign up on our mailing list toreceive updates of meetings, news, and local events.
Give time: Participate in local activities aroundFidalgo. Help with the forest monitoring, with Fix-ItDays, with gleanings, with gardens — or start a newendeavor!
Give financially: Help support TF&F as we sponsorlocal studies, food sharing efforts, educationalactivities, and everything else you see outlined inthese pages. Become a member! Our website has aDonate button for your convenience.
Live low-carbon: We have twelve years to avoiddrastic changes to our economy and culture. Each ofus makes a difference.
o Ask us how you can make your home energyefficient and reduce your carbon footprinto Buy only what you needo Reduce, reuse, repair, recycle (vs Buy)o Be food efficient- don’t waste foodo Bring your own bag for shoppingo Walk, ride your bike, take the transito Get more great ideas from Living Well, LivingGreen! (See our website)
Download or sign up for the resources listed above bygoing to our website:
www.TransitionFidalgo.org/learn
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