Save Vendovi Island

Tip Johnson is a public interest advocate with nearly four decades of work on social and environmental issues. His public policy interests center around land use and transportation. He has served on the Bellingham City Council, numerous boards and committees, and spearheaded many community projects, such as the preservation of the Connelly Creek Nature Area and Hoag’s Pond.

I’m not much good at asking for money. It’s a genetic defect acquired from my ancestral Montana Lutherans. I never even asked my folks for help. But I am asking you now, and partly for my dad.

On Wednesday, July 6th, I had the pleasure of accompanying a small group of Bellinghamsters and folks from the San Juan Preservation Trust to Vendovi Island. The Trust has purchased the island with the help of an anonymous benefactor who made a $3 million gift and provided a $3.5 million bridge loan. The Trust wants to preserve the island from development and make it available for low-impact day use and educational activities. If they can’t repay the loan, however, it will need to be sold. Under the current land-use plan, up to 42 homes could be built.

Vendovi was named after the Rewan Chief Ro Veidovi, from the Fiji Islands. He was arrested by Captain Charles Wilkes during the U.S. Exploring Expedition of 1838-42, charged with the murders of ten sailors from another American ship. He was found guilty and might have been executed had not an anthropologically minded soul kept him alive for the sake of his skull. Naturalists of the time were very interested in delineating the races of humanity, but they knew that the superstitious sailing crew would never tolerate any human remains on board. The chief died not long after arriving in the U.S. and his skull, indeed, ended up in the Smithsonian. Along the way, the expedition visited the San Juan Islands. The chief had become very well liked by the crew, and Wilkes named the island in his honor.

Our trip to Vendovi was welcomed by sunny skies and a gentle, warm breeze, an auspicious beginning, especially this year. We chugged on down without incident, circumnavigated the place and landed in the snug little harbor on the west side. There, we disembarked and hiked around to inspect the beaches, viewpoints and other natural features.

The Trust’s fundraising brochure states, “Essentially untouched by human development and virtually free of invasive plants, Vendovi Island has six beaches, lush forests, native grassland, healthy wetlands and diverse plant and animal habitat. Its wildflower meadows are among the richest in the San Juan Islands and perhaps in Washington State, and ornithologists have observed almost 60 avian species, including bald eagles, peregrine falcons and pigeon guillemots. With 2.8 miles of pristine shoreline, hundreds of harbor seals have been observed to use Vendovi’s sandy beaches for community haul-outs.”

This is all true, but an understatement at best. This island is unique, with several nice beaches and bluffs sporting spectacular views in all directions. Better yet, Vendovi Island is the South Bellingham of the San Juans. It lies just past Eliza Island, off the south end of Lummi Island. Situated at the mouths of both Samish and Bellingham Bays, where the Straits of Georgia run into the Bellingham Channel, it is strategically located for small, human powered boats that can’t buck the tide. On several occasions I’ve waited out the last of a tide on its shores. Let’s say you take the ebb out of town and want to swing around Carter Point and head up to Sucia. Vendovi is the best place to wait. Or maybe you pop out of Obstruction Pass on your way back to Bellingham. You can crab across the straits on any tide, but will need to wait for the flood before heading into Bellingham. Vendovi’s the spot!

This fact was apparently not wasted on early boaters. You can easily imagine canoes lined up on the beaches, waiting for a favorable tide. In 1894, according to the account of the daughter of the only settler child born on the island, the family barricaded themselves in their cabin, quietly awaiting the child’s birth, while Haida travelers camped on the nearby beach.

Since those times, settlers on the island have raised sheep, fox and weasels for their furs. For a time, during the depression, it was a retreat for followers of one Reverend Major Jealous Divine, who preached peace, communalism and the ubiquity of god. In the 1960’s, it was purchased by John Fluke of Fluke Manufacturing in Everett and became a closely guarded private estate. An impressive granite memorial for Mr. Fluke stands today in a secluded sylvan grove.

Beaches are generally publicly accessible up to the mean high water mark, but farther upland you are usually trespassing. Believe me, on my visits, I couldn’t resist trying to look around, but got busted every time. Once I got stuck on a moonless evening and tried sleeping in the beach rack on the east side. I was probably legal, since the mean high water mark is the average of something over 18 years, but I was rudely rousted at three in the morning by some kind of very dark and large animals — I presume guard dogs. Later someone told me there were feral pigs on the island, but there is no evidence of this, even though Vendovi has sometimes been referred to as Hog Island. The fright cured me. After that, I regretfully avoided the place.

So it was a pleasure to tour the island openly, talking about the possibilities. But the pleasure was mitigated as we strolled through the woods, discussing how bad cell phone coverage is on many of the islands. I decided to pop mine out to check the signal. I had four calls from my sister and one from each daughter. I made the call and learned that my dad, ailing for some time, had passed away minutes earlier.

My dad loved boats and the water.  Boating to islands to camp or mudflats to clam was emblematic of my youth. The experience led me to found Fairhaven Boatworks in 1984, now known as the Bellingham Bay Community Boating Center. I have thousands of hours of time in small boats throughout our local waters and can attest to the importance of adequate refuge in crossing some of our bigger waters. It makes me happy to know that there is a chance Vendovi may be added to the list of places we can seek shelter. It would have made my dad happy, too.

So let’s get busy and help pay off the bridge loan. None of us wants to cruise by Vendovi, begrudging the “private beach” signs and shielding our eyes from the window glare of too many summer homes! Please think about this opportunity to forever preserve this small, beautiful place that lies, almost forgotten, in our own back yard. Share the prospect with your friends and then let’s all do what we can to make sure Vendovi Island never has to step up to another auction block. Thanks. §