WSU President Elson Floyd's Visit to the Islands

On April 1, Washington State University President Elson Floyd visited the San Juans. Beach Watchers met with him for two hours at Lime Kiln State Park. Shann organized an event that was interesting and highlighted our involvement with various groups. By the number of questions he asked, President Floyd appeared very engaged and interested in our activities.

Ted Schlund, the new San Juan Marine Area Manager (aka the head state parks guy for the islands), explained what he and his staff do to maintain all the state parks’ facilities in the San Juans. Tina Wyllie-Echeverria discussed her work with the various fish studies. Both Ted and Tina stressed how much BWs did for their organizations.

Barbara Bentley and Ann Farrell, both BWs class of 2009, discussed the marine health observatory projects at Indian Island on Orcas and the Port of Friday Harbor. Dennis Linden, BWs class of 2006, and Erin Corra, park staff, described volunteering at Lime Kiln. We then walked down to the lighthouse to talk about projects at the park as well as on other islands, and other BWs, including Don Jarrell, Linda Thompson, Cynthia Hubbard, Andrea Wieland and Karen Kuster (all BWs class of 2009), talked about their experiences volunteering at the park. It was an enjoyable and well-spent two hours. Thanks, Shann for all your work and to all the speakers.

Also, read about President Floyd’s impressions on his blog: http://president.wsu.edu/blog