Other News
Apr 11, 2024: Community Meeting: Sea Level Rise Adaptation for Outer Bay and Agate Beach Areas on Lopez Island
Mar 11, 2024: Queers in Unexpected Places: Searching for (and Finding) Gender and Sexual Non-Conformity in the Rural and Early PNW
Mar 7, 2024: DRAFT Richardson Marsh Preserve Stewardship and Management Plan Now Open for Public Comment
Dec 5, 2023: County Council Member Jane Fuller and Senator Liz Lovelett to Host Public Meeting on Lopez
Nov 3, 2023: County and Town Send Open Letter to State Officials Regarding Impacts of Poor Ferry Service
Sep 29, 2023: Conservation Land Bank Announces Special Meeting to Discuss Watmough Bay Preserve Addition
Sep 14, 2023: The mobile dental van is coming to Lopez! // ¡La camioneta dental móvil ya llega a López!
Aug 22, 2023: San Juan County Adopts 32-Hour Work Week in the Name of Fiscal Health, Recruitment, and Islander Wellness
May 25, 2023: Recap of Lopez Neighborhood Meeting Regarding the Relocation of Public Works Facilities
May 23, 2023: District 3 Councilmember Jane Fuller Opens Office on Lopez and Hosts Community Conversation
Apr 17, 2023: Give Lopez Starts April 17th - A two week fundraiser benefiting 15 Lopez Island Non-Profits
Sep 22, 2022: Interim Watmough Preserve Addition Stewardship and Management Plan Now Open for Public Comment
Chimunks dig Lopez!
Dec 11, 2023
By Kwiaht
Townsend’s Chipmunks are at home throughout Lopez, from residential gardens to the woodlands of Chadwick Hill. These fast, pushy little native rodents are as likely to be seen raiding bird feeders, as to comb through leaves on the forest floor for fragrant mushrooms and crunchy beetle to eat. They must think (S)Lopez is the place to be, because they are found nowhere else in the San Juan Islands.
Superficially, the San Juan Islands look pretty much the same flavor of evergreen forests and coastal meadows as mainland western Washington. But the islands have fewer plant and animal species than the mainland. And individual islands also differ in the details. Many animals and plants are restricted to one or two islands and have never been seen on the others. If you think of it, when the glaciers melted 12,000 years ago, the San Juan Islands were just bare rocks in a rising sea. Every plant and animal had to find its way here somehow. Easy for birds, perhaps. But what about the amphibians and freshwater fish; or mammals that cannot swim or fly?
Kwiaht director Russel Barsh has been studying the biogeography of the islands for more than 20 years. Learn more about why each island has its own native squirrel:
"How did everything get here?"
Thursday, December 28, Lopez Center, 5:30 pm. Free admission.
Kwiaht director Russel Barsh has been studying the biogeography of the islands for more than 20 years. Learn more about why each island has its own native squirrel:
"How did everything get here?"
Thursday, December 28, Lopez Center, 5:30 pm. Free admission.
A Townsend's Chipmunk enjoying lunch on north Lopez Island (photo: Russel Barsh)