The Whidbey Island Conservation District held its open house and awards event at the Coupeville Library on April 18. The focus of the event was to honor partners and collaborators for their outstanding work in cooperation with the Conservation District and to present the district’s budget for the July 1, 2011 through June 30, 2012 fiscal year.

Awards winners included Sno-Isle Libraries, recognized as Outstanding Partner for their support and leadership in natural resource preservation; Coupeville horse and tree farm owners, Paula and Tim Keohane, were recognized as Outstanding Cooperators; Chris Williams was the recipient of the Outstanding Volunteer award for her exceptional commitment to the Whidbey Island agricultural community; science teacher Jay Freundlich was presented with the Outstanding Educator award for demonstrating creative thinking and problem-solving to his students and the public; and retiring Whidbey Island Conservation District supervisor, Karen Krug, was honored for her leadership with the district over the past six years.

The Conservation District proposes a budget of  $364,047 for the upcoming fiscal year to continue providing natural resource planning, engineering, educational programs and technical assistance services to Whidbey Island landowners.