Anne Whiston Spirn Lecture in Portland

An upcoming lecture by Anne Whiston Spirn entitled Restoring an Urban Watershed: Ecology, Equity, and Design will be happening on Monday, January 23rd, from Noon to 1pm at the Portland Building, 1120 SW Fifth Avenue - Second Floor, Room C.  The brownbag is free and open to all.  Here's a synopsis.

The West Philadelphia Landscape Project is a landmark of urban design, watershed management, environmental and design education, and community engagement. Anne Whiston Spirn, who has directed the project for 25 years, will describe the story of the restoration of the Mill Creek watershed as a model for how to unite ecology, design, and community engagement to address social and environmental problems in low-income communities. Anne will also discuss her book, Daring to Look: Dorothea Lange's Photographs and Reports from the Field.
 
Anne Whiston Spirn is an award-winning author and distinguished landscape architect, photographer, teacher, and scholar whose work is devoted to promoting life-sustaining communities.  

Sponsored by:  
Urban Greenspaces Institute
Audubon Society of Portland
Portland Bureau of Environmental Services
Portland Office of Healthy Working Rivers.

Coyote Urban

A few weeks back, on my way home I spotted in my neighborhood a lone coyote crossing busy 33rd Avenue just north of Fremont.  While urban coyotes are not necessarily that out of the ordinary (such as the adventurous multi-modal coyote that boarded MAX light rail a few years back) but the neighborhood I live is not in proximity to large patches of habitat - even though as you can see from the breakdown of the grid, it is adjacent to the Alameda Ridge - which is not necessarily known as a significant habitat corridor.

:: image via OPB

Our neighborhood newsletter jogged my memory, as I was only half convinced that it had actually been a coyote I spotted.  Turns out, it's not odd, and this particular guy seems wary, but mostly unafraid of humans.  Some info from the Portland Audubon Society offers some context to the sightings:

"Coyotes have lived in Northeast Portland’s Alameda Neighborhood for years. Audubon periodically receives reports from neighbors who have observed a coyote hunting mice at dawn in Wilshire Park or stealthily slinking down a neighborhood street as night approaches. It is no surprise that coyotes are there — coyotes, an animal that Navajo sheepherders once referred to as “God’s Dog,” have established themselves in neighborhoods across Portland just as they have established themselves in cities across North America. Although they are often observed alone, coyotes are pack animals and a pack will establish a territory over an area that can cover several kilometers. Normally they are shy and secretive, and neighbors often do not even realize that they are around."

The map below shows a shot of the neighborhood - the spotting occurred around the center of the map - to the southwest of Wilshire Park - the rectangular green space in the upper right quadrant which is about two blocks from our house.

I typically imagine a large(r) predator needing more significant habitat patches, but as mentioned in some factoids from Audubon, coyotes are particularly adaptable and "have demonstrated an ability to survive in the most urbanized environments in cities across North America. Most urban coyotes go about their lives without ever raising awareness of their presence among their human neighbors."

:: image via KATU

The coyotes in Alameda are somewhat interesting and have elicited some very Portland-like responses, such as this elementary school project.  It's curious - as I wonder how these aren't spotted, and where they live, as they obviously don't travel to less inhabited places.  Due mostly to fear from residents, removal is sometimes recommended - but for the most part it's an issue of humans and wildlife living together, as the coyotes seem to be here to stay:

"There will likely always be coyotes in the Alameda Neighborhood. New coyotes quickly replace coyotes that have been removed. The only real question is whether human residents will make changes that minimize conflicts with these wild dogs. Kudos to the Alameda residents for responding to their wild neighbors with a balance of caution, appreciation, and most importantly, proactive efforts to address potential conflicts."

In addition to some more coverage on OPB, there's also a short news blurb from local station KGW.

City Concealed: Staten Island

I previously featured a video from the online video series "The City Concealed" produced by Thirteen, a project of New York station WNET.  The series offers glimpses into some of the terrain vague of the metropolis by: "...exploring the unseen corners of New York. Visit the places you don’t know exist, locations you can’t get into, or maybe don’t even want to. Each installment unearths New York’s rich history in the city’s hidden remains and overlooked spaces." 

The alerted me to a recent video on the Staten Island Greenbelt, which is 2,800 acres of passive natural area and more traditional parkland, a short distance from Manhattan.

The City Concealed: Staten Island Greenbelt from Thirteen.org on Vimeo.

A bit of context from a location map shows the full extent of this agglomerated green zone slicing through the center of the island.

A close up shows some of the detail of the connected areas and the juxtaposition of the active and passive elements.

The proximity to Fresh Kills Park is obviously not lost on the potential for expanded greenbelt potential, connecting the southwestern portions to the new park, extending to the western shore of the island.

A quick tour of the recent videos has some great finds, including this one exploring the abandoned Hincliffe Stadium in Paterson, New Jersey and how it is slowly being enveloped by vegetation, and efforts to save this historic resource.

The City Concealed: Hinchliffe Stadium from Thirteen.org on Vimeo.

The City Concealed video series explores historical locations around New York City that are either off-limits to the general public, or are otherwise difficult or impossible to see. The City Concealed, now in its third season, is part of THIRTEEN.ORG’s original online video offerings for New Yorkers.

Destinations of the nine upcoming episodes include New York's last Greek Synagogue in the LES; the decommissioned Ridgewood Reservoir; the abandoned Ft. Tilden in The Rockaways; the closed-off High Bridge, plus a few more.

THIRTEEN is owned by the New York public media company WNET.ORG.

City Turkey

In honor of US Thanksgiving, a snapshot stories about of the urban turkey.  As habitat shrinks due to the spreading of cities, urban turkey's much like their more domesticated brethren, the urban chicken, has begun to move to the cities (many stories such as here, here, and here) and develop a certain air of cosmopolitanism.

:: image via Boston Globe

As you can see, they have learned to assimilate to certain city rules in order to improve survivability.

:: image via Weather Underground

Sometimes, when a bright eyed newcomer isn't familiar with these customs, conflicts can arise.  From the USA Today, 'Booming turkey population ruffling feathers in urban communities' the explosion of turkey populations has inflitrated cities, such as this interloper in Cleveland: "A wild turkey holds up traffic on April 2 near Cleveland, Ohio. An animal warden was able to lure the turkey off the street to safety."

:: image via USA Today

Pittsburgh turkeys seem to occupy the green open spaces in neighborhoods (sort of a more suburban oriented breed).  In 'Turkeys turning into new pest on neighborhood block' showed that although docile, sometimes around Thanksgiving the birds can get surly: "Wild turkeys are not dangerous, but they do have occasional aggression issues. Last June the Pennsylvania Game Commission was called to Panther Hollow in Oakland, where wild turkeys were attacking bicycle riders. There were no reports of injuries to people."

:: image via Post-Gazette

The impacts of these new visitors can be both welcome and disdained, sort of reminiscent of the 'second-rate urbanism' necessary to not ruin the urban ideal.  These laid-back urban birds, being coddled by the locals, are from Eugene, Oregon:  "The local wild turkey population in urban areas has ballooned in recent years, but this is a case of turkeys, turkeys everywhere, but not a bird to eat. Visit the south hills of Eugene and you'll likely see them: wild turkeys in flocks, plucking berries, crossing streets, just hanging out. "Chris Yee of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife says the problem won't stop until people stop feeding wildlife. Yee says turkeys normal habitat is 4 square miles but, "When fed inside the city limits they can limit their use to one or 2 square blocks in a residential area."

Lest we worry about being over-run by the 'farm-grown' varieties, you see the adaptations of the native turkeys (the one to the left, sort of bad ass looking, and reading for blending into the urban realm) the heritage varieties, which have maintained their native camoflague, versus the wimpy, white varieties who are woefully ill-equipped for the urban environment, and will likely end up on somebodies table - sort of a short trip from field to fork.

:: image via Washington Post

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ecology.Agency.Urbanism

I warn the reader that my take on the recent NOWurbanism lecture featuring Chris Reed, Randy Hester and Howard Frumkin may be skewed by a really bad cold and the influence of massive doses of cold medicine, along with spilling an entire water bottle inside my bag that literally muddied my notes into a semi-decipherable pulpy mess.  As all histories are individual, this will be my reading of the nights events (and I fear I will not do them justice).  But then again, perhaps this is the perfect storm of dissociation in which to warp and skew the voices into a coherent narrative.

I was really excited to hear from Reed, Principal at Boston-based Stoss Landscape Urbanism and adjunct associate professor of landscape architecture at Harvard GSD.  As recipient of the 2010 Topos International  Landscape Award, "...in recognition of the “theoretical and practical impulses the firm provides to the advancement of landscape architecture and urbanism as dynamic and open-ended systems.”  As a practitioner who embraces the project-oriented aspects of landscape urbanism, I think Reed is unique in straddling the line between theory and praxis - and approach that is often attempted, but rarely done in a legible way.  I was keenly focused on finding out the methods for achieving this balance.

Ecology.Agency.Urbanism

The bulk of Thursday's time was given to Reed's lecture entitled 'Ecology Agency Urbanism' in which he frames landscape and ecology in a context beyond the current concepts of 'sustainability' and 'LEED', arguing for the 'agency of ecology' that is not used as a palliative but as an instigator.  In our search for a positive performative approach, we often rely on the crutches of simple definitions or rating systems, which move towards luke-warm, incremental changes, but not paradigm shifts.

Some History

Reed first frames some of the historical elements of ecology as it relates to planning and design, mentioning Ian McHarg's ecological assessments (inventory, mapping, overlay) and giving value systems to data to use for design and planning-based decision-making.  While acknowledged as important in elevating the discussion, there is also the flip side of criticism's of this objectivty and quantification of processes, alluding to the lack of a cultural lens in which to perform interventions with this information.  The most interesting idea, according to Reed, from McHargian theory was that of 'propinquity', an innate acknowledgement of the proximity, but also the kinship of the environment and it's actors - aligning the needs of the people with that of the surrounding ecological landscape.

:: image via Gardenvisit

He follows this with the next phase of landscape ecology, best expressed in the work of Richard TT. Forman which "catalyze the emergence of urban-region ecology and planning", using the concepts of matrices, interconnections, and networks to express exchange of materials.  The major contribution of this is the visual, using mapping to acknowledge not a static ecological system, but to facilitate flows that observe an active and dynamic nature.   On a practical front, Reed mentions the work of Richard Haag and George Hargreaves as innovative early examples of built projects using these environmental dynamics as generators of form under the mantle of landscape architecture.  The realizations contributed to a conceptual shift of ecology from the static (equilibrium theory) to one that included fluctuations in response to disturbance and change.

:: Louisville Waterfront Park (Hargreaves) - image via Hargreaves Associates

The final phase came in some of the early large scale landscape competitions, such as Downsview Park in 1999, which featured time as part of the design brief.  All of the entires worked time into the solutions, which laid some foundations of modern landscape urbanism theories of indeterminancy.  Not the finalist, but of interest was the proposal from James Corner and Stan Allen, "Emergent Ecologies, which is described on the Downsview site: "The framework consists of an overlay of two complimentary organizational systems: circuit ecologies and throughflow ecologies. These systems seed the site with potential. Others will fill it in over time. We do not predict or determine outcomes; we simply guide or steer flows of matter and information."


Four Tendencies
The next section discussed the 'Four Tendencies' that have emerged into a set of typologies of ecological systems, summarized by Reed here (and hopefully captured in some sense of legibility):

1. Structured Ecologies:  Active habits of plant growth, water movement, habitat use - manipulated over time in response to change, factoring in resiliency and incorporating landscape as a dynamic field.


2. Analog Ecologies: Use ecological elements to achieve non-biological products, epitomized in the work of Ned Kahn and Chuck Hoberman.


3. Hybrid Ecologies:  Responsive design systems that tap into large scale system dynamics, including human and non-human interaction in space.


4. Curated Ecologies:  Structured interactions with dynamics over time, not under specific control, but poked and prodded - designers role shifts as project demands.

The work evolved from the Harvard GSD, particularly the work of Nina-Marie Lister, for a May 2010 event 'Critical Ecologies' which synthesized the historical and current practices of biology, horticulture, and anthropology as antecedents to design.  (need to find out more on what happened here, as it sounds like a great event with some amazing speakers.

Work of StossLU

In the next part, Reed explained some of the work of Stoss, to give a physical reality to some of the ideas of open-endedness and concepts in action. To provide a framework for these approaches, these were intermixed within a number of larger ideas.

Thicken the Surface:
Using the concept of multiple uses and meanings for land, imbued with both form and performance - but not strictly in a sculptural sense.  This best expressed in Riverside Park, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, an eco-park that elaborates the performance aspects of topography, with formal sculptural qualities as a result of the underlying processes.

 

:: Riverside Park - images via stossLU

Draw on Local Practices:  
The project mentioned was the Competition for the Herinneringspark in regional West Flanders, Belgium, which used ephemeral interventions over large spaces for this historical WW II site - specifically focusing on agricultural cycles to highlight specific forms.  (sorry, couldn't track down any pics on this one)

Flexible Spaces for Social Interaction:
Using the Erie Street Plaza in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as an example, mentioning the patterning of materials (lawn and pavement) and the interplay as a randomized surface that allows for a flexibility of uses.  The other aspect of interest was the connection to the water table and the fluctuating levels of moisture and the use of steam to melt portions of the snow for year-round use.

:: Erie Street Plaza - image via Architect's Newspaper

Open Ended Design:
The garden festival in Grand-Metis, Quebec is the example for open-ended design, 'Safe Zone' was designed with simple materials in new forms, for a flexibility of uses... a play area, but not prescriptive, rather a safe and injury free surface for experimentation and adaptable play (one as Reed mentions, kids get intuitively, but adults take time to adapt to)...

:: images via playscapes
(more pics here on L+U)

Civic Scale:
A more expansive explanation included the concepts of civic scale, expanding some of the more ephemeral and small-scale interventions into significant projects in urban areas.  One example Reed noted was the Fox Riverfront in Green Bay, Wisconsin, which is built above a sheetpile walll, and required the manipulations of various surfaces to accomodate a range of spaces.  The stepped benches form seats and chaise lounges, reacting to the different heights of the subsurface conditions.

:: image via Minnesota Public Radio

The overall site also responds to the flooding conditions that come up and over the bulkhead, creating a reactivated civic space while simultaneously incorporating a functional piece of civic infrastructure.

:: image via National Design Awards

Engaging/Recalibrating Infrastructure
The representative project for this concept was the controversial (locally) competition for capping the Mt.Tabor Reservoirs in Portland.  Stoss's concept was one of the more innovative, blending a new ecology while creating a social spaces.

:: image via National Design Awards

An Integrated Project: Lower Don Lands


A larger example of a project was the competition for the Waterfront and Lower Don River area in Toronto, Canada, which Reed explained in a bit more detail.  The concept (the competition eventually won by MVVA) by Stoss offers a chance to provide an integrated approach, with a goal towards both restoration of the Lower Don River and the subsequent urbanization.  This river first, city second does resonate with the landscape urbanism principles of new form-making driven by landscape/ecological processes.

:: image via The Torontoist

The condition of the existing 90 degree bend of the river, and the need for a more modulated river/lake interface required designing a river, which had both a performative and aesthetic requirement.  This involved a couple of what Reed refers to as principles and flexible tactics:

1. Amplify the Interface: between the river ecosystem and the restored estuary
2. Hybridize the Parts: changes between armored and porous materials, restoring the marsh condition and then letting the ecological systems take over, which provides flood control while creating spaces for urban activities.
3. Modify the Harbor Wall:   establishing a vocabulary of marshes and channels, which form courtyards as catalysts with flexible programs.
4. Unique Building Typologies: Flexibility of form, and flow of landscape across spits and islands, then up the faces of the buildings - green machines.

:: image via The Torontoist

:: image via Penn Design

As Reed mentioned, this provides an example of using ecologies as generative forces (agencies), which as seen from the above examples provides a snapshot into the conceptual framework that is applied to projects at a variety of scales.  Be sure to check out the full range of project work on the Stoss website and get more information on some of these projects mentioned.

Stay tuned for a synopsis of the Panel Discussion coming in a separate post.
Thanks to all the great folks at UW, as well as Chris, Howard, Randy, and Peter for the great after lecture discussions and dialogue.

NOTE: Anyone in attendance wanting to clarify, contest, or expand any of these thoughts, feel free to comment.  Look forward to hearing more.

Artificial Rivers

A post on Gardenvisit discusses the historical idea of creating artificial landscapes, in this case the Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park, to appear 'natural'.

:: image via Gardenvisit

"In 1730 Queen Charlotte ordered the damming of the Westbourne River as part of a general redevelopment of Hyde Park and Kennsington Gardens by Charles Bridgeman. The Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park is the remnant of the Westbourne River which since 1850 has been diverted into a culvert and runs into the Thames near Chelsea. “The Serpentine Lake was one of the earliest artificial lakes designed to appear natural” and was widely imitated. The Long Water because of its relatively undisturbed nature is a significant wildlife habitat."

The current imagery shows the modern configuration, which is interesting as it has maintained a similar configuration through time, but also doesn't have the undulating crenelations of a more 'organic' river that would probably pass for naturalism in modern form. 

:: image via Google Earth

Some images of the site as is currently configured, which is both integrated into it's urban context but also maintaining a natural appearance.

 :: images via Wikipedia

While there are probably hundreds of examples similar to this, and the fact that the site is mostly contained with a park (with a purely formal goal, versus ecological) - keeps it some distance from an engagement in the urban form and a viable idea of landscape or ecological urbanism.

It did remind me of what I think is a very good example of 19th Century work/precedent of landscape urbanism, Olmsted's restoration and naturalization of Boston's Back Bay Fens - a landscape that, as part of the Emerald Necklace, as a historically engineered construct, is today considered a natural and ecologically functioning natural area that the City was built around.  In fact the inverse is true, as the space was massively designed and engineered, with the subsequent urban areas building up around the space.  As seen from the pattern of Olmsted's plan in 1887, the Back Bay fens is a naturalistic work of landscape architecture, but also a feat of engineering that mitigated flooding in the area.

:: image via Wikipedia

And the current urban pattern, showing the infilling of urban areas around the 'open space' in the subsequent 130 years (yet remaining remarkably intact).  Building up of the urban density around this 'constructed landscape' is striking, especially in contrast to the bucolic beginnings.

:: image via Google Earth

And some additional information and text from an MIT architecture class site 'The Site Through Time' - showing the historical evolution of the park - emerging from the marshy landfill that constituted the majority of the Boston area (see more on the urban expansion through landfilling here).

:: images via MIT

While it is easy to consider this an 'extension of nature' it is clear this is a constructed urban landscape, and that after time it is hard to see this historical ecology without some digging - as it is perceived as nature.  A great site as part of the David Rumsey collection overlays a number of historical maps (there should be one of these for every city), which show the Back Bay area in different configurations (but the same scale and view) prior to and after 1887, which show the marsh, early landfill, evolution, and eventual implementation of the Olmsted plan (years 1856, 1874, and 1897)

:: images from David Rumsey

More on this one soon (in particular proto-landscape urbanism qualities of this historical work in providing a landscape framework for urbanism).  It is telling that most people consider this 'nature', similarly to the very constructed Central Park and other naturalistic parks of the 19th Century.  It is more specifically artificial ecologies as urban infrastructure - a novel concept well over a century removed.

:: Back Bay Fens - 1892 - image via The Olmsted Legacy

I've used this example before, in an article from a few years back (Winter 2006) called 'Creating Nature' (links to a PDF published in the ASLA Oregon journal ORegonland - article starts on pg. 4).  For anyone interested in more detail, check out one of the essays in William Cronon's sporadicallyengaging 'Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature', specifically Anne Whiston Spirn's great essay 'Constructing Nature' which mentions this project and others by Olmsted using similar naturalistic tendencies. But for it's picturesque aesthetics of a century ago, it sounds a lot like landscape (or ecological) urbanism to me:

"Boston's Fens and Riverway were built over nearly two decades, (1880s - 1890s) as an urban 'wilderness,' the first attempt anywhere, so far as I know, to construct a wetland.  These projects, built on the site of tidal flats and floodplains fouled by sewage and industrial effluent, were designed to purify water and protect adjacent land from flooding.  They also incorporated an interceptor sewer, a parkway, and Boston's first streetcar line; together, they formed a landscape system designed to accommodate the movement of people, the flow of water, and the removal of wastes.  This skeleton of park, road, sewer, and public transit structured the growing city and its suburbs."  (Spirn quoted in Cronon, 1996, p.104)

New York City's Amphibious Heritage

Via the always interesting Strange Maps, a utopian proposal from the early 20th Century for New York City with current parallels of either the practical Dutch examples of land reclamation or the ridiculous Dubai examples of artificial islands.  Immediately making me think of Robert Grosvenor proposal for 'Floating Manhattan' - This 1911 proposal by Dr. T. Kennard Thompson entitled 'A Really Greater New York' poses a large scale land reclamation of New York and the surrounding areas - adding 50 square miles of land to the metropolitan area.

:: image via Strange Maps

Some additional explanation:

"...proposed to expand New York into its adjacent waters for a grand total of 50 square miles. Thomson was neither a lightweight nor a crackpot. As a consulting engineer and urban planner for the City of New York, he had been involved in the construction of numerous bridges and over 20 of New York's early skyscrapers, specialising in their foundations, designing pneumatic caissons. It was the versatility of these caissons that would lead Dr Thomson to envisage a much wider application for them. In August of 1916, he wrote an article in Popular Science, advocating 'A Really Greater New York'."

For a full picture of the concept, check out the full post, but in a nutshell, my favorite part was the new proboscis attached to the end of Manhattan ('New Manhattan') - retaining a New York/New Jersey split.  Think of the cost-benefit of this (ecosystem health and environmental impact aside) were it built 100 years ago.

:: image via Strange Maps

This isn't to say that Manhattan, and many other cities around the world haven't expanded their footprint in less dramatic ways through landfilling, edging slowly into the adjacent lands.  Is it such a crazy proposition, thinking of the value of land in Manhattan and other densely developed (and land-locked) cities, is it such as strange idea?  Boston is a great example of a city built on fill, not by spreading inland,  but by capturing significant amounts of land within the Charles River basin and Harbor areas.

:: image via Crusoe Graphics

Or instead of giving this over to building, how about restoration of the areas where we've destroyed the margins through industrialization.  We could add, through land-filling, wide vegetated buffers for open space and restoration of coastal ecosystems engineered specifically for recreation, habitat, and riparian health - strips for phytoremediation between city and river - buffers for us and to remedy or ills.  While difficult to generate using existing built up edge conditions, this new process of reclamation of riparian corridors, although artificial (a la P-REX), would be a hybrid ecology that may work versus a traditional, reactive, natural methodology.

:: image via Als Dream Journal

Patch, Mosaic, Corridor

While urbanization and sprawl into every nook and cranny of the ecosystem has left large habitat patches in North American relatively difficult to attain, a post by Treehugger shows that the less dense South American continent has the potential to provide a large mosaic of territory for the native Panther - Jaguar onca - (aka Jaguar) through patches of larger areas connected through corridors.  The maps are dynamic, showing a macro-scale mapping between Central and South America.  (all images via Panthera)

The idea of a Corridor Initative, aims at providing the connectivity of these disconnected patches:  " linking core jaguar populations within the human landscape from northern Argentina to Mexico, preserving their genetic integrity so jaguars can live in the wild forever. Through multilateral partnerships, government support, and local buy-in, Panthera is the driving force behind this unique initiative, ensuring safe passage for the majestic and mysterious jaguar across its entire range."

The Landscape Analysis Lab offers shared mapping data of a range of habitats for large cats, although the scale is a bit large to make any generalizations.  Much like many species, we can see a marked decline in range due to fragmentation of habitat.  There are some more detail maps that show a smaller-scale landscape and connectivity corridors between larger patches of habitat.

While large predators are less common in patches in the United States, it would be fascinating to see this sort of macro-geographical analysis for the Western Grey Wolf, or even the less expansive ranges for our local Cougar, or even the more daring and urbane Coyote, which has become more prevalent in urban areas as their habitat and natural food sources are depleted.  Maybe instead of trying to figure out how to kill them or keep them from eating pets, we could come up with a regional solution that keeps the interactions between humans and wildlife to a minimum.

Island Life

Greetings from sunny, partly cloudy Friday Harbor, where we are taking some late summer refuge from the urban areas of Portland.



Life on the San Juan Islands gives one an opportunity to relax and live a more confined life -because you are literally confined with access either via plane, boat, or car (via ferry)... the preferred choice of the island hopper.



The cycles become less about mass transit and 9 to 5 than the lead time to queue for the ferries heading to the mainland or other islands. The concept of hurry up and wait is no more evident in these cycles of escape. The lifeline becomes a schedule (and in our time of modern technological wizardry), the simple web ferry cam to give you an 'oh, not a problem' to a 'we're screwed' reaction, even before arrival. The open lanes mean freedom, but also a wait after the car is firmly planted in the lineup and you have an hour or two to kill.



While anywhere new, but especially in something more isolated, the origins of how a place came to be are often at the forefront. What drew folks to these islands, aside from solitude? A quick history lesson in this case reveals the obvious, fishing, at the forefront of industry. Still practiced (as seen from the purse seiner below pulling record numbers of King Salmon this season). This has alas become more of a secondary industry now.



Much like the canneries that were the major industry (along with Limestone quarries and lime kilns, and farming, which seems productive if indicative of the weekly farmer's market and the San Juan Islands Agricultural Guild). Some are still persistent but mostly idle, either post-industrial remnants or transformed into post-modern shopping experiences or interpretive exhibits. This view from our rental across a lagoon is stunning and remote enough to be less tourist-friendly... working now as a boat launch and fishing beach.



The main industry now being tourism, as seen on a idyllic coastal downtown (right up from the ferry terminal) which has that neo-traditional charm of a CNU wet-dream with a number of seasonal shops and restaurants that I imagine rely heavily on the holiday and weekend droves of tourists coming for escape.



Is it about new experiences or quiet. Perhaps both, and things that take you away from the typical cycles of life. A chance to learn about the infamous 'Pig War' of 1859' in sharp contrast to 'War Pigs' from 1970, dine on hyper-local seafood you may have seen being caught, or just to sit on a deck overlooking a not-so distant view of Canada.



:: War Pigs - image via Wikipedia

Alas, even seeing a breaching Orca from 150 yards quickly shifts from high-drama to 'wow, another whale' after a couple of hours. Amazing how we must continually look for greater and great stimulation to tantalize... perhaps our fascinating, as we've all commented this weekend, on electronic gizmos to entertain.



On this whale watching trip, no fewer than half of the passengers sat starting at blackberries, sleeping, or shooting rapidfire with overly expensive cameras, versus just soaking it in. All this as we zoomed through an amazing history lesson akin to the Island of Dr. Moreau (or more likely a precursor to the modern Jurassic Park) on Spieden Island (now owned by the owner of Oakley), where in the island was stocked with wildlife for big-game hunting Safari. Via the Seattle Times:

"It's a modern tale that began in 1969, when a group of investors bought this uninhabited 556-acre, three-mile-long island and stocked it with hundreds of grazing animals and nearly 2,000 game birds from around the world and renamed it "Safari Island." Hunters paid to visit and shoot everything from Asian fallow deer to African guinea fowl... Several species of exotic animals have thrived in the 22 years since hunting was stopped. Today, the more than 500 European Sika deer, Asian Fallow deer and Corsican Big Horn sheep are part of what makes the island special."

Spotting them on our island drive by was perhaps more interesting than the Orcas - although not to the majority of our fellow travelers, who had tunnel vision on seeing one thing and could care less for the journey.


:: Moufflon Sheep - image via Five Star Whale Watching

In the spirit of the fallow deer and corsican big horns, we always seem to adapt to whatever is put in front of us - maybe because we aren't staring at a screen or from behind a lens as life moves past? Perhaps, as I chill on a lazy Sunday, it's time to reconnect with the slow life... and not worry about catching that ferry or check that email. It's about as anti-urban as you can possibly get and perfect timing. Back here soon with more posts... cheers.


(all images (c) Jason King - unless otherwise noted)