180 Parker Rd
Coupeville, WA 98239
360-678-5586
www.pacificriminstitute.org
Pacific Rim Insitute for Environmental Stewardship is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization engaging science, culture, and community for ecological restoration. We focus on the research, restoration, and conservation of Washington's westside prairies found on Whidbey Island and around the Salish Sea.
• Science: Our efforts to promote ecological restoration are grounded in sound environmental science principles. At the same time, in our efforts to democratize scientific understanding, we communicate our discoveries in ways that are accessible and inspiring to the general public. • Culture: We believe that environments are shaped by culture, and that culture itself is impacted by environments in turn. We believe that healing of the land often involves the healing of broken relationships—between people and the land, and between people groups. For that reason, PRI actively attends to the wisdom of regional Indigenous peoples and welcomes their active engagement in our work. • Community: The PRI site is a hub for diverse community; we welcome all who seek to learn about and invest in the healing of the land as they work alongside others on activities like native seed harvesting or plant propagation. • Ecological Restoration: All of creation, human and nonhuman, depends on thriving, diverse ecosystems for health and survival; the promotion of such ecological diversity through restoration work is at the heart of the PRI mission.
We are located 3 miles outside of Coupeville but provide native plant material for restoration efforts and gardens around the Salish Sea.
The 175-acre site PRI now manages was once a Washington State Game Farm under the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Many of our building are from 1956 when the game farm was established to raise ring-necked pheasants for release in Washington. In the late 1990's, Steve Erikson was walking the trails around the property when he discovered a patch of Native Prairie that had never been tilled, with over eighty rare native plant species. When the state had to sell the game farm to make up for a budget shortfall, Steven, WEAN, and other environmentalists around Whidbey worked together to ensure that the land could not be sold for residential development. Instead, the land had to be sold to a non-profit that would preserve the prairie remnant, as Westside prairies are the most endangered ecosystem in Washington State with only about 3% of the estimated 180,000 acres remaining.
Au Sable Institute bought the property, looking to transform it into their Pacific Rim Campus for summer college courses. The interiors of the Brooder, Granary, and Roost buildings were transformed with student usage in mind, including adding walls and flooring to the Brooder building, transforming it into a space for students.
In 2008 Au Sable Institute had to sell their Pacific Rim campus. Robert Pelant worked with board members to establish PRI as its own nonprofit in 2009, receiving Nonprofit status in 2010. Since becoming its own nonprofit, PRI has focused more on the restoration of the westside prairie and the recovery efforts for the Golden Paintbrush (Castilleja levisecta).
180 Parker Rd
Coupeville, WA 98239
360-678-5586
www.pacificriminstitute.org
