You may see orange-vested Kwiaht and Bureau of Land Management personnel on Indian Island in May and June, continuing to cut back and mulch the Bur Chervil patch, careful to avoid disturbing soils, native wildflowers, and nests. All work will be carried out by hand, and with local plant materials.

As scientists, we are concerned that island-specific threats from climate change are not yet concretely addressed in local planning www.sanjuanjournal.com/2026/04/18/h...

Minus tides this weekend, and we are hosting a community clam dig on Sunday April 19 starting at 11:30 at the end of Mud Bay Dock Road on Lopez Island.

When Cattle Point was a garden https://www.sanjuanjournal.com/2026/04/10/when-cattle-point-was-a-garden/

What we shared at the Tides of March www.islandssounder.com/2026/04/02/d...

The Cattle Point garden project will combine traditional Indigenous knowledge with recent botanical research, working with families that cultivated parts of San Juan Island for centuries before Spanish and British sailors set eyes on our shores.

Our botanist @arbutocrat.bsky.social is part of the Historic Fruit Tree Working Group of North America and shared the excitement at identifying the long lost Walbridge apple. It wasn't planted in the islands, but we're inspired to collect more samples for genetic ID and work to protect old trees.

Our last scheduled scion exchange and grafting workshop is coming up this Saturday April 4th at the Orcas Island Museum in Eastsound. We'll be there with heritage apple scions and rootstock from 12-3pm rain or shine.

We're raising funds through the San Juan Island Community Foundation to start restoring native plants and cultural landscapes at Cattle Point (San Juan Island) with PKOLS (Protecting Knowledge of Land and Sea) and the San Juan Islands National Monument. You can donate through April 15th.

We were able to donate nearly 9 gallons of nettle soup to the Lopez Food Share!

We are seeking an exceptional middle or high-school student to work part-time as an ecosystem steward alongside adult volunteers and Kwiaht scientists at Indian Island, Eastsound. Preference given to Orcas Island students. Interested? Write to [email protected] to schedule an interview.

Statewide recognition for the deep roots of apple cultivation. We look forward to participating in the implementation of this program and seeing it build the excellent ongoing work of Dr. Cameron Peace at WSU to identify heritage apple varieties. gloriamendoza.houserepublicans.wa.gov/2026/03/05/s...

It's grafting season! We have upcoming grafting workshops with heritage island apples on San Juan (March 21st), Lopez (March 29th), and Orcas (April 4th).

Join us for the Tides of March and learn about 18 years of community science and stewardship at Indian Island www.sanjuanjournal.com/2026/03/04/t...

#OnThisDay in 1859, a group of scientists dined with Major Granville Haller at Port Townsend to discuss the San Juan Islands. historylink.org/File/11196

Russel will be presenting an overview of local butterflies and moths at the Odd Fellows Hall in Eastsound today (2-3:30pm). There will be copies of our new butterfly and moth book available. We also have an online guide to the local bee and fly pollinators of the islands

We will have scions of Belmont from heritage Orcas trees to share at our scion exchanges in March and April.

Sampling of dead foxes on San Juan by Kwiaht and Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife confirmed that two of them were infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza. www.sanjuancountywa.gov/m/NewsFlash/...

Learn how our stellar lab technician Sophie Citro is organizing community moth science in the islands

Come let Russel Barsh introduce you to the lesser known butterflies and moths of the San Juan archipelago. February 22nd at the Orcas Odd Fellows Hall from 2-3:30 The illustrated handbook Butterflies of the San Juan Islands (and some interesting moths) will be available.

Tick activity is starting in the islands. Send us any you find theorcasonian.com/its-time-for...

We are honored to co-host the Food Sovereignty and Thriving Indigenous Plant Communities session at the 2026 San Juan Islands Agricultural Summit, alongside Protecting Knowledge of Land and Sea (PKOLS) and the Indigenous Plants Forum on Saturday February 28th.

Some of what we're working on to support food security, cultural landscapes, and agricultural biodiversity in the islands.

Want to learn more about our research in the marine waters around the San Juan Islands? Kwiaht director Russel Barsh will tell you all about it at our Marine Matinee on Sunday January 25th at Lopez Center.

We have a new book out! A guide to the moths and butterflies of the San Juan Islands. Available at the Lopez Bookshop (and on its way to other local booksellers) or by donation to Kwiaht www.kwiaht.org/donate.htm

You can support @arbutocrat.bsky.social's work on heritage and locally adapted seedling apples on Orcas through the Orcas Island Community Foundation. oicf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/c...

We are working with WDFW and the Washington State Department of Health to monitor avian influenza in wildlife in the San Juan Islands. If you find dead wild waterfowl, raptors, or scavengers, do not handle them, contact us [email protected].

Old orchards have remarkable stories to go with their unique seedling varieties.

"[T]he photogenic foxes, brought to the island a century ago by fur farms, play a complex and as-yet poorly understood role in both changing and maintaining the landscape." www.islandssounder.com/life/life-an...

Tonight! Kwiaht ecologist Russel Barsh at the Lopez Library with Shining a Light on Local Moths starting at 6pm. And while you are there you can see local high school artist (and Kwiaht lab tech) Sophie Citro's moth art and buy a ticket (or many) for her moth sculpture raffle.

Learn about the research on herring that we are doing with Long Live the Kings and the Nisqually Indian Tribe www.youtube.com/watch?v=khz1...

Residues of home and garden pesticides sold and used on Orcas Island have been found in local wildlife, with some of the highest concentrations in bats and hummingbirds. www.sanjuanjournal.com/news/househo...

Everyone is invited to our 7th annual camas festival!

Join us for our 7th annual Camas Festival! A potluck featuring camas (Camassia leichtlinii) based dishes and presentations and discussion of camas cultivation. Saturday October 25th 12-3pm at the Stevens Center of the Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. www.kwiaht.org/calendar.htm

"To recover the islands’ Julia Orangetips, could we simply plant more of their preferred host plant? Tower Mustard is native to the San Juan Islands, easy to grow and a part of meadow restoration projects being carried out elsewhere."

Our Camas Festival is moving to Padilla Bay this year! Save the date: Saturday October 25th for a camas focused potluck including a presentation by Sam Barr of the Coast Salish Youth Coalition on the revitalization of camas culture by Coast Salish youth.

More heritage apple events coming up in October! Our third annual apple tasting with the Orcas Museum is Saturday October 4th (12:30-2:30), and on October 11th we're joining the San Juan County Land Bank, apple ID expert Lori Brakken, and master orchardist Marguerite Greening for Apple-Palooza

The tasting scores for this year are in: Twenty Ounce was the favorite, followed by Esopus Spitzenburg and Glowing Coal. Our next tasting is Saturday October 4th at the Orcas Museum (12:30-2:30).

Some of the apples that will be at tomorrow's tasting with the Lopez Island History Museum: Belmont Esopus Spitzenburg Fameuse Gloria Mundi Glowing Coal Golden Ball Gravenstein (including Olga Red Gravenstein) King (of Tompkins County) Greensweet Northern Spy Twenty Ounce Wolf River

Can rediscovering heritage apples and sharing unique local seedlings help change apple culture in a way that values island orchards?

Western leafcutter bee (Megachile perihirta) taking off from a Cirsium vulgare (bull thistle) inflorescence near Cattle Point (San Juan Islands National Monument).

Do you need more ways to enjoy this years abundant crop of t’áqa7? We have added recipes to the Food Security section of our website.

We're raising funds through the San Juan Island Community Foundation to fund more apple genetic fingerprinting. To see some of the apples that grow in the islands take a look at this thread by our botanist @arbutocrat.bsky.social To donate to the project: sjicf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/c...

Look for our apple table in the Ag Tent at the San Juan County Fair, and in the catalog of projects in the San Juan Island Community Foundation’s SJI Cares County Fair Program.

Kwiaht botanist @arbutocrat.bsky.social presents on local apples and community resilience for the San Juan Grange on July 17th theorcasonian.com/heritage-app...

Our 2nd annual Hummel Lake fishing derby starts at 8am on Saturday June 28th. Weigh-in ends at 4:30 and prizes are awarded at 5pm. Register at the WDFW boat launch on the day of the event. Contact [email protected] with questions.

Join Kwiaht herpetologist Christian Oldham at the Orcas Island Public Library at 1pm on Saturday June 28th to learn about ongoing snake research and the sharp-tailed snakes on Orcas and San Juan Islands theorcasonian.com/orcas-librar...

Kwiaht's hard working lab technician Matilda Twigg gets some well deserved recognition as she heads off to college www.facebook.com/100064773128...

Dasysyrphus intrudens, a common and widespread North American hoverfly, enjoying a meal of Fragaria vesca (woodland strawberry) nectar. Syrphid hoverflies like this one should be welcomed in Northwest gardens; their larvae eat aphids voraciously.

It's too windy! We're rescheduling the seine for Sunday June 1st.