Environmentalists be warned.

That was the message Seattle-based Lawyer Keith Dearborn delivered Wednesday at an open house in Bayview about wetlands sciences.

Dearborn, who is heading the county’s revamping of its critical areas update, said before the forum that people representing certain environmental groups have “burned their bridges in Coupeville.”

“Anything you hear, anything you read, any innuendo, I ask you to pause and think about it; that’s not what we’re about,” Dearborn said. “If you want to be heard and your view is environmental, consider who is speaking for you.”

Dearborn continued on to say that anything submitted by certain groups would be considered only “under advisement.”

“The messengers that have brought the messages before have burned their bridges,” Dearborn said.

In an interview Thursday, Island County commissioner Mike Shelton quickly backpedaled from Dearborn’s statements.

“Keith didn’t mean that every environmental group has burned the bridges with the commissioners,” he said.

But Shelton did single one group out. He said that Internet postings by Whidbey Environmental Action Network have alleged kickbacks from Dearborn to the commissioners.

“When you’re dealing with people who speak like that, it makes it very difficult to work with them,” Shelton said. “The things that they have said border on defamation. If that’s going to be the attitude of anyone, that’s going to make working with them very difficult.”

WEAN spokesman Steve Erickson said that WEAN had nothing to do with the postings, which were sent via an e-mail listserv called “What’s Next.” The listserv is a way of distributing mass e-mails to people who subscribe to it. A Web service called One/Northwest hosts this particular listserv, which caters to environmental groups in the northwest.

The post in question states, “Is it possible the reason that the keep hiring K. Dearborn and his lovely wife is that Mr. and Mrs. kick back $$$ to one or more of the commissioners…” Erickson said.

Erickson said that WEAN has no stake in the listserv, other than being a subscriber. But Erickson is taking Dearborn’s warning to heart.

“We’re concerned that he said that the environmental community won’t be listened to unless the environmental community chooses someone as their leader who is acceptable to Dearborn,” he said.

Shelton said, however, that any person wishing to express their opinions would be welcome.

“My door is open to any environmental group that wants to talk to me — including WEAN,” he said.

Dearborn’s relationship with Island County is long standing. He said Wednesday that he owns property in Island County and has family that resides on south Whidbey currently.

That relationship is what sparked the speech Wednesday.

“One of my family members had been verbally attacked,” he said. “That kind of pushed me over the edge.”

In a phone interview Thursday, Dearborn refused to comment further on the incident.

“In my mind, it’s time to draw a line in the sand and define what’s acceptable and what’s not,” he said during the speech.

The commissioners hired Dearborn, who guided the county through the adoption of its comprehensive plan in the late 1990s, to escort the county through an update of its critical areas ordinance.

The ordinance, which outlines regulations around environmentally sensitive areas such as wetlands and stream beds, is undergoing a year-long review. Scientific studies, on-site assessments and policy review will be conducted as part of the update.

“The idea that I am here to destroy Whidbey is nonsense,” Dearborn told the audience. “We’ve come to try to fashion improvements to regulations that have been in place for a number of years.”

The first portion of the update will be available for public review at the beginning of May.

You can reach News-Times reporter Eric Berto at eberto@whidbeynewstimes.com