The first Whidbey Island Green Home Tour sponsored by the Maxwelton Salmon Adventure will showcase “the special places that illustrate ways to live more lightly on the earth,” and will, its sponsors hope, inspire and educate the people who visit them.

Taking place Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Green Home Tour will show seven private homes or home-offices that feature new and ecologically-friendly building techniques such as Rastra, wood frame and/or straw-bale construction, solar power, energy-efficient heating and water usage, and other “green” building techniques.

A Materials & Products Fair on the same day in Bayview Hall will host vendors from all over the country with “earth-friendly” items for display and sale. Local builders and architects will be on hand to answer questions about “Green Building” practices.

All the homesites on the Green Tour are in or near the Maxwelton Watershed, the largest on Whidbey Island. The Salmon Adventure, sponsor of the tour, is a nonprofit educational organization that works with the community and the schools to promote stewardship of the Maxwelton Watershed for preservation and enhancement of salmon, wildlife habitat and water quality. “The tour is an extension of our public education mission,” said organizer Nancy Waddell.

Sites are:

n Bayview Corner: A 23-acre community redevelopment project of the Goosefoot Community Fund that includes a number of innovative and historic structures modeling down-to-earth, environmentally-sound products and practices. See a composting toilet public restroom, a pre-1916 Sears “kit” house under renovation and a Geo-Block grass parking lot. The lively Bayview Farmers’ Market will be in full swing on Saturday morning.