© 2009 Sharon L. Baskind-Wing ALL RIGHTS RESERVED RECLAIMING RURAL CHARACTER: CONSERVATION, CONFLICT, AND THE NOSTALGIC LANDSCAPES OF ORCAS ISLAND, WASHINGTON By SHARON L. BASKIND-WING A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School-New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Anthropology written under the direction of David McDermott Hughes and approved by New Brunswick, New Jersey May 2009 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Reclaiming Rural Character: Conservation, Conflict, and the Nostalgic Landscapes of Orcas Island, Washington By SHARON L. BASKIND-WING Dissertation Director: David McDermott Hughes This dissertation takes an ethnographic approach to examining the meanings of rural character on Orcas Island, in San Juan County, Washington. In spite of the challenges facing productive agriculture in the county, achieving rural character remains the stated goal of county planning efforts, environmental groups, affordable housing advocates, and private landowners. Drawing from the anthropology of landscape, political ecology, and critical readings of memory and history, this project examines the definitions of rurality in a place where farming and other types of labor have been overshadowed by real estate speculation and tourism. More broadly, this work argues that land management is a highly subjective process that engages aesthetic preferences, popular ecological models, cultural conceptions of property, and concerns with labor and affordability. In particular, looking at conservation easements can highlight the ways in which nostalgic longings for particular landscapes can be elevated to the level of political economic conflict, in which only certain individuals are able to shape the land according to personally or culturally shared visions. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A number of individuals contributed to the development and completion of this dissertation. I would like to sincerely thank my committee chair, David McDermott Hughes, for his helpful comments, insightful critiques, and support during the last several years. David gladly reviewed countless drafts and our conversations always left me with new directions to explore. I would also like to thank Bonnie McCay, Dorothy Hodgson, Richard Schroeder, and Susan Schrepfer for contributing four unique perspectives to my committee and to this research project. Bonnie, as my first advisor at Rutgers, was instrumental in helping me transition into graduate work and my eventual dissertation project, including introducing me to my first research contact in Washington State. Taking courses with Dorothy exposed me to new bodies of anthropological literature that have challenged me and shaped my work ever since. Participating in Rick’s political ecology course during my first year, as well as being a discussant in the First World Political Ecology conference, were invaluable to my academic development—plus I met my husband at his and Dorothy’s house the night before the conference. I am grateful for the class I took with Susan, for my dissertation would surely not be complete without her insights into US environmental history. Thank you as well to Angelique Haugerud for providing helpful and timely references on US political economy literature. I am also extremely appreciative of the funding support I have received from the Community Forestry and Environmental Research Projects Program, the Graduate School New Brunswick, and the Department of Anthropology. I would also like to give a sincere thank you to all my informants on Orcas Island and from the Samish Indian iii Nation’s Study for the Center of Coast Salish Environments for welcoming me into their homes and sharing with me their experiences and visions. I have been fortunate to have family and friends who have provided emotional support and guidance throughout my graduate career. Thank you to Alan and Toby Baskind; Regina Silberminz; David, Shoshana, Jacob and Maya Baskind; Jennifer, Adam, Chloe and Samuel Sivitz; and Jane and Tom Wing for their encouragement, patience, and enthusiasm for my research and for this degree. Thank you to Bradley Wilson, Cynthia Gorman, Teresa Delcorso and Benjamin Neimark for the advice, comments and conversations that helped this dissertation move towards completion. Finally, thank you to John Wing for his continual willingness to read (and reread) drafts, listen to presentations, and respond to my frustrations with unending support and faith that I would ultimately succeed. His patience, enthusiasm and devotion sustained me in Eastsound, Minneapolis, Valladolid and Highland Park, and kept me going while I was in the field, writing chapters, and on the road. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract of the Dissertation……………………………………………………………….ii Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………iii List of Tables……………………………………………………………………………..ix List of Illustrations………………………………………………………………………...x CHAPTER ONE Introduction: These Rural Islands …………………………………………………..……1 An Emotional Political Ecology of Landscape………………………..…………14 The ‘New Northwest’……………………………………………………………25 Orcas as an Island……………………………………………………….……….29 Methodology and Chapter Organization…………………………………………35 CHAPTER TWO Introducing Orcas: History, Ecology and Political Economy………………………..….40 From Prehistory to Euroamerican Settlement……………………………………40 Geography, Ecology and Early Industries……………………………………….45 Island Beauty, Resorts and Summer Homes……………………………………..53 Contemporary Demographics and Political Economy…………………………...56 CHAPTER THREE Rural Aesthetics and Landscapes of Leisure…………………………………………….70 Pastoralism, Agrarianism and Rural Character…………………………………..72 Experiencing Beauty………………………………………………………….….82 The View from the Road……………………………………………………...….89 The View from the Ferry……………………………………………………...…97 v “Faux-Agro:” Landscapes of Labor and Leisure………………………………100 Beauty and Environmental Health………………………………………….…..106 CHAPTER FOUR Property Rights and Planning: Building Rural Character……………………………...112 Private Paradises and Common Concern………………………………...……..112 Informal Property Law and the Urban/Rural Mindset…………………….……117 Property in Context: US History and the American West………………..........124 American Indian Property Issues…………………………………………….…130 Debating the Comprehensive Plan and Development: What to Become?..........136 Controversies within the Comprehensive Plan……………………………...….141 Density………………………………………………………………….142 Guesthouses…………………………………………………………….144 On signs and being “too mainland”…………………………………….146 Enforcement……………………………………………………...……..149 Permits Gone Too Far?............................................................................152 Public Participation and the Planning Department………………….….155 Building Rural Character……………………………………………….………160 CHAPTER FIVE Conservation and Conservation Easements: Managing Nature and the Rural……...…166 Metaphors of Nature and Ecology……………………………………………...166 Deciding what to save: Turtleback Mountain and Deer Harbor Park………… 172 Preserving the Present…………………………………………………………..174 Historical Ecology and Masked Management…………………….……………176 vi Managing with Conservation Easements………………………….……………183 Enforcement and Stewarship…………………………………………...………195 Land Managers……………………………………………………………….…202 CHAPTER SIX Landscapes of Labor and Labors of Love: Agriculture and Affordability on Orcas…..209 The Country and the City in the ‘New West’…………………………..………209 Orcas Agriculture: Past and Present……………………………………...…....214 Why Agriculture?.................................................................................................216 Farmers’ Priorities……………………………………………………...217 Food Quality, Community, and Environmental Health………………...219 Labors of Love………………………………………………………….221 Self-sufficiency…………………………………………………………224 Challenges to Island Agriculture…………………………………………….....226 Regulatory Barriers and Access to Markets………………………….…228 Land and Leasing……………………………………………………….231 Access to Labor, Finance and Support…………………………………237 Demographic Changes………………………………………………………….239 Affordable Housing…………………………………………………………….247 The ‘Real Rural’………………………………………………………………..258 CHAPTER SEVEN Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...260 Planning for Rural Character……………………………………………...……260 Nostalgic Landscapes in Times of Modernity………………………………….264 vii Landscape Winners and Losers: A Political Ecology of Landscape and Emotion……….……………….267 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………...….272 Curriculum Vita……………………………………………………………………..….285 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Age in San Juan County, WA and the US…………………………………….59 Table 2: Annual Average Wage………..…………………………………………...…..61 Table 3: Personal Income Components, Cumulative % Increase.....………...…………62 Table 4: Personal Income Components……………………...…………………………62 Table 5: Monthly Unemployment……………………...…………………………...…..63 Table 6: Education and Race in San Juan County………………………...……………64 Table 7: San Juan County, United States, and Washington State Farm Income and Expenses.........................................................215 Table 8: Median House Prices in Nearby Counties…………..………………………………..248 ix LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Map 1: Greater Puget Sound……………………………………………………………...4 Map 2: San Juan County, WA……………………………………………………………4 Map 3: Orcas Island, WA……………………………………………………………….46 Map 4: Soils of Orcas Island…………………………………………………………….48 x 1 CHAPTER ONE Introduction: “These Rural Islands” WE THE PEOPLE of San Juan County recognize that these rural islands are an extraordinary treasure of