Island County commissioners are considering an explosive proposal.

During a work session this week, the commissioners briefly discussed the pros and cons of initiating a ban on fireworks in unincorporated Island County. Commissioner Melanie Bacon led the charge, citing concerns from constituents in her district, which encompasses South Whidbey.

Bacon came to the meeting with the draft of an ordinance prepared, outlawing the usage of consumer fireworks. She said the ordinance represents the types of issues people raised with pyrotechnics, including the potential for wildfires as summers get hotter and drier and negative impacts to the environment, local wildlife and people with post-traumatic stress disorder. The draft also makes note that Island County has become a “fireworks tourism destination” since many surrounding jurisdictions have instituted bans.

With the change, Bacon said, residents would need to seek permits for fireworks displays.

“People in Island County now will spend tens of thousands of dollars for major firework shows in their yard, on the beach, over lakes, in the fields, near trees, near eagles’ nests,” she said. “This is an attempt to try to bring some kind of control over that. It does not get rid of all fireworks in Island County, it just puts some kind of borders around who can do it and when they can do it.”

Bacon said Sheriff Rick Felici, who also doubles as the county’s fire marshal, is willing to support this. If passed, the new rules will go into effect in time for the Fourth of July in 2024. Felici did not return a call for comment.

Commissioner Jill Johnson, whose district covers the city of Oak Harbor, said she would be happy to ban fireworks in the areas represented by Bacon’s district.

“If you want to tell your district ‘no fireworks,’ we can have that conversation,” Johnson said, “but I will tell you right off the bat that the district constraints that I represent create greater problems by not allowing fireworks in unincorporated Island County because it pushes all of that into the most concentrated population area.”

She added that she would need to have a conversation with the city of Oak Harbor, where fireworks are currently allowed. She claimed that the majority of people in her district do not want them banned and pointed to a difference of demographics in her district, where people tend to be of a younger age.

Taking a neutral stance, Commissioner Janet St. Clair said she is open to the conversation but not without sufficient public input. Some in her district have been supportive of it, she said, but support overall has not been overwhelming.

Bacon concluded that this will be the beginning of a larger conversation about the issue, which will require more public meetings in the future.

At its last meeting, the Langley City Council approved a letter of support for the proposed ban in unincorporated Island County. The municipality banned fireworks beginning in 2021.

The Whidbey Audubon Society Board of Directors also supports a ban on pyrotechnics, citing the harm caused to birds and other wildlife in a letter to the editor of the South Whidbey Record. The full letter can be read on page 4.

“An area of particular concern to Whidbey Audubon Society is the possible effects of fireworks on burrow-nesting Pigeon Guillemots,” Patty Cheek, the society’s president, wrote in the letter. “Our citizen scientists have observed a drop in feeding visits by adults to their young on days following the fireworks. The adults stay farther away from shore during this time.”