The Madrona Institute
Advancing the stewardship ethic in the San Juan Archipelago
Building a collaborative network of leaders and stakeholders for collective climate action in San Juan County.
Purchasing a San Juan Islands Special License Plate is a great way to support stewardship of the San Juan Islands.
Serving as the sponsor of a coalition of conservation-based organizations working collaboratively in the San Juan Islands to support a thriving ecosystem.
Image credit left to right - Erin Corra, Nancy Spaulding, Evening Passage, Stewardship Network of the San Juans.
Interfaith & Environmental Stewardship One Day Retreat
Sacred Earth, Sacred Duty — a one-day gathering at Grace Church, Lopez Island — Friday, October 2, 2026
Faith communities from across the San Juan Islands will gather at Grace Episcopal Church on Lopez Island for Sacred Earth, Sacred Duty, a one-day interfaith retreat on environmental stewardship. The retreat runs from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Friday, October 2, 2026, and is open to people of every tradition.
The gathering responds to a charge shared across faiths: to care for creation and for one another, especially those most exposed to harm. Faith based organizations are historically the single largest and most reliable source of support when disaster strikes. This gathering seeks to unify faith groups around the shared goal of increasing local resilience in the face of an uncertain and rapidly changing future.
Participants will sit together around a set of honest questions: What role can each community play in helping people understand climate change & its local impacts to San Juan County? How do we prepare for these while protecting the most vulnerable? How can communities pool knowledge, care, and resources — including private support — to fill gaps as public funding at every level grows uncertain? And how can congregations keep offering their people education, practical help, and genuine hope?
The retreat's longer aim is a county-wide resilience plan for extreme weather and disaster preparedness — a shared resource for mutual aid, education, and hope across every faith community on the islands.
Featured presenters
Anastasia Jesperson works with the G20 Interfaith Forum, an international network that brings religious and faith-based voices into global policy discussions, and serves on the San Juan County Climate Advisory Committee.
Nikyta Palmisani is a board member of the Madrona Institute and a climate facilitator and Expert Instructor at Terra.do.
Rev. Myra Ryneheart Corcorran is Vicar of Grace Episcopal Church on Lopez Island, host of the retreat.
Event details
What: Sacred Earth, Sacred Duty — an interfaith retreat on environmental stewardship
When: Friday, October 2, 2026, 11 a.m.–4:30 p.m.
Where: Grace Church, Lopez Island, Washington
Includes: Conversation, fellowship, and a shared meal
All are welcome. Faith based community members and members of the press are invited to attend; please RSVP at the link above.
The Coast Salish Youth Coalition is now its own 501(c)3 non-profit!
At Madrona, we envision a community and a world in which human beings co-exist
peacefully with each other and responsibly with nature.
Our mission is to engage current and future generations in the conservation and stewardship
of our local ecosystem, and to encourage community dialogue and leadership on climate-related issues.
This mission is accomplished through support of youth environmental programs
in the San Juan Islands and local initiatives on climate resilience.
Our vision is a positive, healthy, resilient San Juan Islands.
Let us acknowledge we reside on the ancestral lands and waters of the Coast Salish people who have called this place home since time immemorial and let us honor inherent, aboriginal and treaty rights that have been passed down from generation to generation.
Moving beyond acknowledgment, we take action in support of Coast Salish people by formerly supporting the Coast Salish Youth Coalition, providing funding for Gathering of Eagles Canoe Journey, providing grants to the Children of the Setting Sun Productions, and volunteering for the annual Tribal Canoe Journey when they pass through the San Juan Islands.
Statement on Breaching of the Lower Snake River Dams
by The Madrona Institute Board of Directors
The Madrona Institute supports the breaching of the Lower Snake River Dams in as timely a manner as possible, respecting the regional need for some energy and transportation replacements. The Federal Government and Washington State Government must work together to provide the administrative and financial resources to accomplish this task to honor the treaty obligations made to the Nez Perce and other Tribes as well as to improve the health of the Snake River system upon which the salmon and steelhead depend.
March 8, 2023
