In the early 1940s I lived across the street from Charles Countryman, the owner-operator of the mail and freight vessel, the “Osage,” which departed from Quackenbush dock in Bellingham at 7 a.m. daily.

He often invited my family to make the journey through the San Juans. Sometimes we would dis-embark and fish for trout in Cascade Lake on Orcas, and catch the “Osage” on her return trip. Even as a child I knew that the San Juans provided a beauty, adventure and inexpressable enchantment unrepeatable anywhere.

I have lived all over the U.S. and traveled across the globe, but the San Juans have always called to me as the most rapturous, precious, fragile and fecund place on earth. Confirmation of my feelings came from 11 years as a commercial salmon fisherman in the San Juans in the 1950s and 1960s.

I have been a property owner on Lopez since 1969. I live here because of the natural environment and want to preserve clean water, woods, streams, and shoreline spawning areas. Preserving these qualities are of special value in themselves, but they also maintain property values and strengthen our local economy.

It is essential that we care for our critical areas, including those on my property. “Best Available Science” ensures adequate buffers exist between my buildings and the beach, that fresh water run-off from the woods on the hill has adequate natural filters, and that the natural, life-giving tides are not frustrated by human constructs, thus inhibiting seemingly invisible spawning and the growth of herring and salmon in our eel grass and kelp.

For 60 years I have observed a steady decline in salmon, bottomfish and herring in our waters. As an addicted recreational fisherman I am alarmed where we are going if we do not recognize the role of guidance and sensible regulation.

Excellent work on the CAO has been completed by the county council, staff, and the Citizen CAO Committee. The CAO is 5 years overdue. Give citizens certainty, complete the CAO and stop postponing the process with the distracting proposed four-year vesting provision of the mini-initiative now circulating in the county.

George Lawson

Lopez Island