11/04/2026
"By August, the islands begin revealing what kind of year it has been for water.
The clues emerge quietly at first. Gravel bars widen beneath shrinking channels. Alder roots become exposed where winter flows cut deeper into simplified streambanks. Springs dry.
The changes rarely arrive dramatically in the San Juan Islands.
Freshwater decline here does not often resemble catastrophe in the Western sense—there are no empty reservoirs or collapsing river corridors. Instead, the crisis unfolds through accumulation: warmer summers, diminished groundwater, fragmented wetlands, simplified stream channels, and the gradual unraveling of hydrologic systems that once buffered the islands against drought..."
💧 Read the rest of “Summer Water” at the blog below! This is the second article in our five-part series exploring water conservation in the San Juan Islands, the challenges facing our freshwater systems, and the importance of protecting and restoring them.
📷 Pictured: Dry stretches of Emmerling Creek and San Juan Creek, both restoration sites of the Islands Conservation Corps.
This project is supported with funding from Washington's Climate Commitment Act. The CCA puts cap-and-invest dollars to work reducing climate pollution, creating jobs, and improving public health. Information about the CCA is available at www.climate.wa.gov.
This article is the second of a five part journalism series by the San Juan Islands Conservation District on steams and wetlands in the islands, and what people can do to restore them. By August, the islands begin revealing what kind of year it has been for water.The clues emerge quietly at first. G...
