Bishop Craig Anderson, Orcas Island
San Juan Stewardship Network Awards
Orcas Island
Orcas Island
2015 Stewardship Award Winner – Village Stewardship Category
Bishop Craig Anderson, who served Emmanuel Episcopal Parish on Orcas Island for six years before retiring, is dedicated to stewardship and conservation of our islands.
He regularly included proactive environmental stewardship as a focus for members of his parish, and for the larger community as a Board Member of the Orcas Island Community Foundation. He has applied for and received funding to pursue several projects such as installing solar panels in the church and becoming a Genesis Covenant Parish committed to reducing the parish’s carbon footprint by 50 percent over a five-year period.
Bishop Anderson emphasized to his parishioners and others in the Diocese of Olympia, where he served as an Assisting Bishop, that “stewardship of the environment calls us as co-creators to love our mother, the earth, as a gift and heritage, and to see God present and active in the cosmos upon which we are grounded.” He also quoted Chief Seattle, who in 1854 said to President Pierce: “We do not possess the earth; it possesses us.”
In addition to his involvement on Orcas Island, Bishop Anderson has worked since 2006 to restore native grasses on his 500-acre farm in Minnesota by taking the land out of row crop production and planting native grasses utilizing a Conservation Reserve Program.
Good Steward Awards recognize individuals and businesses who are not conservation professionals and who have shown a long-term commitment to preserving the land and sea of the San Juan Islands archipelago in their daily lives. Award recipients are presented with large pottery “Finees,” fish-shaped creations handcrafted by Crow Valley Pottery on Orcas Island.
The Stewardship Network of the San Juans is…
A coalition of private and public conservation-based organiza-
tions whose vision is a healthy, thriving ecosystem in the San Juans. Our mission is to promote awareness of the Salish Sea ecosystem and our shared responsibility for its preservation and conservation by working collaboratively on education, outreach, volunteer and science initiatives.