This week I wrote an Op-Ed piece that was published in the Port Townsend Leader. In case you don’t have access to the Leader I have included what I wrote below with minor updates. Unfortunately, the Leader only allowed a 700 word limit on the editorial. Obviously, there are many more words to be said about this proposed transfer. A few of them would be: if you agree that more needs to be clarified, and that the process ought to be slowed down, please contact our city, county, state and federal representatives and make your point of view known.
Your comments might be to oppose or simply slow the process to make sure that the island is never to be used for any commercial activity. That is currently not a part of this discussion between the Tribe and the State and Federal Government.
I want to clarify that I do not support efforts I’m hearing about in Clallam County from a group who oppose this and appear to be anti-Tribal in nature. I am not anti-Tribe.
You might ask: Why should I have any credibility to discuss this issue at all?
I have worked for the Tribe, creating two films over 5 years. I worked closely with the late Tribal Elder, Marlin Holden, a close friend, for “Treaty Resources: Legacy of Our Ancestors” that is viewable at the Tribe’s library. I have interviewed the late Kurt Grinnell and Ron Allen. I have presented in front of the Tribal Council a number of times. I was trusted by the Tribe to video tape tribal meetings, something I was told had never been allowed by anyone outside the Tribe. As a member and chair of the Jefferson County Marine Resources Committee I supported efforts led by the Tribe and other aquaculture companies to reestablish Olympia Oysters in Discovery Bay. The Tribe has done an outstanding job under Ron Allen and Kurt Grinnell’s leadership to forge new economic engines for the Tribe and Clallam County’s benefit, including an active aquaculture industry that sells geoduck to China along with oysters and clams regionally.
I produced a second film, paid for by the Tribe about the Dungeness River Management team on the restoration of the Dungeness River, called “Working for the River”.
But I also was there at the efforts to create a wildlife refuge at Protection Island. In late 1970s, I was a professional photographer who volunteered for Seattle Audubon, the organization leading national efforts organized by Jefferson County locals Zella Schultz and Eleanor Stopps over a 20 year period. I traveled to John Wayne Marina where Fish and Wildlife staff took me to the island to photograph. The island had been under threat of having 800 lots developed, with no protection for the rare bird habitat that did and does exist there. Through all the efforts by Zella, Eleanor, Lorna Smith, Hazel Wolf and thousands of others, Congress finally established the Refuge, especially with the help of Republican Slade Gordon and Governor John Spellman, Democratic Senators Scoop Jackson and Warren Magnuson & Governor Dixie Lee Ray, along with the entire Washington State delegation who convinced the Reagan administration to sign the bill, the only such refuge established during his eight year presidency.
I have read a lot of what the Tribe wants to do with Protection Island. On the surface, with little detail, it seems benign. I have read a draft of a possible Congressional Bill that would establish the handover. But I am very troubled by the possible use of this island refuge for commercial aquaculture. Destroying the nearshore for commercial purposes would impact the habitat that these birds need to feed and survive. My concern is that we are rushing into an irreversible action with very little forethought and this legal business decision is not clearly defined at the moment. Now is the time to do the right thing and ensure that Protection Island is protected for *all time and all people* of the United States. That is what currently exists.
To hear more on this issue, I will be on KPTZ (91.9 locally on the Olympic Peninsula and kptz.org online) at 9PM Sunday May 17th on Phil Andrus’ “Cats in our Laps” show for one hour to discuss this in even more detail and answer questions from Phil. The show will be podcast later.
With that background, here is the 700 words that were published today in the Port Townsend Leader. I have expanded on this original letter today slightly to include a few issues that I was forced to edit out due to space constraints.
If I told you that a prized National Wildlife Refuge was going to be handed over to an aquaculture company, what would be your reaction? If I told you it was going to be handed over to The Jamestown S’Kallam Tribe, would your reaction be different? Would it be different if you knew that the Tribe runs an expanding aquaculture company?
What if I told you that in a few years, you will not have any say in what the aquaculture company does with the Refuge? That is exactly what is happening.
Protection Island National Wildlife Refuge is being considered for transfer to the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe to add to their reservation. Protection Island is currently owned by all of the citizens of the United States. Why does the Tribe want it for their exclusive use? And what is the importance of Protection Island?
The U.S. Department of the Fish and Wildlife has this to say about Protection Island:
Protection Island National Wildlife Refuge provides some of the last remaining undeveloped habitat for many burrow-nesting seabirds in the Salish Sea, but is of particular importance to the rhinoceros auklet. Scarred by over a hundred years of farming and grazing, and carved up for a summer home subdivision in the late 1960’s, it was finally recognized in 1982 with a National Wildlife Refuge designation before irreversible damage occurred.
It supports thriving wildlife populations, including what is thought to be the third largest rhinoceros auklet colony in North America, one of the last two breeding sites for tufted puffins in the Salish Sea, and the largest glaucous-winged gull colony in Washington state.
Over the last year, the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe have been working in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife and U.S. Representative Emily Randall to transfer the title of the island, with its nesting habitat, to the Tribe. At this time, the proposal does not specify the aquatic lands, which remain with the State, but mentions a path to the state relinquishing them to the Tribe in the future.
There is a draft bill that will soon be introduced to make the transfer happen. This work has been done by the Tribal attorneys without any public input. It oddly goes along with the Trump administrations goals of getting the United States of out management of Federal Lands. Project 2025, specifically the “Mandate for Leadership” document, proposes restructuring federal land management by prioritizing energy production, expanding logging, and increasing state or private control over public lands. (highlight is mine). Key proposals include Chapter 13 (Interior Department) for dismantling conservation agendas…
We have already transferred the Dungeness Spit Wildlife Refuge to the Tribe with an understanding that the Tribes aquaculture business was going to drop 80,000 bags of oyster spat on the bottom of the bay. This transfer was opposed by the wildlife biologist that worked at the Spit at the time that the transfer was proposed. There is currently a lawsuit in progress to challenge the process that was used to do this transfer.
Question: “Is the proposed transfer of Protection Island really the best thing for us to do?”
Protection Island refuge was established after a national campaign led by two local women, Eleanor Stopps & Zella Schultz, and the work of the Seattle Audubon Society led by Helen Engle and Hazel Wolf one of the legendary environmental leaders in our state. It was a work that took tens of thousands of volunteer hours with help from National Audubon Society and The Nature Conservancy. (You can listen to an interview I conducted with Eleanor Stopps in 2010 for my film “Voices of the Strait” at the following link.)
https://on.soundcloud.com/uV2PCxSpOmPDvmMeVX
Transferring the Island to the Tribe means that it becomes part of it’s reservation and sovereign territory of the Tribe, no longer forced to follow the rules and regulations of the US Wildlife Refuge Acts of 1966 and 1997 There is no provision made for any public input into future tribal decisions on the use of the island, or it’s shores. There are vague references to the tribe continuing “conservation efforts” without specifying what they are. It will be up to the Tribe in concert with the State Department of Natural Resources to decide if they want to use the island’s shoreline for commercial aquaculture. DNR has been promiscuous in its granting of aquaculture permits. Can we trust that this commercially driven Tribe will make the right decisions on behalf of our Refuge when we will have no voice in decisions moving forward?
Also, the great work that the Tribe has done in restoring environmental places like Jimmy Come Lately Creek, the Dungeness River and other locations was done with Federal and State grants or funds. If the Federal Government is attempting to rid itself of Federal lands like this, who is going to pay for the ongoing management the Tribe claims they will do?
There are many who trust Ron Allen. What about future Tribal leaders after him?
What protection do we have if the Tribe’s plans dramatically shift towards commerce than protection? Can we effectively veto or alter the Tribes’ activities on the island? How? The act of moving this crown jewell of wildlife will place it beyond the jurisdiction of local or state officials forever. In fact, it makes enforcement by the Federal government a nation to nation affair that leaves our voices out of the regulation process.
I suggest we start by stopping. There is no need for speed in this process. If Republicans want to get rid of Wildlfe Sanctuaries and Democrats want to support whatever the Tribes want, none of that will change with another year or two of public input. Pause this transfer while we figure out how all of us and not just one Tribe, will have a voice in the future of Protection Island if we relinquish control over it to the Tribe.
Listen to me Sunday night on KTPZ.ORG at 9PM Pacific
Original Leader article
Filed under: Clallam County, Endangered Species, Environmental Activism, Environmental Law, Environmental Protection, First Nations, Government, Jefferson County, Olympic Peninsula, Straits of Juan de Fuca, Washington State | Tagged: Clallam County, Dungeness Wildlife Refuge, Environmental Protection, Government Legislation, Jefferson County, Olympic Peninsula | Leave a comment »
