Whidbey Earth and Ocean Month Returns With 40 Plus April Events

Being on an island, we feel like the ocean deserves a special focus," Sami Postma said as Whidbey Island marked Earth and Ocean Month with a packed calendar of more than 40 events across April, coordinated by Goosefoot Community Fund and a coalition of 23 local organizations. The month combined festival programming, volunteer work parties and technical talks so that families, volunteers and science-minded residents all had concrete ways to participate.

Festival activity centered in Langley for Welcome the Whales weekend, April 10–12, where Orca Network and the Langley Chamber programmed a Whale and Marine Mammal Trivia Night on April 10, costume-making and parade staging on April 11 with a parade around 2 p.m., and a fundraising whale-watch boat trip departing Langley Marina at 3 p.m. on April 12 featuring presentations from Cascadia Research Collective. Organizers framed the festival as both celebration and local education about the small North Puget Sound gray whale group known as the Sounders, whose mid-teens to roughly 20 individuals feed on ghost shrimp in Saratoga Passage and nearby tidal flats.

Hands-on stewardship already moved from calendar to field: Goosefoot-listed volunteer events included a Strawberry Point Planting Party on April 2, a Krueger Woods weed removal on April 7, and a Freeland Wetlands Preserve stewardship day on April 11. Partner land trusts and stewards, including Whidbey Camano Land Trust and Whidbey Watershed Stewards, scheduled invasive Scotch broom removal work parties with St. Hubert Church Green Team on April 19, April 22 and April 25 to tackle on-the-ground habitat restoration across preserves such as Strawberry Point and Ebey’s Landing.

Looking ahead, the island-wide Earth Day Fair will gather tables and activities from island organizations at YMCA Camp Casey in Coupeville on Saturday, April 18, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Whidbey Oyster Network’s April calendar lists a monthly meetup on April 30, 5:00–7:30 p.m., and multiple oyster education sessions with educators Emily Wilder and Kurt Johnson. Many events are free or donation-based, and partner groups advised residents to consult the official Whidbey Earth and Ocean Month calendar for registration and exact times.

The month’s programming connects to policy and long-term monitoring: Whidbey Island encompasses roughly 108,641 acres and about 148 miles of shoreline, a scale that Island County Marine Resources Committee volunteers and county Natural Resources staff consider when planning restoration and monitoring projects. Island County’s MRC, established in 1999, and Shore Friendly incentive work, funded through a 2025 WSU Extension initiative, were cited by partners as policy tools that complement volunteer action. Local shellfish and biotoxin monitoring volunteers, Puget Sound Restoration Fund networks and Washington State Department of Health evaluations remain part of the island’s effort to track water-quality changes that affect shellfish harvests.

Organizers presented this April’s theme, "Caring for Our Common Home," as an attempt to link education, volunteer labor and local tourism benefits: destination groups such as Embrace Whidbey & Camano Islands and local chambers say tourism is a major economic sector, and partners argued that resident-led stewardship helps protect the natural assets that support restaurants, lodging and outdoor businesses. Goosefoot and coalition partners emphasized that the month offers entry points for families, for hands-on volunteers and for residents seeking deeper scientific engagement as the island balances conservation with a regenerative approach to visitation.