By Jeff Bunch
Eddie Vedder sits on a canoe sporting an “I ❤️ Ferry County” sticker from Bobby Whittaker, who introduced the Pearl Jam frontman to the Colville National Forest. Vedder has given the canoe - and a signed print of this image which became part of his ukelele album - to The Lands Council for raising much-needed funds. Photo by Bobby Whittaker.
The story of longtime Lands Council supporter Bobby Whittaker has many elements of myth to it: an alignment of the stars that feels like a destined cosmic connection. He is a spinner of yarns, a doer of good deeds, a forever rebel for the cause of conservation, and a staunch advocate for outdoor recreation.
His origin story begins in the Pacific Northwest as the son of an outdoors legend. His father was Jim Whittaker, the first American to summit Mount Everest and a co-founder of REI.
“The nucleus or the nugget of the whole thing is my being born to a famous mountain-climber,” Whittaker said during a recent interview in north Spokane.
Some might consider that a tough act to follow, but the younger Whittaker is working to leave his own legacy by supporting the work of The Lands Council and its partners.
Bobby spent much of his childhood in Hawaii with his mother but came back to the mainland to live with his father in Seattle during high school. He once summitted a mountain with his dad’s climbing group and said he decided that “peak-bagging was not for me.” He yearned for something that connected more deeply with his soul.
“I'm alternative. I love culture, the urban city, fringe theater, and fringe music,” Whitaker said. “So, I got into the music scene, sneaking out at night, going to the crappy clubs downtown and skateboarding, which was kind of popping then (in the ’80s).”
In serendipitous alignment, Whittaker’s passions converged in his hometown – alternative music and environmental activism – a city at the center of a cultural zenith.
During the meteoric rise of grunge, Bobby was on tour with Mudhoney and the first employee at legendary Sub Pop Records, an independent label crucial to launching the careers of Nirvana, Soundgarden and others. While juggling jobs – such as working at The Pink Door, a well-known downtown restaurant – he became deeply embedded in the city’s alternative music culture.
Left: Eddie Vedder and Bobby Whittaker rowing out from West Seattle. Right: The duo atop Smith Tower in 1994 for the wedding of Mudhoney frontman Mark Arm to Emily Rieman.
His neighbors in West Seattle included future stars such as the late Chris Cornell (Soundgarden) and Eddie Vedder before Vedder became the frontman of Pearl Jam. Whittaker appreciated Vedder’s genuine and down-to-earth nature. Over time, they would see each other on a regular basis in the Seattle scene, from being at gigs together to weekend campout getaways or sailing on the Salish Sea.
But it was an invitation from another grunge icon that changed the trajectory of Whittaker’s life.
“I went over to the house of (Nirvana bassist) Krist Novoselić and there was Michael Stipe and Kurt Cobain (the lead singers of R.E.M. and Nirvana, respectively). I brought over a bunch of salmon from the market. We ate and hung out. It was a great time.”
Conversation that night changed Whittaker’s life. In a touch of kismet, he was told to speak with R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck about touring the band, which Whittaker did for more than a decade.
His friendships with Novoselić, Vedder and other musicians continue to this day, centered around their shared passions. They were disciples of author and environmentalist Edward Abbey. Their interconnected circles merged into overlapping universes of music and environmental causes.
Saving forests, building trails, revitalizing Hillyard
Whittaker was introduced to The Lands Council through a magical connection by Buck’s wife, Stephanie, who attended Whitman College in Walla Walla. She invited Whittaker to drive with her to her alma mater for a student activism event related to timber sales in the Blue Mountains.
“She said someone was giving a talk by an environmentalist, so Stephanie and I drove out from Seattle and went to the event,” Bobby recalled. “We're down in the basement and there were like 12 kids in there and the guy giving the speech was Mike Petersen (longtime former TLC executive director, who had driven down from Republic).”
That evening launched a lasting connection and a longtime partnership between Whittaker’s efforts in northeast Washington and the work of The Lands Council. Petersen told Whittaker about Ferry County, the beauty of the Colville National Forest, the Kettle River and the solitude in the woods.
Whittaker continued to live in Seattle but found the solitude in the forest as his respite. He had been through northeast Washington many times on the way to the Canadian Rockies with his family earlier in his life but never knew much about the Colville National Forest.
“No one knows where Ferry County is; it’s like the Bermuda Triangle and we just never went there, but I love it, it’s beautiful and it’s subtle and it's not craggy with everyone wearing Gore-Tex (like the Cascades),” said Whittaker.
Whittaker parlayed a tour bonus into purchasing 25 acres of land near Republic. He collaborated with a childhood friend to build a self-sustaining cabin using solar power and eco-friendly methods on the border of the Colville National Forest. The dry side of the state slowly became his home.
His passion to give back through environmental causes and community projects found an outlet in Ferry County. Inspired by collective efforts to preserve Washington’s forests, Whittaker became involved in land conservation and sustainable development. He worked alongside a wide-ranging coalition of those trying to protect timberlands and advocate for responsible logging practices
One of Whittaker’s most significant projects was his involvement in the Ferry County Rail Trail, a 30-mile trail repurposed from an abandoned local railway line.
Despite resistance from those who favored ATV use for it, Bobby worked with others to secure community support and won a public vote to keep the trail non-motorized. He also reached out to his friends in the music scene for financial backing: Vedder and the Pearl Jam foundation, Vitalogy, supported the initiative, as did the McDanel Land Foundation and The Mountaineers.
Bobby also collaborated with tribal communities, particularly the Colville Confederated Tribes, in advocating to recognize the land access rights of Native populations. He worked to integrate educational components into community projects, ensuring that all local history – including often-overlooked indigenous contributions – was acknowledged and preserved.
Meanwhile, a unique collaborative among key stakeholders — from the logging industry and federal managers to the environmental community including The Lands Council — aligned to create the Northeast Washington Forest Coalition (NEWFC), which has became a role model for the world.
“NEWFC is working for win-win scenarios,” says Whittaker. “It’s like you don’t have to defeat the other guy. It’s not a war. They’ve set the record, for several years running, for (total) board feet coming out of the Colville National Forest, and it’s the CLT (cross-laminated timber). The lawsuits about the timber sales stopped (because they’re only taking) the fire hazard, sickly, and small trees and they don’t take all the big trees.”
The family-owned Vaagen Brothers of Colville is a key partner and eventually sold its big-timber milling equipment. Now the company doesn’t take lumber over 18 inches wide for its milling, leaving those bigger trees for the health of the forest.
“It's genius and so you leave the more fire-resilient ones, the healthy ones that have the healthy pinecones that seed Ponderosas, the big ones that are fire-resistant. Goddamn, that's genius. I was like, that is punk rock. That's rock and roll!” exalted Whittaker.
The smaller lumber makes up the laminated, engineered structural timber that fill the role of big timber in construction like the historic building Whittaker and partner Sandra Bilbrey are remodeling in Spokane, where 55-foot CLT primary supports span three floors upward.
Whittaker and partner Sandra Bilbrey are remodeling historic buildings in Spokane’s Hillyard district with CLT primary supports straight from the Colville Forest. (Photos by Jeff Bunch)
Whittaker and Bilbrey moved to Spokane and took on a preservation project in Spokane’s historic Hillyard neighborhood. They acquired the early 1900s Kehoe Hardware (and former hotel) building, initially planning a modest restoration, but were inspired to fully renovate it for mixed use.
Whittaker says it has taken more time and money than planned to preserve its architectural elements while making it functional for modern use, but the approach emphasizes sustainability over profit, opting to create a community-oriented space. They partnered with a local bike shop, ensuring the space serves as a hub for outdoor recreation on the nearby Children of The Sun bike and walking trail next to the north-south freeway. Hillyard Bicycle had its soft opening in March.
Hillyard Bicycle combines multiple passions for Whittaker: showing off environmentally friendly and ethically sourced wood, revitalizing a neighborhood economically, and serving folks exploring the new bike trail. (Photos by Jeff Bunch)
The couple’s vision aligns with broader efforts to reinvigorate the historic but aging neighborhood, attracting like-minded business owners and cultural initiatives in the spirit of the reborn Spokane that Whittaker remembers during Expo ’74, when his father gave a lecture at the World’s Fair.
“I love Spokane and always have: the river, the proximity to the mountains, it's got a cool underground, like primordial soup, which disappeared in Seattle in the ’90s because it became unaffordable,” said Whittaker.
Whittaker has bridged the worlds of music, environmentalism, and community development here.
“My work is weird. I'm on the board with the Northeast Washington Forestry Coalition. I'm president of the Ferry County Rail Trail partners. I used to do all that stuff, kind of between tours,” said Whittaker. “I'm a political animal to a degree and I don't like bullies. I like underdogs and I like sweet people. I like to make things better. I want to put my back into helping The Lands Council.”
That commitment is how memorabilia donated by Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder ended up as items that will be auctioned at the nonprofit’s April Showers event. The story behind it is legend.
Whittaker, Vedder, and funds for The Lands Council
Vedder shares Whittaker’s love for the outdoors and proudly donned his canoe with an “I ❤️ Ferry County” sticker Whittaker gave him as reminder of eastern Washington’s natural beauty. Whittaker memorialized the moment by taking a picture of the star sitting on the well-loved canoe with his ukelele in hand, the iconic picture became art for the back side cover of Vedder’s critically acclaimed Ukelele Songs album. Last year, the canoe made its way back to eastern Washington as donation for to The Lands Council’s April Showers auction, the nonprofit’s largest fundraiser.
Next up in fundraising for The Lands Council: auctioning off this ukelele signed by Eddie Vedder. (Photos: Zack Berlat)
Vedder also provided The Lands Council several autographed posters and a brand-new ukelele, which he signed and marked with his notorious doodle – a symbol many fans have turned into tattoos. Not only does the ukelele have cultural significance, but it also has an estimated value of $20,000 based on a prior sale. The canoe needs another kind of TLC but is a collectible piece of music history lovingly used by a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer.
It’s a tale that the late Abbey would appreciate, as would Cornell and Cobain. Vedder is a rebel with an Earth First-inspired tattoo on the outside and a big heart on the inside. It all fits the archetype.
“Grunge has always been about community,” said Whittaker. “It was a group of outcasts who didn’t fit in with their families and were looking for other things to be part of. So, I feel like the connecting factor and why it’s cool to have these (auction) pieces. It’s like the stories we tell, right? It’s like the object itself. I don’t know who wants the canoe. It’s kind of a piece of crap, but the story is meaningful. It’s like getting into a piece of the cool history and the meaning behind all that.”
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