Artwork and poetry produced by students of Coupeville Elementary School in 1998 honoring the 20th anniversary of Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve.

Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve partners—the National Park Service, Washington State Parks, Island County and the town of Coupeville have begun work on a new General Management Plan (GMP) for the Reserve. Last spring, the Partners published a public "scoping" newsletter announcing the beginning of the GMP planning process. The purpose of the newsletter was to encourage the public's participation and comments on important Reserve issues. It provided relevant information about Reserve resources, an explanation about the importance of a GMP, and a schedule of the planning steps. Dates, times, and locations for public scoping meetings were also published.

Approximately 650 copies of the newsletter were sent to people on the Reserve's mailing list, and over 2800 copies were distributed to public places in the area such as libraries, civic buildings, businesses, and parks.

Public Participates in Meetings

In June, the Reserve Partners held a series of public scoping meetings. Included in the agenda was an orientation to the Reserve, an overview of the planning process, and discussion of issues or concerns. The first meeting occurred in Seattle, Washington on June 20, 2000. Twenty-four people attended and signed-in.

On June 21, 2000 the Partners held two meetings in Coupeville, Washington. Twenty people attended the afternoon session. Thirty-three people, primarily property and business owners, neighbors, and farmers signed-in for the evening meeting. Organizations represented in the three meetings in cluded Au Sable Institute, the Friends of Ebey's, Whidbey Environmental Action Network, Coast Defense Study Group, Whidbey News-Times, Washington Native Plant Society, Central Whidbey Trails Council, the Town of Coupeville, and the Ebey's Landing Trust Board. In total, 141 comments were recorded from the three meetings.

Other individual meetings were held between August 2000 and March 2001 to meet with organizations located within the Reserve to discuss issues of mutual interest. The National Park Service planning team and the Reserve Manager met with the following groups: The Nature Conservancy, Au Sable Institute, Island County Planning Department, U.S. Navy (Outlying Landing Field), Seattle Pacific University (Bocker Environmental Reserve), Coupeville Planning Department, Washington State Parks (Fort Ebey and Fort Casey state parks), Central Whidbey Trails, Island County Public Works, Whidbey Environmental Action Network, Whidbey Audubon, Island District Economic Development Council, Island Transit, and Central Whidbey Chamber of Commerce.

Partners Receive Written Comments

The Reserve Partners received a total of 36 letters during the official public scoping comment period. Some of these were comments written on the form provided in the scoping newsletter and mailed back to the National Park Service. Others were individual letters, some several pages long. Fifteen were from the town of Coupeville, 9 from Whidbey Island, 9 from Western Washington, 1 from Eastern Washington, and 2 from other states (Pennsylvania and Arizona).

In the previous scoping newsletter the Partners listed issues that need to be addressed in the GMP. From these comments, the Partners may be selecting additional issues that the GMP will address.

• Introduction
• Public Comment Analysis
• GMP Planning Steps and Schedule