Join Friends of the San Juans Staff Attorney and Legal Director Magali Cota and Senior Science Director Tina Whitman to dive into the connections between science and policy, through a case study of the San Juan County critical areas ordinance – being updated now. Learn more about local habitats and species and how science, the law, and your engagement can help protect them.
Critical Areas: Where Science Meets the Law
- What does science have to do with local law? A lot. Under the Growth Management Act (GMA), counties must put the Best Available Science in the public record and use it to shape critical-area rules. Think of science as the field guide: it shows us what is happening on the ground, what is at risk, and which protections are likely to work.
- The shoreline goal: keep nature’s systems working. The Shoreline Management Act requires no net loss of ecological functions and values. In everyday language: after development and other changes, shorelines should still be able to clean water, provide habitat, reduce flood impacts, and perform the other jobs healthy ecosystems do for all of us.
- Science maps the “why.” Law builds the guardrails. Science identifies critical areas, explains how they work, and reveals what can damage them. The law turns that knowledge into practical, enforceable rules for planning, permits, buffers, and mitigation. One supplies the evidence; the other puts it to work.
- Meet the critical-area all-stars. The GMA protects five big categories: wetlands; places that recharge drinking-water aquifers; fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas; frequently flooded areas; and geologically hazardous areas. They may look different, but each plays an outsized role in keeping communities and ecosystems resilient.
- Location, location, jurisdiction. The Critical Areas Ordinance covers all critical areas, but shoreline location changes which set of rules applies. Shoreline jurisdiction includes the waterbody, associated wetlands, adjacent shorelands extending at least 200 feet landward from the ordinary high water mark, applicable floodways and floodplains, river deltas, and land needed for critical-area buffers. In those places, protection comes through the local Shoreline Master Program.
- So, where are we now? The County is updating protections for every type of critical area. The Shoreline Master Program rules for critical areas within shoreline jurisdiction were updated and approved by the Department of Ecology as of October 16th. The work still underway focuses on critical areas outside shoreline jurisdiction and the County Council still has the final say over the entire Critical Area Ordinance Update, including the SMP part of it.
- Your voice is part of the process. San Juan County residents can still comment on the portion of the update that applies outside shoreline jurisdiction. The adoption hearing is scheduled for November 24th. Send written comments before the hearing, speak to the County Council at the hearing—or do both.
- Come for the science. Stay for the future of the islands. Friends’ website includes our letters explaining the protections we are watching most closely. Take a look, then share what you have seen and experienced. Local knowledge can help show what is at stake when protections are reduced—and why the San Juans are worth protecting.
- Get curious. Get connected. Get involved. This presentation is your quick tour of critical areas, Friends’ work, and the part you can play in shaping these updates. Have a question, a concern, or a local story to share? Come chat with Friends’ staff after the presentation—we’d love to hear from you.