WEAN had its beginnings in 1985 when a group of people came together in a campaign to curb roadside herbicide spraying. On April 1, 2002, after a two year campaign by Whidbey Island No Spray Coalition, supported and counseled by WEAN, the Island County Commissioners finally committed to end all roadside herbicide spraying.

June/July 1988 - The same group of people organizes the simmering public indignation and anger with Trillium Corporation, which had moved in and begun clearcutting its new holdings, totaling 2500 - 3000 acres. 

(Click Here for more of our History with Trillium.)

July 1988 - The group organizes and carries out a blockade of Trillium’s logging at “Big Muddy,” a 40 acre parcel consisting of forested wetlands and a stream. Later it is discovered that Trillium never returned to the site after the blockade.

December 1988  - the group strikes again, this time blockading Trillium’s 780 acre clearcut at Bush Point, where wetland buffers were logged in violation of a negotiated settlement.

March 1989 ~ Under the name Whidbey Environmental Action Network, these people organize and stage a guerrilla tree planting in Trillium’s Big Muddy clearcut. Trillium threatens arrest but backs down when the regional media express interest in covering the event.

1989 ~ An appeal is filed of the County's determination of no significant environmental impact for a proposal to clearcut a forested wetland to provide views of a golf course. The County Hearing Examiner rules that logging forested wetlands will have significant adverse environmental impacts and will require an environmental impact statement. The development proposal is dropped.

1991 ~ With passage of the Growth Management Act, WEAN begins religiously attending and monitoring County Planning Commission and Commissioner meetings and hearings. It rapidly becomes clear that the "powers-that-be" have no intention of complying with the GMA.

1992 ~ Whidbey Environmental Action Network incorporates as a state non-profit.

1992 ~ WEAN files a notice of intent to sue the City of Oak Harbor for longstanding continuous violation of the Clean Water Act, forcing the city to clean up its sewer discharges. In 2000, the City wins a state award for excellent management of the plant.

1993 - WEAN challenges the inadequate fine levied on a County Commissioner's campaign manager for illegally logging a heron rookery. The County Hearing Examiner eventually rules that WEAN has no standing in the case, but extensive coverage by the local press provokes a flurry of negative response to the logging.

1995 - WEAN becomes a federal 501(c)3 tax exempt NGO, and publishes first issue of The Snag.

1995-98 - When Island County misses deadlines for adopting a comprehensive plan and new zoning under the Growth Management Act, WEAN begins a series of appeals to the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board. WEAN has been in continuous GMA litigation ever since. 

1996 - Legal strategy developed by WEAN founder Steve Erickson is used in Skagit County to invalidate zoning laws allowing a quarter of a million acres to be subdivided. The Growth Board then "invalidates" the County's zoning of nearly the entire shoreline for 3-1/2 houses per acre. In 1998, WEAN convinces the Growth Board to invalidate allowance of commercial development anywhere in the County. This kills a proposed 137 house development in a rural area. A destination resort is later proposed, including a 5-story, 278 unit hotel/conference center complete with golf course, riding stables, etc. WEAN is instrumental in organizing opposition by the community. The County Commissioners agree not to allow destination resorts in the new zoning code. This land has now been purchased by a local land trust and turned over to the County for a park.

1998 - WEAN donates a set of textbooks and teacher's manual on conservation biology to the South Whidbey High School advanced biology class.

1998 -present - WEAN appeals the new comprehensive plan and zoning code as failing to prevent sprawl, conserve agricultural and forest resource lands, preserve rural character, and protect critical habitat areas, including wetlands, streams, sensitive fauna, and locally rare plant species. The Growth Board rules in favor of WEAN on about 80% of the issues. Island County appeals the matter to Whatcom County Superior Court, where the judge rules against WEAN without having read the record. WEAN appeals to the State Court of Appeals, which eventually upholds most of WEAN’s case.

1998 - WEAN initiates and spearheads a campaign to prevent sale for development by the Dept. of Fish and Wildlife of 160 acres containing a native prairie remnant considered the highest quality glacial outwash prairie left in the northern Puget lowlands. The campaign includes activating the local community, the regional scientific botanical community, filing a strategic lawsuit, and having legislation passed and signed by the Governor. In July 1999 Au Sable Institute for Environmental Studies purchases the property and pledges to spend the next 50 years restoring and expanding the native prairie remnant.

1998 (ongoing) - WEAN advises individuals and groups in counties around Washington bringing cases before their respective Growth Management Hearings Boards, including in Stevens, Ferry, Clallam, and Jefferson counties.

1999 - WEAN helps spawn PROUD, a group organized around preventing construction of a gas-station/mini-mart complex in a wetland, and the Freeland Volunteers, a group of people who did vital research necessary in planning for possible urban status for the inincorporated town of Freeland.

1999 - WEAN coordinates an emergency plant salvage when a prairie remnant is threatened by a highway project. The 800 salvaged 1 gallon pots have been divided and increased to 8,000 4" pots. The plants have been replanted on the construction site's cut and restoration of the site is continuing, in spite of active sabotage by WSDOT personnel.

1999 - 2000 WEAN wins several significant rulings from the Growth Management Hearings Board. Island County is ordered by the Board to increase the size of buffers on wetlands and streams, and to require that agricultural land uses abide by the wetlands ordinance, except in the commercial agriculture zone. The “RAID” (rural areas of more intensive rural development) boundaries of Freeland and Clinton are substantially reduced, preventing major amounts of previously planned sprawl.

2000 - WEAN helps convince proponents of the Orca gas pipeline that Island County is not receptive. The pipeline is "on hold."

2001 - When he gets no response from the state Dept. of Agriculture, a whistleblower in the Oak Harbor School District who witnessed the illegal burial of 650 pounds of banned pesticide comes to WEAN for help. WEAN coordinates with the Washington Toxics Coalition (WTC) and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), and helps advise the now unemployed whistleblower. EPA investigates and confirms the whistleblower's claim. The toxic pesticides, buried behind the high school football stadium, are cleaned up. EPA hands the case to a federal prosecutor. The guilty parties are named and dismissed. The school district has now initiated a "least toxic management" committee, on which WEAN sits, to develop new policy and procedures for grounds maintenance. Publicity about the dumping causes many school districts in Washington to re-examine their policies (or lack of policies) about use of toxics. WEAN and Washington Toxics Coalition continue to participate in Oak Harbor School District grounds maintenance policy until 2006, when the district announces a policy change barring “outsiders.”

2001 - WEAN asks the Growth Management Hearings Board for the third time to require Island County to protect locally rare species. The Board has twice required such protection, and Island County has failed to protect. Eventually the Board gives up and allows Island County not to protect rare species.

2001-2002 – WEAN helps plan and implement a campaign to finally end all herbicide spraying along County roadsides. On April 1, 2002, the Island County Commissioners agree to stop spraying. This is 17 years after the people who later formed WEAN first tried to stop roadside herbicide spraying

2002 -   WEAN leads the charge against the premature establishment of a Mosquito Control District that would be costly to the taxpayer, infringe on property rights and allow the dispersal of toxic chemicals.

2003-  The State Court of Appeals supports WEAN’s claim that the buffers for type 5 streams and for Category B wetlands are inadequate and that the agricultural exemption should not be applied county wide but only to land appropriately zoned.

2003 - Seattle Pacific University announces its intention to build a new, upscale conference center at Camp Casey - right in the middle of 40 acres of heritage forest. WEAN participated in the permitting process, alerted the neighbors (since SPU didn’t) and eventually took the matter to the Growth Management Hearings Board, which agreed that this was a “Master Planned Resort” and those were not allowed in Island County. In an attempt to inform SPU alumni, WEAN organized a demonstration outside Camp Casey during SPU’s alumni retreat weekend.

2003 - work continues at the restoration site at Penn Cove, now know as Schoolhouse Prairie, in respect for the historic schoolhouse which sits just above our work site. Americorps crew help with weed control, the biggest problem on the site. Native plants are just barely beginning to show themselves.

2003 - Star Wars comes to Puget Sound. The military proposes to base an “SBX” missile defense radar system at Naval Base Everett. WEAN brings the matter to the attention of people on Whidbey, and brings the presence of an island in Puget Sound, within range of the killing radar beam, to the attention of the military. Enough pressure is exerted by residents of Everett and surrounding areas, including Whidbey, to convince the military to base SBX in Adak, Alaska.

2003 - 80 acres which include the headwaters of a salmonbearing stream are proposed for lagging and aerial herbicide spraying. WEAN causes an Interdisciplinary Team to convene and walk the site, and make recommendations for mitigating the damage. Sadly, the logging goes forward, and the stream and its buffer are damaged.

2004 - A water right which WEAN had challenged in 1992, finally came up for review. The Dept of Ecology staff person planned to grant the water right until WEAN presented comprehensive information as to why they should not. Ecology then denied the review and the landowners appealed the denial. WEAN assisted the assistant Attorney General in preparing a clear case before the Pollution Control Hearings Board, ending in a strongly worded decision protecting water rights for salmon.

2004 - The first parcel Trillium Corp (see 1988) logged is proposed for annexation into Langley with the intention to build 120 houses. WEAN works with individual citizens, bringing them together to form a strong group to convince the City that this is not a good idea. The City denies the annexation. The developers return later with a much reduced proposal for 24 houses, which is accepted.

2004 - Washington State Ferries proposes moving the Keystone Ferry either to the middle or the other end of Keystone Spit, and begins public meetings to push this agenda. WEAN, along with residents of the spit, object vigorously. State Senator Mary Margaret Haugen withholds funds for the move, and requires a study of other alternatives.

2004 - WSDOT continues to spray state highways. Having convinced Island County to stop spraying indiscriminately, WEAN’s sister organization, WINS, takes on the state. This is the beginning of a long drawn-out process which results in a 2005 announcement by WSDOT (under a great deal of pressure from WEAN’s legal beagle) that they will not spray the south half of Whidbey - except for under the guardrails. This is an on-going campaign.

2004-  WEAN submits proposed amendments to the Comprehensive Plan, along with an $800.00 filing fee. The county takes no action.

2004 - Pro-development people in Clinton propose a sewer. WEAN intervenes. Eventually the proposal is dropped.

2005 -  WEAN resubmits proposed Comp Plan amendments. The county does not respond.

2006-  Newly elected commissioner, John Dean, declares his intention to end the adversarial relationship between WEAN and Island County. WEAN wholeheartedly agrees.

2006-  WEAN keeps on plugging, and takes time out for fun with the Battlefield Band.