Events >
Island Conversations
WCA presents a monthly series with expert talks and group discussions to build community and motivate sustainability projects.
With support from:
Transparent Elections:
Corporate and Dark Money
May 7, 2026
Snacks & Social 5:45 PM
Program 6:00 - 8:00 PM FREE
St. Hubert's Church, 804 3rd St, Langley
Carpool from Bayview Park and Ride at 5:40
Refreshments provided. Waste-Free Event
State-level legislation may circumvent Citizens United.
Meet Rep. Clyde Shavers and discuss!!!
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REPRESENTATIVE CLYDE SHAVERS WILL JOIN US TO DISCUSS A NEW BILL, inspired by the Transparent Elections Initiative (aka The Montana Plan) that he and his team are putting together. "This is the most promising new strategy to eliminate corporate and dark money in politics since the day Citizens United was decided."
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There are 34 states already considering this plan. A Washington State bill could be next, and could be the most important legislation coming this next legislative session, giving power to citizens' voices once again — a game changer for politics and elections if it passes. Rep. Shavers is very interested in hearing our points of view on this issue, so join us, get informed, ask questions and help ignite the change we have been waiting for!
Global Earth Repair
April 2, 2026
Snacks & Social 5:45 PM
Program 6:00 - 8:00 PM FREE
United Methodist Church, 301 Anthes Ave, Langley
Carpool from Bayview Park and Ride at 5:40
Refreshments provided. Waste-Free Event
What are the best methods to re-green the planet, rehydrate the land, reduce the CO2 in the atmosphere and stabilize the climate? Michael Pilarski has compiled a list of 130 nature-based solutions for planetary regeneration. Any one of these 130 solutions alone will not turn the tide, but all of them working together can restore the Planet.
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Michael will introduce and invite you to the Global Earth Repair Convergence which will be held May 7-11, in Port Townsend at Fort Worden. The Convergence is convening the largest gathering of world leaders in Earth Repair (nature-based) solutions ever held. Indigenous leaders, Earth repair practitioners, restoration scientists, Earth defenders, and grassroots organizers. Specialists in soil-building, wetland restoration, rehydrating the land, biodiversity, ocean regeneration, agroforestry, regenerative agriculture, and the other 130 solutions we have identified. The Convergence will provide the best overview of how to get ourselves out of the mess we are in - in the shortest amount of time - with the most benefit for the world’s people and all other species.
Are we DE-Generative
or RE-Generative?
March 5, 2026
Snacks & Social 5:45 PM
Program 6:00 - 8:00 PM FREE
St. Hubert's Church, 804 3rd St, Langley
Carpool from Bayview Park and Ride at 5:40
Refreshments provided. Waste-Free Event
HUMANKIND HAS MUCH TO ANSWER FOR GLOBALLY. Here, on a small scale, we can move beyond simply "doing no harm" and take up our responsibility as REGENERATORS, weaving a resilient future for Whidbey.
Bioregionalism is a way of living that starts from the land and waters that give us life. It asks us to know our home place deeply. This is very different from the dominant "environmentalism of consumption," which suggests we can shop our way to resilience by buying an EV or the latest eco-brand, while leaving the deeper patterns of extraction, inequality and disconnection untouched. Bioregionalism says what truly matters is taking care of Earth, together.
At our Island Conversations in March, we will learn about Regenerate Whidbey and its evolution within the larger Cascadia Bioregion and the Regenerate Cascadia movement. Regenerate Whidbey is engaged in a deep listening process to answer a vital question: “How can we weave a community response to the Great Unraveling?” This cannot be done by any single organization. Regenerate Whidbey is not just another standalone nonprofit, competing for the same limited resources; it is fundamentally different. It is a shared container for coherence and collaboration. It does not seek to replace what exists...but to provide the context that allows our whole community to "belong to the world as the world belongs to us."
JOIN US and our speaker, DAVID HASKELL, as we visualize a new, regenerative community process on our beloved Island. David is a core member of the Whidbey Climate ACTION team and a Steward of Regenerate Whidbey.
Our Government Works for Us
February 5, 2026
Snacks & Social 5:45 PM
Program 6:00 - 8:00 PM FREE
St. Hubert's Church, 804 3rd St, Langley
Carpool from Bayview Park and Ride at 5:40
Refreshments provided. Waste-Free Event
THERE’S NO SHORTAGE OF REASONS TO DESPAIR ABOUT GOVERNMENT. On the national level, norms and hard-won advances in pollution and toxics regulation, healthcare, science, education, social justice and so much more have been erased or are under threat. The hits just keep on coming; it seems impossible for the average person to have any impact at all.
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But we are not powerless! Our local and state governments are accountable to us, and our representatives are accessible, and even eager to hear from us. Really. Especially if we approach them with the respect we expect from them, which includes doing our homework in advance. Former Island County Commissioner Helen Price Johnson will share her insights on Effective Citizenship 101.
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Helen Price Johnson is a respected leader and lifelong advocate for rural communities. A third-generation small business owner, she has decades of experience in public service, economic development, and education. Helen was President Biden’s Washington State Director for USDA Rural Development. She previously served 12 years as an Island County Commissioner, was president of the Washington State Association of Counties, and led the South Whidbey School Board for two terms. Helen also is an Advisor for the Whidbey Community Foundation, and Vice President of Partners for Rural Washington. She and her husband grew up on Whidbey Island and raised their family here.
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Report
See our updated ADVOCATE for Climate webpage for ways to engage with state and local government.
How Do Our Investments Affect the Environment?
January 8, 2026
Snacks & Social 5:45 PM
Program 6:00 - 8:00 PM FREE
St. Hubert's Church, 804 3rd St, Langley
Carpool from Bayview Park and Ride at 5:40
Refreshments provided. Waste-Free Event
Season of Giving, Let's Go Local
December 4, 2025
Snacks & Social 5:45 PM
Program 6:00 - 8:00 PM FREE
St. Hubert's Church, 804 3rd St, Langley
Carpool from Bayview Park and Ride at 5:40
Refreshments provided. Waste-Free Event
​Report
What's the Value of a Finite Commodity?
November 6, 2025
Snacks & Social 5:45 PM
Program 6:00 - 8:00 PM FREE
St. Hubert's Church, 804 3rd St, Langley
Carpool from Bayview Park and Ride at 5:40
Refreshments provided. Waste-Free Event
​Report
An influx of climate migrants to the Pacific Northwest will exacerbate pressure on our aquifer, agricultural lands, coastlines, forests and homes. Neal Collins sees this as a call to re-imagine the community we want to build, and he proposes that real estate transactions are a leverage point to finance the work.
Our conversation imagined a flourishing community, where children grow up with the skills and confidence to contribute to our community. We discussed how we might harness local financial flows to build such a community. Several ideas took root:
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Local Investing for Regenerative Projects - We could launch a local financial institution - inspired by Whidbey Island Local Lending - Invest in agro-villages, homes for young families, and appropriate infrastructure.
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Real Estate Partnerships with Local Funds - We could channel a percent of every real estate transaction to Whidbey’s Climate Fund, where it is redeployed locally to build climate resilient projects.
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Voluntary Deed Restrictions - Homeowners could voluntarily place deed restrictions on their homes, to make them permanently affordable.
In the months to come, WCA will continue the conversation with a more in-depth look at how re-localizing can help us flourish in the face of inexorable climate change. If you want to be part of creating a local investing institution, please let us know!
Paths to Improvement
October 2, 2025
Snacks & Social 5:45 PM
Program 6:00 - 8:00 PM FREE
St. Hubert's Church, 804 3rd St, Langley
Carpool from Bayview Park and Ride at 5:40
Refreshments provided. Waste-Free Event
Report
Ed Anderson told the story of his personal journey to lower his carbon footprint by going solar, getting an electric car, getting married, and easing off air travel. He introduced us to ethical thinkers and encouraged our curiosity to seek our own paths to improvement. In the ensuing conversation we explored what people wanted to work on as a community. One popular “path to improvement” was literally a path: to develop safe bicycling and walking pathways. Another was to make micro-loans in countries where a little credit goes a long way. For example, one book group made a group decision to invest in Kiva.
Closed-Loop Food
September 4, 2025
Snacks & Social 5:45 PM
Program 6:00 - 8:00 PM FREE
St. Hubert's Church, 804 3rd St, Langley
Carpool from Bayview Park and Ride at 5:40
Refreshments provided. Waste-Free Event
Report
The Whidbey Compost Collective (Megan, Jumanji and Auston) presented a vision for decentralized compost centers across Whidbey neighborhoods, where food scraps are locally processed into rich soil amendments. They use a bokashi fermentation process that breaks down food scraps - even some bones and wood items that you wouldn’t normally put in a home compost system. After about 3 weeks of fermentation, they feed the bokashi’ed scraps to worms, producing worm castings. They also presented ideas for building a complete processing system, including chickens, composting and a Johnson Su bioreactor.
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Opportunities to join in and help scale up:
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Subscribe to their kitchen scrap drop off service: Starting in September at the South Whidbey Commons and Bookstore (sign up).
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Make a donation: Send checks to Whidbey Compost Collective, 5481 Langley Rd, Langley, WA 98260.
Climate Change and Insurance Risk
July 9, 2025
6:30 PM
Bayview Fire Station, 5579 Bayview Rd, Langley
Report
Washington is better off than other states.
We aren’t (yet) seeing the rate increases like California, but we are seeing pockets of non-renewal. If you get a non-renewal notice, Kuderer suggests you can contact the Office of the Insurance Commissioner for help, shop around, and as a last resort, you can use the State’s FAIR plan. It isn’t cheap, but it can serve as a stop-gap coverage while you search for another provider.
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We must defend against wildfire at the Community level.
The devastating fires in Los Angeles showed that individual home improvements may not be enough to save a home from wildfire; the entire community needs to be hardened. Unfair as that seems, insurance companies know this, and could raise your premiums based on a neighbor’s high risk profile. Kuderer co-chairs a Wildfire Mitigation Work Group, which is developing recommendations for the legislature on how to help whole communities harden their defenses. Expect a state grant program in 2026 to help communities defend themselves together.
Transparency is lacking.
Questions from the audience revealed several ways that insurance companies could be more transparent. They are hiring top climate scientists to do sophisticated “catastrophe modeling” but they are not sharing the results with the public and they aren’t lobbying for action to reduce climate change. In fact, some insurance companies are investing in oil and gas companies. We should demand transparency of their investments, so that we can be fully informed when choosing an insurer.
This Federal Government won’t help.
We can’t expect any support from the current federal government. FEMA is under attack, the Building Resilient Infrastructure & Communities (BRIC) grants are imperiled and the government is actively denying the climate science we need to make wise decisions. Luckily, our state Insurance Commissioner is fighting to defend Washington consumers. She encourages us to call her office if we encounter any difficulties with insurance companies - including homeowners, health, and auto insurance. And she’s looking into an interstate healthcare compact that might some day turn into a multi-state initiative for single payer coverage!
Teaching Running Water to Walk
June 5, 2025
Snacks & Social 5:45 PM
Program 6:00 - 8:00 PM FREE
St. Hubert's Church, 804 3rd St, Langley
Carpool from Bayview Park and Ride at 5:40
Refreshments provided.
PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN mug, napkin etc.
Waste-Free Event
Report
Very educational and thought-provoking presentation from Penny (see slides below). The talk was so motivating that attendees were eager to get involved in the launch of two new initiatives in the group discussions that followed:
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Rainwater Catchment Systems: This group will be looking into resources for design, purchase, and installation of rainwater retention. Possible group discounts on any or all aspects of implementation. Note that having a large source of drinkable water is major benefit for disaster preparedness.
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Hearts and Spades: The discussion was about organizing volunteers to help people install rain gardens. The group would work with Whidbey Island Conservation District for direction and training. See their "Stormwater, Rain Gardens and Drainage" webpage for resources.
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To hear more about these projects CONTACT Us!
Water is Love Film
May 1, 2025
Snacks & Social 5:45 PM
Program 6:00 - 8:00 PM FREE
St. Hubert's Church, 804 3rd St, Langley
Carpool from Bayview Park and Ride at 5:40
Refreshments provided.
PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN mug, napkin etc.
Waste-Free Event
Resistance is NOT FUTILE
April 3, 2025
Snacks & Social 5:45 PM
Program 6:00 - 8:00 PM FREE
St. Hubert's Church, 804 3rd St, Langley
Carpool from Bayview Park and Ride at 5:40
Refreshments provided.
PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN mug, napkin etc.
Waste-Free Event
Information on
local organizations
Community Resilience for Our Future
March 6, 2025
Snacks & Social 5:45 PM
Program 6:00 - 8:00 PM FREE
St. Hubert's Church, 804 3rd St, Langley
Carpool from Bayview Park and Ride at 5:40
Refreshments provided.
PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN mug, napkin etc.
Waste-Free Event
Report
At our March conversation, South Whidbey Fire Chief Nick Walsh delivered a tough message: In a big emergency such as a firestorm, windstorm, earthquake - or all three at once - our mostly volunteer emergency responders will be overwhelmed and unavailable. Real preparedness requires us to build mutual support networks with our immediate neighbors. After the Chief’s presentation, we broke into groups by neighborhood to plan our first steps toward hyper-local preparedness. Many attendees plan to attend the Preparedness Conference on April 19th and bring a neighbor.
[Climate] Economics for Real People
February 6, 2025
Snacks & Social 5:45 PM
Program 6:00 - 8:00 PM FREE
804 3rd St. Langley
Refreshments provided.
PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN mug, napkin etc.
Waste-Free Event
Report
​A cozy group gathered to discuss what it would look like to have an economy that healed the ecosystem. Brainstorming in groups of four, world cafe style, folks came up with ideas (see link) for both personal and systems change. In an economy that prioritizes healing the ecosystem, we imagine:
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There would be a conscious understanding of the interconnected web of all being - all of nature would be considered in decisions
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the economy would benefit all life
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we would make decisions with a long-term view rather than the quarterly earnings reports that drive Wall Street
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all activities would be regenerative
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we would take no more than what Earth generates on her own time scale
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GDP would not be God
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the needs of everyone would be met (but not necessarily our greed or our every "want")
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Abundance would be an underlying value, not scarcity which encourages hoarding
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time would be valued - time with family, time for quiet, time to take care of elderly and those need of extra help
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we would pay in advance the cost of 'externalities" - e.g gas prices would reflect the cost of pollution
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We would have "true cost" accounting
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we would consider the life cycle of goods and services in their price determinations
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we would share rather than accumulate (example of tool libraries)
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no one suffers while others prosper
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we would have a sense of "enough"
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we would not have billionaires
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we would value the commons rather than sell/lease it to whoever wants to extract its "resources" such as minerals, wood, water…the commons would be valued for just being there
The Hopi Prophecy translated from Hopi Elder Chief Dan Evehema
You have been telling people that this is the Eleventh Hour.
Now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour. And there are things to be considered:
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships? Are you in right relation?
Where is your water? Know your garden.
It is time to speak your truth.
Create your community. Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for your leader.
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See who is in there with you and celebrate.
At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally, least of all ourselves.
The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves!
Banish the word ’struggle’ from your attitude and your vocabulary.
All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
The Commons, Common Goods, and Community
January 9, 2025 – note 2nd Thursday
Snacks & Social 5:45 PM
Program 6:00 - 8:00 PM FREE
804 3rd St. Langley
Refreshments provided.
PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN mug, napkin etc.
Waste-Free Event
Report:
Another great turnout for the Conversation. Thanks Ed and neighbors for getting together to learn from each other and share meaningful ideas, concerns, and plans for our community, ecosystems, and future.
Cognitive Science examines how people think about things. There is no answer, we have stories. In America we talk about motherhood, apple pie, and the economy. Tonight we are going to talk about the pie, the Commons. Since some people take larger pieces of the pie, we like the (mistaken) idea of making a bigger pie, thinking that with the larger pieces gone surely a bigger pie will allow everyone to get at least a scrap. An example, the atmosphere is a commons. But, the wealthy get the larger pieces: the upper 10% of the global population ($40k income/year or more) creating 50% of emissions.
3 things known worldwide:
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we know we're taking things from the commons and dumping stuff back
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we know what the common goods are
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we know a lot about climate change
So, why don't things change?
Wicked Problems are multiple overlapping, unstructured, difficult problems. Shallow knowledge of them only produces more problems. Need to think about how you are thinking about the problem. Meta-work helps as it interrupts the habitual thinking. Embrace the mess:
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Find the problem
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Own the problem
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Create the problem
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Define the problem
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Identify obstacles
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Recruit, enlist, and engage others
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Create an action plan
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Economics is just another story we tell ourselves. Classical economics does not take into account community benefits nor the natural world. Kate Raworth's Doughnut Economics seeks to create a new paradigm that measures economic activity by social and ecological health.
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update the human story
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need new images of our economic activity
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need new tools, e.g. chaos theory
Businesses operate in the classical economics model. They are driven by profits and survival and their activities are opaque. Customers consume their products based solely on price considerations and their own wants. This model is clearly not aligned with societal or environmental needs. It is estimated that solving poverty would require only 2-3% of our economy, and solving hunger 10% of our wasted food. These traditional goals will not get us there.
Community is the Unit of Survival
December 5, 2024
Snacks & Social 5:45 PM
Program 6:00 - 8:00 PM FREE
804 3rd St. Langley
Refreshments provided.
PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN mug, napkin etc.
Waste-Free Event
Report:
Vicki Robin led an interesting discussion on the differences between national and natural/community wealth. As we move into a future history doesn't teach us how to navigate, she asserts that while we should absolutely try to protect our personal wealth we should invest heavily into natural/community wealth. National wealth is debt-based, people owning money to the bank. The more loans that are made, the more money banks create. Money as a medium of exchange enables us to have freedom of movement – it works anywhere; it allows us to purchase what we want without ever knowing where the products come from or who made them. It's definitely convenient. Natural wealth is entirely relationship-based and involves little or no money transfer. It's about creating safety, sufficiency and belonging. Examples are helping each other with errands ("I'm going to the store, what can I pick up for you?"), carpooling, offering to help fix a broken pipe, helping someone with a broken arm prune her roses, cooking meals for someone in grief, huddling around someone's fireplace during a long power-outage.... It's work, certainly, but it's valuable beyond measure. As we embrace the uncertainty of our future in the face of the climate crisis, building our social capital will help us be resilient.
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Recommended Reading:
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Vicki's books:
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Your Money our Your Life
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Blessing the Hands that Feed Us
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The Town That Food Saved by Ben Hewitt
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Transition Handbook by Rob Hopkins
Feeding the Future
November 7, 2024
Snacks & Social 5:45 PM
Program 6:00 - 8:00 PM FREE
804 3rd St. Langley
Refreshments provided.
PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN mug, napkin etc.
Waste-Free Event
Report:
Over 70 people gathered to listen to Jake Stewart's vision of regenerative agriculture and agro-forestry. While traditional agriculture depletes soil and pollutes waterways, regenerative agriculture builds soil health and sequesters carbon. His message: every one of us can be part of the local food system, as farmers, gardeners, gleaners, preservers, or processors. See Jake’s slides below.
Our breakout sessions generated a cornucopia of ideas for building community food resilience and lobbying Island County. Top ideas: Start a Guild to share skills for food growing and preservation; Tell the County to protect forests and water in the Comprehensive Plan. Our blog post on Food Webs offers local education and resources.
Follow up:
If you’d like to organize around one of the action ideas, please CONTACT Us with your interest and we can build groups of folks with shared interest.​​
Optimist or Realist?
October 3, 2024
Snacks & Social 5:45 PM
Program 6:00 - 8:00 PM FREE
804 3rd St. Langley
Refreshments provided.
PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN mug, napkin etc.
Waste-Free Event
​Report:
​Over 50 Whidbey neighbors listened to Ed make the case for optimism, which he defined as “a sense of agency.” Key concepts: As idealists, we humans create an ideal and then reality inevitably falls short. As storytellers, we can get sucked into a negative story and ignore hopeful bits that don’t fit the narrative. Ed shared a number of data points that people often underestimate, such as rates of EV adoption and renewable energy growth. In small groups, we had some reactions: “The only way I feel optimistic is to focus on what we can do to rebuild ecosystems in our own community: Practice Permaculture.” “You say we have a chance of keeping global temperature rise to 1.9 Degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels. That’s supposed to be hopeful!? The salmon are cooked.” “I want the youth to feel a sense of agency.” The conversation concluded with folks sharing announcements on how we will defeat I-2117, and how to pressure the County to include ecosystem indicators in their Comprehensive Plan.
No on I-2117!
September 5, 2024
6:00 - 8:00 PM FREE
804 3rd St. Langley
Refreshments provided.
PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN mug, napkin etc.
Waste-Free Event
Read the blog post: KEEP the CCA! NO on I-2117!
Report:
Here are the top action ideas for stopping I-2117, and links to further information.
LEARN MORE
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READ UP! at the NO 2117 website. You’ll find fact sheets, blog posts and volunteer opportunities.
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KNOW THE CCA PROJECTS! Local projects are a great way to connect with local voters about the value of the CCA. Who doesn't want a forest wildlife corridor? Download the summary of all the Island County projects at risk of losing funding if 2117 passes (all counties).
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APPRECIATE THE SCOPE! Review other maps at Clean and Prosperous Washington’s “Risk of Repeal” website.
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VOLUNTEER
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SIGN UP! for leafleting, canvassing, etc., on the NO on 2117 website volunteer page.
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JOIN US! for canvassing in Langley next Sunday, 9/15 from 10:30 to 1:30. Meet at the Commons Cafe and Bookstore on 2nd Street. Sign up is also on the volunteer page.
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HOST AN EVENT! If you want to host an event, email Logan Ventura (logan at no2117.com)
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WRITE POSTCARDS! to get the word out. The NO on 2117 campaign is NOT organizing any formal postcarding, but you can contact the Citizens’ Climate Lobby or Indivisible Whidbey.
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ENGAGE YOUR NETWORKS
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WEAR A "NO 2117" BUTTON! everywhere! Generally people are unaware of the intentions and ramifications of 2117, but when we explain they are on board! Buttons help start a conversation. Pick up a button with your yard sign (below).
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DISPLAY A "NO 2117" YARD SIGN! Pick up a sign at the rePurpose member drop off events this month at the South Whidbey Community Center (in back), 723 Camano Ave, Langley, on Sat, 9/21, 12-2 PM; Tues, 9/24 5-7 PM; Thurs, 9/26, 2-4 PM. (If you can't make those, use our CONTACT Us form to reach us.)
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DEMONSTRATE
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WAVE YOUR OWN "NO 2117" SIGN! at Bayview Park & Ride, no coordination needed!
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WALK THE FERRY LINE! with a sign “Tired of Ferry Lines? Vote NO on 2117”. The CCA has funding for 2 new, electric ferries.
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PITCH IT
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CREATE A SCRIPT! and practice it for when people ask you “What’s 2117?”.
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SAMPLE:
“2117 would gut funding for programs that protect our clean air, clean water, farms and forests. It would mean more toxic pollution in the air we breathe and it would gut programs that protect us from wildfires. It would make traffic and ferry lines longer because it cuts 1/3 of our state’s already stretched transportation plans.
A statewide coalition of over 450 organizations is working to defeat 2117. This includes firefighters, healthcare workers, small businesses and leading businesses, unions, and tribal nations.
This deceptive initiative was funded by a single mega-donor, Brian Heywood, who is misleading the public by saying that a yes vote will lower gas prices. Yes, Washington has high gas prices, but they were even higher than today, BEFORE the climate commitment act came into force. There is nothing in initiative 2117 that would enforce lower gas prices.”
VOTE NO IN NOVEMBER
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REGISTER TO VOTE! Online registration and information here (deadline Oct 28). You can check your registration status at vote.org or more simply, for Washington State voters, here.
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VOTE NO ON NOVEMBER 5TH!
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Thanks for your energy and action!
Together, we can beat back this deceptive initiative
and save the Climate Commitment Act
by voting NO in NOvember!
Beyond Sustainability!
June 6, 2024
6:00 - 8:00 PM FREE
Bayview Cash Store, Front Room
5603 Bayview Rd, Langley
Refreshments provided.
PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN mug, napkin etc.
Waste-Free Event
Report: Presentation, Ideas
Almost 40 of you attended our third “Island Conversations" series at the Bayview Cash Store last Thursday.
Here’s a puzzle: “The problem is the solution.” Penny Livingston provided such food for thought in her overview of the permaculture approach to designing a regenerative community. Penny launched the evening by asking attendees to close our eyes and imagine waking up in a perfect world. What do we see? hear? smell? Many people reported that their perfect world was full of natural beauty - trees, birds, flowing water - in some cases, a lot like Whidbey!
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Penny showed how the technique of observing natural patterns can teach us to design more abundant food systems, homes and communities, in bioregions across Earth. Learning from Indigenous teachers is an important part of learning to think like a permaculturalist. She quoted Oren Lyons: “What you call ‘resources’ we call relatives.” Through permacultural approaches, we humans don’t just try to have less impact, we actively seek to have more impact, building a world better than we found it.
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Following Penny’s presentation, attendees at their cafe tables engaged in lively discussion of the question: What can we do now that our great great grandchildren will thank us for? Ideas ranged from building rain gardens, to adopting Firewise practices, to eliminating all plastic bottles. If you would like to continue a conversational thread, please CONTACT Us and let us know what you’re interested in (There seemed to be a lot of energy around greywater!) We want to connect like-minded people hungering to take action. See ideas here.
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For those who want to go deeper into the permaculture ethics and practices, Penny is offering an immersive two week certification course at the Whidbey Institute June 20 - July 4.
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Read the blog post: Designing for a Healthy Future
Everybody Eats, Everybody Throws Food Away
May 2, 2024
6:00 - 8:00 PM FREE
Bayview Cash Store, Front Room
5603 Bayview Rd, Langley
Refreshments provided.
PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN mug, napkin etc.
Waste-Free Event
Report: Ideas
David delivered the stark reality that our current system is broken: Island County spends $10 Million a year to haul our garbage - 8, 24-ton trucks - hundreds of miles, burning thousands of gallons of diesel every day. To make matters worse, organic matter constitues 40% of the garbage and turns into methane in the landfill, a potent greenhouse gas. Will we reduce our consumption? Can we switch our mindset from seeing “waste” to seeing “treasure”? Do we have the capacity to redirect all food scraps to local use?
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Local organizations working on this issue were present:
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rePurpose: "[We] strive to help people understand that refusing, reducing and reusing is always the best option before recycling. To create a zero waste community, we need a radical rethink of our systems, policies, and personal choices. rePurpose moves towards this future through upstream policy changes and downstream waste management."
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WSU Extension: The local office is very interested in this issue and has resources for holding composting classes.
Attendees generated ideas for community level reuse and composting, perhaps piggy-backing on emergency preparedness teams, and starting a Master Composter program through WSU Extension. See ideas here.
Environmental Successes in the Salish Sea
April 4, 2024
6:30 - 8 PM FREE
Bayview Cash Store, Front Room
5603 Bayview Rd, Langley
RSVP: https://islandconversations.eventbrite.com
Reservation requested, but NOT required.
Refreshments provided.
PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN mug, napkin etc.
Waste-Free Event
​Report
A group of almost 40 folks gathered at Bayview Cash Store for a conversation about climate change and our shared future. Guest Fay Weller, from Sustainable Gabriola, inspired us with a story of how their small community built knowledge, trust, and commitment to action over the course of a year of conversations. They called their approach “12:12:12”: 12 months to discuss 12 “wicked" problems from climate change, and propose at least 12 local solutions. Participants sat cafe style to learn from each other and generate potential solutions. Organizers shared the results in the local news, so the whole community could follow the course of the conversation. The twelfth session was devoted to organizing for action - prioritizing solutions and stepping up to lead high-priority initiatives. WCA is excited to riff on this model and experiment with more arts and culture at our next Island Conversation, Thursday, May 2nd, 6pm at the Bayview Cash Store Front Room. Hope to see you there!