Letter: Coverage of WEAN leader appreciated

Published 1:30 am Friday, May 29, 2026

Editor,

I appreciated your much deserved recognition of Amanda Bullis in your 5/27 issue.

With much of the credit due to Amanda’s participation and leadership, WEAN has become the single most influential organization to ensure that the Growth Management Act, a law, is enforced not just in Island County but in the entire Puget Sound area from the case law she helped establish as precedent. WEAN with Amanda and Marnie Jackson heading it up has become a legal powerhouse, following in the powerful steps of Marianne Edain and Steve Erickson.

I was on the founding board of the organization responsible for creating Saratoga Woods as a preserve, not a 435-car parking lot for a mega resort. We were able to do that through WEAN supplying information to lawyers we hired to represent us in court cases and commissioners meetings centered around the Growth Management Act.

Good things happen when good laws are enforced, as anyone who has come to enjoy Saratoga Woods knows. Without WEAN and lawyers, then the Land Trust, we frustrated citizens might well have lost the fight and Saratoga Woods could be a clearcut today, the owners’ chosen option after the resort was legally denied.

While at WEAN, Amanda has carried on the mission to keep the character of our island natural, rural, beautiful and environmentally healthy. We have been so fortunate to have her as our advocate for our precious Whidbey Island. Now we wish her well as she heads for law school. Let your voice continue to matter, Amanda, loud and strong!

Betty Azar

Freeland