Islands are relatively closed ecosystems with finite edges bordering only water. In 1991, Bainbridge Island became an independent city from Kitsap County to get better control of the land use of our island. We believed that the physical and cultural suburbanization of our island was not inevitable. We thought that we could be the exception — that we could be exceptional.

Twenty-seven years later, development is again eroding the ecological integrity of our land. We need to do better than just saying “Stop.” In the long run, that will not protect our island. We need to change our culture from a mild defense of our ecosystem to an aggressive offense, both protection and restoration.

The population of the island has almost doubled since we became independent. Many residents now come from places that are more environmentally degraded than here. Their memories of what we hoped our island would be are non-existent.

To our discredit, we who worked for independence left few permanent markers or institutions to guide succeeding generations of residents. We urgently need to do that now.

City staff, also coming from other municipalities, see the island through their lens of previous experience with more damaged ecosystems, places that have been content with the ordinary. Outside consultants provide “boiler plate” recommendations without deep cultural investigation into our aspirational goals. These are not bad people. They are just doing their jobs based on previous experience.

So we have drifted to a place that is no longer acceptable to many of us. The council was right to put a hold on development so that we could better plan the way forward. Now we must decide what that plan is and how do we stay on that path for generations to come?

If we are to save this place from becoming ordinary, we need to create an island culture of conservation and restoration that stands the test of time. We should not only be defending our environment, but also restoring it. Worthy projects and institutions we can support now and pass on to our children will be invaluable tools that will guide island residents.

Our aquifer is heavily dependent on rainfall to recharge. Hard surfaces shed the water into the Sound, contaminating the water with pollutants and diminishing the recharge. While our government requires new home builders to channel impermeable surfaces into infiltration structures that send rainwater back into the ground, the largest obstruction to the recharge of water is our roads and parking lots. We collectively own more than one square mile of impervious surface. The benefits of our roads come at the cost of damaging our own sources of water.

We need to correct this. We need to charge ourselves, on a yearly basis, for the use of this asphalt and with the proceeds, float bonds to pay for any island wide program of converting asphalt to permeable paving. It will take a long time; generations.

We, as a culture, could be proud of a restoration that our children would finish. It is a grand project that would bind us together, working for a common goal. It can be done, if we have the will.

Our roads are bordered by wider rights of ways that are partly needed for drainage.

This land, however, has been confiscated for use by private businesses, or cut to clear views of businesses, or are choked with invasive species. We could restore this land. This could be another generational project that would bind us to a common goal. It could be done.

Our beach ecosystems, a public resource, are fed by the erosion of bluffs and banks. This erosion, however, endangers the safety of the houses on top of the bluffs.

Bulkheads, built to protect properties and lives, do so at the cost of a healthy beach. Protect the beach or protect property and lives? Recent laws and ordinances have tended to favor the beach over the life/safety of the people. A sound policy for the ecosystem, but not for residents; this divides us politically. Could we instead pursue a solution that binds us together in pursuit of a common goal?

If property owners need a bulkhead to protect property, why not tax individuals (of which I am one) for each lineal foot of bulkhead they own? Invest that revenue into a fund for beach restoration, such as gravel-seeding or installing structures to reduce wave refraction.

Affected homeowners would enjoy protection of their property and healthier beach ecosystems. The general public would benefit from the restoration of their resource. We, together, could be proud of a new and unique institution that we created to restore and maintain this aspect of our ecosystem, in perpetuity. We could do this, if we had the will.

The island is being consumed with development. Years ago, several of us foresaw this and founded the Bainbridge Island Land Trust.

Using the market and a nonprofit status, we could acquire and conserve land that was too biologically important to fall under the bulldozer. At the time, we felt that it would be wrong to punish longtime landowners with restrictive ordinances as a method of conserving land. Many of the major parcels that we acquired were in partnership with the Bainbridge Island parks department, a public entity.

Perhaps that relationship could be expanded. For example, on Nantucket Island, 2 percent of every land transaction is donated to the Nantucket Land Trust to purchase strategic pieces of land. Development is tied to conservation. Although politically complicated, we could do this.

There is one more step needed if we are truly going to have a rebirth of common goals on this island. Taking a few hours from each school term of our children’s lives, we should educate them on the ecological history of this island, how we damaged it, and what institutions and projects we have created to heal it. Only then can we ensure that the work we begin now, will go on to create an island culture of conservation. We can be truly exceptional. If we have the will. If we, with all of our blessings, cannot manage to coexist with our own land, then where in the world can it ever happen?

If not here, where?

Jim Cutler is an island resident, co-founder of the Bainbridge Island Land Trust.