WSU
San Juan County Extension
Annual Report
2025

What We Do

Washington State University Extension engages people, organizations and communities to advance knowledge, economic well-being and quality of life by fostering inquiry, learning and the application of research.

San Juan County Extension is dedicated to strengthening the community by providing education, applied research, and a connection to university-based information and resources. Our programs are funded through partnership at the county, state and federal levels as well as by grants, program revenue and donations. Impact is leveraged by training volunteers to deliver university-based programs. WSU Extension has had an active presence in San Juan County since 1919. Today, our county based programs provide community education in agriculture, pest identification & management, home horticulture, forest resource management, environment stewardship, food preservation & safety, youth development and community resilience. In 2025, our programs reached thousands of residents, supported local food systems and prepared the next generation for leadership and stewardship.

Extension Programs:

4-H Youth Development, Agricultural, Master Gardeners, Food Preservation & Forest Stewardship

Extension Staff:

Caitlin Blethen, Interim Director & Master Gardener Program Coordinator

Clinton Gauthier, 4-H Program Coordinator

Rebecca Moore, Agricultural Program Coordinator

Kristen Arnim, Event Coordination Assistant

Jennifer Bryan-Goforth, WSU Skagit and San Juan County Food Preservation and Safety

Kevin W. Zobrist, Professor, Extension Forestry

Lucy Graves, Office Manager

4-H Program

Program Contact

Clinton Gauthier, 4-H Program Coordinator
Phone NumberCall or Text: (360) 350-2209 Email Address • sanjuan.4-h@wsu.edu

I pledge my head to clearer thinking, my heart to greater loyalty, my hands to larger service, and my health to better living, for my club, my community, my country, and my world.

4-H Pledge

4-H Club Meeting

Where leaders are made, one motion at a time. Our monthly 4-H club meetings are the training ground for civic duty, where members learn parliamentary procedure, public speaking, and the power of a collective voice.

Hands-on learning

Mastery through movement. In 4-H, we believe the best way to understand the world is to build, create, and care for it with our own two hands. These moments of discovery turn ‘I can’t’ into ‘I did.

4-H Know Your Government Conference

Empowering the next generation of civil servants. The Know Your Government Conference turns curiosity into action, giving our youth the tools to understand, engage with, and lead the democratic process.

4-H Blue Ribbon

Cultivating the next generation of agricultural leaders. A blue ribbon represents months of early mornings, late nights, and a commitment to excellence that lasts a lifetime.

4-H Rambler’s Booth

A fair tradition with a mission. The Rambler’s Booth is more than just a place for a great meal—it’s a community hub where our youth learn the value of service, teamwork, and giving back to the programs that support them.

San Juan County Fair

Where the year comes full circle. For our 4-H members, the San Juan County Fair is the ultimate stage—a place to transform months of quiet dedication into public mastery, proving that the roots of hard work run deep in our community.

Agriculture Program

Program Contact

Rebecca Moore, Agriculture Program Coordinator
Phone Number(360) 370-7664 Email Address • rebecca.moore1@wsu.edu

The Agriculture Program provides education and outreach, conducts applied research, and facilitates food system development. We serve as an on-call resource to answer producer and community member questions.

Testing soil

Farm tours

2025 Agricultural Summit Keynote speaker

On-Farm Workshop

Vet Clinic Workshop

Nursery Plants

Agricultural Summit Friday Night Social

Nursery Workshop

Nursery Workshop

2025 Reach

• Coordinated the San Juan Islands Agricultural Summit, engaging 228 participants in workshops, business education and networking.
• Delivered farm planning and business workshops to 40 participants.
• Supported workforce training, including a sheep shearing school for two local students.
• Organized the Agriculture Tent at the county Fair and hosted a speaker series with the Stewardship Network.
• Managed the Farm & food Listserv with 263 subscribers for timely updates and resources.
• Provided technical assistance on soil testing, crop pests, agritourism and funding opportunities.

Program Highlights

• Served on the Agricultural Resources Committee to inform county planning.
• Facilitated Farmer-Rancher Listening Sessions to bring producer voices into policy discussions.
• Co-hosted workshops on farm succession and market access.
• Participated in FARM fund review, directing private dollars to high-impact farm projects.

Future Focus

• Celebrate the Year of the Woman Farmer.
• Launch Cultivating Success Agricultural Entrepreneurship Course January 26.
• Host Farmer-Rancher Listening Sessions (Feb.).
• Convene the 14th Annual Agricultural Summit February 27-28 with the theme “Growing Resilience”

Master Gardener Program

Program Contact

Caitlin Blethen, Master Gardener Program Coordinator
Phone Number(360) 370-7663 Email Address • mg.sanjuancounty@wsu.edu

WSU Master Gardeners are the go-to resource for communities seeking research-based, innovative solutions for their ever-changing horticultural and environmental stewardship needs.

Demonstration Gardens

Master Gardeners maintain a year‑round garden at the Mullis Community Senior Center, growing produce in raised beds and a hoop house. In 2025, they donated 1,800 pounds of fresh produce from this garden to the Food Bank.

Diagnostic Clinics

Master Gardeners answered 500 plant and insect questions in 2025, helping islanders solve garden problems. Islanders can get help by submitting a plant problem form with photos and a sample to the Master Gardener program.

Youth Education

Master Gardeners partnered with Island Rec to lead weekly hands-on gardening activities for Camp Eagle Rock day campers. In 2025, 55 children participated in the eight‑week program—planting, watering, tending the garden, and enjoying a garden-grown salad feast—totaling 440 learning hours.

Lopez Heritage Apple Orchard

Located in Lopez Village, the orchard features heritage apple trees with informational signage and a bench. Master Gardeners grafted the trees in 2017 and installed the orchard in March 2018. The orchard is open to the public and is located next to the Lopez Historical society. In 2025 Master Gardeners offered a hands-on pruning workshop in the Orchard.

Share Your Bounty: Connecting Local Food With Community Learning

Our Share Your Bounty program delivers accessible food education at the local food bank. Through seasonal demos, simple recipes, and tips for growing fresh island-grown produce, we help make nutritious foods easier grow to enjoy.

Workshops

Providing science‑based gardening education is central to Master Gardener work. To support this mission, we host an annual Garden Workshop webinar series and in‑person public talks. In 2025, over 200 people attended, learning about pollinators, biodiversity, growing food, and starting plants.

Plant Sales

Our fundraiser plant sales include a spring vegetable sale and a fall/winter native plant sale. In 2025, Master Gardeners grew and sold over 1,000 vegetable starts and distributed 2,250 native plants across Orcas and San Juan Islands.

Certified new Master Gardeners

In 2024–2025, 21 people completed 90 hours of training and 40 hours of internship to become Certified Master Gardeners, and all 21 were welcomed into the program.

Little Free Library

The little free gardening book library is located outside the San Juan Island demonstration garden and in 2025 over 700 gardening books were distributed free to passerby’s.

2025 Reach

• Events: 406 interactions as Ask a Master Gardener events and County Fair.
• Youth: 437 students engaged through camps, field trips and school workshops.
• Workshops: 200 participants in pollinator, biodiversity and food growing seminars.
• Clinics: 80 plant and pest consultations.
• Native Plants distributed: 2,250
• Educational Materials: 705 gardening books; Plants of Patos Island Guide.
• Local Food Initiatives:
  • 299 interactions at Share Table (Food Bank Outreach)
  • 1,750 lbs. of vegetables donated from Demonstration Garden.
  • 1,000 vegetable starts grown and sold.

Program Highlights

• Community reach grew 87% from 2024 to 2025.
• Youth Program grew 7%.
• New outreach on Shaw Island, Friday Harbor Food Bank and Lopez Bulletin Board.
• Over 1,200 scribers to newsletter and social media groups.
• Certified 21 new Master Gardeners.
• 70 volunteers contributed 4,135 hours valued at $120,000.

Future Focus

• Expand outreach at Food Banks and other resource centers along with adding bilingual services.
• Increase native plant distribution and habitat restoration projects.
• Increase community education around local food, pollinators and water/soil conservation.
• Expand opportunities for youth gardening education including AG Summit through 4-H partnerships and school organizations.

Food Preservation Program

Program Contact

Jennifer Bryan-Goforth, WSU Food Preservation
Phone Number(360) 395-2359 Email Address • j.bryan-goforth@wsu.edu

The Food Preservation Program‘s goal is to improve food access and reduce food waste through accessible education and community engagement.

Dehydrating Strawberries

Pickling Vegetables

Drying herbs

Canning preserves

Dehydrating apples

Drying Veggies

In San Juan County, food preservation program delivered a no-cost online food preservation series exclusively for county residents, with 57 participants registered and 37 additional recording views, expanding access to safe, research-based preservation education regardless of location or schedule.

Program staff provided year-round consumer support, responding to food preservation questions through email, phone, and social media, and offering pressure canner gauge testing to support safe home food preservation practices.

San Juan County residents also benefited from participation in a multi-county food preservation social media group, which provided ongoing access to food safety updates, Q&A support, and shared educational resources, reinforcing learning beyond formal classes and supporting continued application of preservation skills.

Forestry Program

Program Contact

Kevin W. Zobrist, Professor, WSU Extension Forestry
Phone Number(425) 231-4524 Email Address • kevin.zobrist@wsu.edu

Out-In-The-Woods Education Event

Washington State University Extension, in partnership with Washington State Department of Natural Resources, host Forest Owners’ Field Days every year at different locations around the state. These Out-In-The-Woods, all-day events are among our most popular impactful programs. Education sessions on a variety of forest stewardship topics are offered throughout the day at different stations in a forested setting. Participants choose which sessions they want to attend each hour. The field day also features educational displays by agencies and organizations that work with small forest landowners. The 2025 San Juan Island Forest Owners’ Field Day was held on September 27th at the Three Meadows community on San Juan Island.

An Education Partnership

The 2025 Filed Day was an educational partnership between Washington State University Extension, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources and San Juan County.

Sessions Offered

• Forest disease of the San Juan Islands

• Forest insects of the San Juan Islands

• Forest practices 101

• Native tree and plant walk

• Property Tour

• Noxious weeds of San Juan Island

• Ponds and aquatic habitat

• Thinning for ecosystem health and resilience

• Tree measurements for forest health monitoring

• Understanding forest soils

• Wildlife habitat in the forests and prairies of the San Juan Islands

Participation

A total of 41 participants attended the field day, representing 31 families, 740 acres, 58 properties and 3 islands (Lopez, Orcas & San Juan). For 91% of the attendees, this was the first Forest Owners’ Field Day they attended and for 73%, it was the first time they had attended any type of WSU Extension Forestry event. Participants learned about the event from multiple sources including email, newsletters, local newspapers, brochure mailers and word of mouth.

Overall Reception

• The Field Day sessions were well-received. On Post-event evaluations (n=26), the average participants ratings across all sessions on a scale of 1 (poor) to 4 (excellent) was 3.77. The average rating for the overall experience was 3.92.
• 100% of evaluation respondents would recommend this event to others.
• 100% thought the field day was a good value for the cost of registration.

Knowledge Change

• 100% learned something new at the field day.
• 100% found the information to be practical and useful.
• 92% said the field day also reinforced existing knowledge.

Future Intensions

•  100% of respondents with forestland intend to implement new stewardship practices based on what they learned at the field day.
• 100% would attend a future WSU Extension Forestry program based on their experience at the field day.

Participant Feedback

• Exceeded expectations! Great presenters and content, location and size were ideal. Would attend again!
• Really pleased with the knowledge of the speakers and the wealth of information and resources.
• Great choose your own adventure workshop series. Property layout and diversity was intuitive to learning. Well-selected instructors and insightful community discussions. I would love to attend more!
• Great meeting new presenters and seeing some of the usual presenters. Tables were good. Setting fantastic. Other attendees were great to converse with.
• Great knowledge and wonderful speakers. Looking forward to the next one.
• I learned a great deal from each presentation. I will find these lessons in forest management extremely useful in my large forest. found it a wonderful resource to get the information I was looking for. Every one of the instructors was well versed to cover the subject matter effectively. time well spent.
• Fantastic and well-organized. Learned something from every session.
• Great sessions. Wish I could have attended more of the ones offered.
• Very informative. Wish I had this info years ago when we bought our property some 38 years ago. Lots to absorb and evaluate.
• Wonderful, family friendly event.
• Good speakers, ample amount of info.
• I adored every minute. Thank you for so many helpful resources.
• Beautiful property, highly relevant and informative lectures.
• Very educational for starting out on our journey as an HOA to manage our forested common areas.
• I learned so much and will apply it to my home forest and my work as a tree cutter. Very pleased with the resources and knowledge shared.
• Lots of info that I needed and can use right away.

2025 Forest Owners Field Day

2025 Field Day hosts, Ron and Janet Ames

2025 Field Day Workshop

Stewardship Forest

2025 Field Day

2025 Field Day Workshop