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Coming Home
Coming home,
the road descends at Conway hill
through dense forests of
alder, tall Douglas fir,
graceful hemlock and majestic Western red cedar.
The vast Skagit Valley comes into view
like a curtain drawn wide open
from the edge of the Cascade Mountains
to the marine-air haze
hovering over saltwater bays.

In the far distance, the San Juan Islands
like a chain of spectrolite gemstones
floating on the silver surface of the Salish Sea.
Orcas Island’s Mt. Constitution presides over the archipelago.
On the Skagit flats, checkerboard fields
like a quilt fashioned in shades of gold and green.
And there’s a river running through, like a ruffled ribbon
edged in dark green velvet of evergreen trees.

—Arlene Sundquist Empie 2007

©Coming Home not to be published without permission

Oh my, that “coming home” view is such a sight, from South to North and from West to East. Most of it is within the Skagit area watershed, natural Skagit, and just about everybody hopes it always stays so beautiful and natural. Preserving and enhancing this natural wonder is an endless effort. Many of you are passionate participants in that effort, most of you are not.

It does not take a lot of reading, watching, and paying attention to know that there are all sorts of problems and differences, stories of successes, predictions of gloom, and many groups and agencies at work. And there are plans, lots of plans, big efforts and small efforts. How to jump in and help keep this place nice, especially in a meaningful way that fits your values and strengths, can be a huge quandary.

This Blog’s for you!

It is hosted by the Skagit Conservation Education Alliance, a local non-profit organization with a mission of awareness and outreach regarding the ongoing health of the Skagit area watersheds.

We will be posting weekly, with three purposes in each entry. One is to present information and insight about the BIG picture of Skagit preservation and enhancement. A second is to describe the various organizations and agencies that are involved locally – a different group each week. Finally, we will present upcoming activities and opportunities for individuals to join and participate in. We will generally not be taking positions on contentious issues.

Our primary source for identifying organizations and agencies is the Skagit County Resource Conservation Directory, which was compiled and published in 2007 by Brian Bluhm, an AmeriCorps member working with the Skagit Land Trust. The Directory is available on-line at http://www.skagitlandtrust.org/volunteer.asp and then scrolling down that page.

As we go along, your comments will be helpful. New ideas to consider, and changes we should make are especially welcome. Corrections and further enlightenment will help as well. You can email to .

We hope that here many of you will find the hook or entry point you can use to get involved and make a mark. If so, we will have been successful, and that is what we will be watching for.

“Power can manipulate, coerce, and destroy. And as long as we are convinced we have none, power will always look negative. In fact, power means simply our capacity to act. From this lens, we each have power – and often, much more power than we think. If we accept ecology’s insights that we exist in densely woven networks, then we must accept that every choice we make sends out ripples, even if we’re not consciously choosing. So the choice we have is not whether, but only how, we can change the world.” Francis Moore Lappe, in GETTING A GRIP: CLARITY, CREATIVITY, AND COURAGE IN A WORLD GONE MAD (SMALL PLANET MEDIA)

Find your place and dig in.