The Chehalis Watershed In Peril

A Tale of Floods, Droughts, Forest Practices, and Climate Change
Environmental Speaker Series
Thursday, November 30, 2023  |  4:30-5:20pm PT
In-Person at WWU: Academic Instructional Center West, Room 204
and Online on Zoom
The Chehalis Watershed In Peril : Western Washington University (wwu.edu)

The Chehalis watershed has been in crisis for decades. Additionally, misguided farmers along the river have taken it on their own to “address” the problems, causing even more destruction. This should be an interesting discussion. I talked to Senator Van De Wege years ago about bills to open up gravel mining on the river, thankfully stopped by the Tribes.

About the Event

The Chehalis watershed is the second largest watershed in Washington State. From its headwaters in the Willapa Hills, it runs about 130 miles in a circuitous path to the Chehalis River estuary. It is a rain-fed watershed that has been heavily logged since the 1850s. Tree plantations, both privately and publicly owned, dominate the watershed. Only 14,000 acres of older, structurally complex forests remain in the watershed, where there are no National Parks or other protected areas.

In the summer of 2023, the Chehalis River experienced the lowest water levels in 94 years – since recordkeeping began. Clear-cut logging of old forests has a huge impact on stream and river hydrology, with flows reduced by as much as 50% in summer as water is sucked up by young plantation trees. Clear-cut logging also has a clear connection to the devastating floods that dominate the watershed in the last 30 years.

In this talk, Lee will give a general overview of environmental issues in the Chehalis watershed, as well as highlight the connection between forest practices and water quality. She will highlight the importance of preserving the last of the older, structurally complex and diverse forests that remain in the watershed.

The Environmental Speaker Series is free and open to the public. Talks are held each Thursday at 4:30pm in Academic Instructional Center West, room 204. Join us at WWU or online on Zoom!
Brought to you by:
College of the Environment
The Foundation for Western Washington University & Alumni

Event Speaker

Lee First

Twin Harbors Waterkeeper
Lee First has a BS in Environmental Studies (Western Washington University) and a Professional Certificate in Wetland Science and Management (University of Washington). She has worked in the Waterkeeper movement for almost 20 years. As the Twin Harbors Waterkeeper, she works to advocate for, protect, and prevent pollution in the Chehalis, Willapa watersheds, as well as watersheds on the west coast of the Olympic Peninsula. Her past job experience includes managing environmental controls at a Superfund Cleanup Site, collecting water quality data for cities and counties, delineating wetlands and developing mitigation plans for Tribal governments, and controlling aquatic invasive species. Her passion for canoeing and kayaking (especially exploring new waterways) has led her to completing 17 sea kayak expeditions on the Inside Passage.

Event: Mining Risks to the Salmon Watersheds of Northwestern North America

A Speaker Series: Toxicology and Societies
The Impacts of Chemicals in Our Lives

Thursday, October 5, 2023  |  11:00am to 12:00pm PT on Zoom
In northwestern North America, a new rush of mining exploration and production is underway. The valuable mineral reserves in this region underlie watersheds that support critical water resources and cultural keystone species such as Pacific salmon. The scale of current-day mines dwarfs many historical mines. And, despite improvements to modern-day governance processes, we still witness mining operations causing harm to salmonid-bearing watersheds. This presentation will describe the basics of industrial-scale mining operations, the ecology of salmonid-bearing watersheds, and the negative impacts that metal and coal mining can have on salmonids and their habitat. This information can be applied to four key scientific questions intended to promote transparent discussions of whether the risk and uncertainty of mining impacts are sufficiently considered in governance processes.  More information about the speaker series is available, as are all past Toxicology and Societies recordings.
Brought to you by:
Institute of Environmental Toxicology and ChemistryWWU Alumni Office

Register here:
Mining Risks to the Salmon Watersheds of Northwestern North America | The Foundation for WWU & Alumni | Western Washington University
Chris Sergeant – Speaker
Chris Sergeant is an applied watershed scientist working where freshwaters, fish, and people converge. He grew up in Des Moines, Washington, and currently lives in Seattle working remotely as a research scientist with the Flathead Lake Biological Station. Chris is also an Affiliate Instructor with the University of Washington School of Marine and Environmental Affairs. Before moving back to Seattle with his family in late 2020, he enjoyed living 10 years in Juneau, Alaska, which had a huge influence on his perspectives on life and science. Chris studies mining impacts to freshwater ecosystems, climate change implications for Pacific salmon, best practices for developing long-term ecological monitoring plans, and the governance of transboundary watersheds. Chris received his BS and MS from the University of Washington and his PhD from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. 
Questions & Accommodations
Contact the WWU Alumni Office for this event by calling (360) 650-3353 or emailing Alumni@wwu.edu. There will be auto-captions available for this event. 

Brinnon Pleasant Harbor Update

The never ending saga of the proposed but never built Pleasant Harbor Master Planned Resort. The Brinnon Group, the main local organization opposing this planned community, recently published this on their web site: 

Our attorney has written a letter to the county commissioners about an agreement they have signed with the developer. The agreement includes the developer’s payment of past due fees and a new arrangement for the developer to pay for a county planner to process MPR county permits. The letter points out that the developer has not done the things legally required to be able to apply for county permits.

EXERPT from the County Agreement“…no residential development in this MPR can proceed without construction of the recreational facilities described above, in particular the construction of the golf course, recreational center with hotel rooms, community center, a pool, water slides and other such facilities. It is notable that in the 4 1⁄2 years since the Superior Court’s decision, there has been little or no progress on the required recreational features of the Master Planned Resort. As far as we known, no permit applications have been submitted for the golf course, recreation center, hotel, or any of the other required recreational elements. These features must be built out prior to the construction and sale of residential lots, finished homes or condominium units.

The question has to be asked at this point, now over 15 years since the Canadian developer started applying for this project, that other than clear cutting areas of the site, (from which they likely made money selling the timber), why has there  been no movement that is visible to uphold their end of the contract. They were contractually supposed to build out infrastructure before building residential development. It certainly seems that the county commissioners of that era, who were warned by many in the community, failed in their duties to protect the county. It appears all the county has got for this agreement is a costly long running lawsuit. Should the county rescind the agreement for breach of contract? It would be an interesting question. 

It is hard to understand what the Canadian developer actually wanted to do with this property. They claimed they wanted to develop it, but were they ever financially capable of doing that? It’s not like the county has not given them time and resources to get this underway. 

Background from the Brinnon Group website: 

“Before land sales can take place, infrastructure and recreational amenities must be complete. Four years ago, the developer attempted to move forward with its plans without committing to completing facilities that would qualify it for an MPR, but the Brinnon Group successfully sued in Superior Court to require that infrastructure must be complete before land sales can occur.  Now the developer is once again promoting sales of property in the MPR without completing any of the work required by its terms of approval. Sales brochures have been sent through the US mail to local residents in Western Washington, including referencing advertising on various internet sites.The Brinnon Group has filed complaints with the Washington State Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division and the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau seeking orders to cease deceptive sales activity until site work and amenities are complete. The full complaint is on the Brinnon Group website. Though the sale material conveys the impression the MPR is move-in ready, in fact there are not even permit applications, much less completed facilities for any of the elements required for the MPR. Indeed, the essential of development, sewer and water facilities, are not even in the planning stage, though Stateman promises ”indoor pools, hockey and skating, indoor soccer and other training facilities” to prospective owners. It also fancifully promises a “health center” offering “an approved surgical operatory” for various procedures including “plastic surgery, urology and gynecology.” The developer appears to lack basic financing for this substantial venture; indeed, it asked local and state governments for some $37million in grants and loans for the project a few years ago.

EVENT: Meet Lorna Smith Commissioner Dept of Fish & Wildlife Sept 21 online

Well worth an hour to hear from a key State Commissioner. Click anywhere on the photo below to be taken to the signup page. The RSVP link does not work in the image.

ACTION item: Stopping the industrialization of the Dungeness Wildlife Refuge

Time after time, citizens have had to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) for failing to protect the animals and their habitat as required by law, in areas that the nation has recognized as critical to preserve as habitat and for public recreation. Now USFWS is willing to allow, for private profit, the industrialization of refuge lands for shellfish operations. 

 

>>Tell the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland that the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge lease for industrial aquaculture must be rescinded.

 

In spite of demonstrated harm to birds, salmon, forage fish, and shellfish, and a recommendation by the National Marine Fisheries Service that “an alternative site be identified in a location that results in less potential impacts to wildlife that is more appropriate for aquaculture and meets the goals of the tribe,” USFWS approved a lease for an industrial oyster farm inside the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge. This decision, which is in violation of the Clean Water Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, must be reversed. 

 

In the words written of an October 2022 USFWS internal memorandum, “Forgoing a compatibility determination in order to facilitate incompatible commercial activities by any entity would be a subversion of the fundamental requirements in the [USFWS] Improvement Act.” 

 

We are targeting the most recent case of the USFWS’s permissiveness in one of the country’s most pristine nature lands, the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge in the small rural town of Sequim Washington, just below the Olympic National Park. In this case, the shellfish corporation raises shellfish on other sites. They do not need to operate in a national refuge and deny wildlife their feeding and breeding grounds. 

 

The Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge was created by Executive Order in 1915 by Woodrow Wilson, directing the area to be set aside as a “refuge, preserve and breeding ground for native birds and prohibits any disturbance of the birds within the reserve.” The front page of the Refuge website states: “Pets, bicycles, kite flying, Frisbees, ball-playing, camping, and fires are not permitted on the Refuge as they are a disturbance for the many migrating birds and other wildlife taking solitude on the Refuge.” With this level of concern, it is counterintuitive to allow destructive industrial aquaculture.  

 

Industrial shellfish aquaculture is known to reduce or eliminate eelgrass with the use of pesticides. Shellfish aquaculture also involves large-scale use of plastics—PVC tubes and plastic netting—that are hazardous to marine organisms and can trap and entangle wildlife. Commercial shellfish aquaculture is a major industry in Washington state that has significant impacts on the nearshore marine environments, which provide essential habitat for many species, including invertebrates, fish (including herring and salmon), and birds (migratory and shorebirds). 

 

Among the negative impacts of this project are: 50% reduction in bird primary feeding grounds; plastic oyster bags that exclude the probing shorebird flocks from feeding deeply into the substrate, entrap fish and birds, add macro- and micro-plastic bits to the sediment throughout the refuge, and shift the benthic community composition; diminishing of the ecological benefits provided by eelgrass to threatened fish and birds, such as nourishment and cover from predators; and increased algal blooms that will leave a graveyard of dead oysters. These detrimental effects to the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge are NOT minimal. Decisionmakers should not place financial benefits to the corporation above the long-term and cumulative impacts to the refuge. Half of the world’s 10,000-odd bird species are in decline. One in eight faces the threat of extinction. 2.9 billion breeding adult birds have been lost from the United States and Canada in only 50 years. 

 

Let’s raise our national voice and try and stop this refuge destruction with public persuasion. This is a public space we pay to protect. For more information, check out the Daily News post from last August, “Groups Sue U.S. Interior Department to Protect the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge from Industrial Aquaculture.” 

 

This action follows a lawsuit filed by three environmental organizations against the U.S. Department of Interior for failing to protect the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge from industrial aquaculture. The groups, including Protect the Peninsula’s Future, Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat, and Beyond Pesticides, filed their complaint in the U.S. Western District Court of Washington State. The complaint states that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), U.S. Department of Interior, must “take action that is required by the Refuge Improvement Act and conduct a compatibility determination and require a special use permit for a proposed industrial aquaculture use” that will abut and impact the Refuge. The plaintiffs are represented by the Seattle, WA law firm of Bricklin and Newman LLP. 

 

>>Tell the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland that the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge lease for industrial aquaculture must be rescinded.

 

We are focusing this Action against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Secretary of State.  

 

Thank you for your active participation and engagement!

 

Please take this ACTION and circulate it to your family, friends and colleagues.

https://secure.everyaction.com/WMJxQmNjDUqarx4FmLzUrA2

also, to support the lawsuit, you can send checks to:

Send a check to: PPF, POBox 421, Sequim WA 98382 or through PayPal: https://www.protectpeninsulasfuture.org/donate/

        PPF is a federal recognized 501c3 non-profit.

Pat Neal again denounces fish restoration projects.

The Peninsula Daily News mentions that the Kiwana’s of Port Angeles invited fishing guide, columnist and long time “salmon restoration industry” critic Pat Neal to speak at their recent meeting. We have long documented Neal’s rants against any and all efforts to restore the rivers he claims to love.

Neal blames virtually all parties, the Federal government, State government, and Local Governments for spending millions of dollars and having nothing (in his mind) to show for it. The article says that he ended by saying the Tribes should be running fish restoration, as if they haven’t been for decades. He clearly has been out of touch with what has been happening all around him.

Having done volunteer environmental work on the Peninsula for 20 years, along with producing films for the Jamestown S’Klallam and my film “Voices of the Strait” in 2010 for the Puget Sound Partnership, which was a documentary on the “old timers” that grew up fishing and hunting here, I can state that what Neal conveniently leaves out, is as important as what he says.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Clallam-Bay-Roads-1920s-734x1024.jpg
1930s roads in Clallam Bay

First off, Neal does not seem to understand that the efforts of restoration will take far longer and far more than the little we have already done. Why? Because we are dealing with 150 years of rampant exploitation of the Peninsula and it’s environment by a variety of people and companies operating with a worldview of “unlimited resources.” They were people of a very different time, legal framework and perspective.

Logging companies commercially cut over 95% of the old growth timber here. While doing that, they destroyed the 12,000 year old forest floors right down to the streambeds. A recovery from this destruction will take over another 100 years, if ever. This ecosystem was where the salmon (and numerous other unique species) thrived. They couldn’t and can’t live without it. There is no “blame” here, these people did not have a scientific understanding of how the ecosystem worked. They simply thought there was so much abundance, it could never end. The last “one log” truck went out on this peninsula as late as the early 1970s, while the Congress allowed raw logs to go out to Japan without using our sawmills. I watched as the ships were loaded with giant cedar and fir. Who profited from those decisions? Yet many still want to blame the Spotted Owl or the Boldt Decision for the end of the logging era and the almost simultaneous collapse of the salmon runs. The Spotted Owl fiasco was an outcome, not a cause. The Boldt Decision simply recognized that our neighbors indeed had “Treaty Rights” and they were going to be asked to help manage a fishery they had historically successfully managed for centuries.

One Log Truck c1960s. Photographer unknown.

Additionally, well meaning farmers gutted the rivers for irrigation, especially in the Sequim/Dungeness basin. One long time fisherman named Vince Cameron I interviewed for “Voices of the Strait”, told me that as a young boy, growing up on the Dungeness, he witnessed a tractor come into the river and cut a channel to create an irrigation ditch, during the middle of a salmon run, stranding thousands of fish as they moved upstream to spawn. He also discussed that channelizing the river, to end the flooding of the valley, created a high pressure hose effect, essentially scouring the banks where the salmon spawned.

Vince Cameron on the Dungeness River. Photo by Al Bergstein

The reversal of this entire mess has taken hundreds of millions of dollars, decades of the efforts of the Jamestown S’Klallam and the collaborative work of the Dungeness River Management Team, which included the Tribes, fishermen, hunters and farmers. It has been a successful effort. But it will likely take many more decades before we see significant numbers of salmon, especially the runs of Chinook. Neal would apparently rather sit on the sidelines and complain than take part in these efforts.

Another old timer told me that once the Hood Canal Floating Bridge came in, he noticed that the fishing in Hood Canal seemed to collapse. Since that comment to me, we have scientifically found out he was right, that the bridge is contributing to deaths of millions of fry on their way out to sea. Efforts to understand how we can keep the bridge and yet make it safe for salmon fry are ongoing.

Alexandra Morton in Canada scientifically proved that net pens were contributing to sea lice that were killing and weakening salmon as they passed by on their way to the sea. I witnessed the PR people employed by major aquaculture companies we all love here in Puget Sound, denounce her and her work over and over again. She was finally, after decades of work, successful in getting the Canadian Government to remove these farms. The runs this year, the first year that returns came back having not passed the farms, were spectacular. The people who denounced her have continued to be members of influential committees here on the Peninsula and continue to denounce efforts to reign in their ongoing takeover of our beaches.

We also have witnessed extensive construction of homes and businesses along the banks of salmon streams, destroying the natural habitat for a mixture of concrete and lawns. The reversal of that is taking decades as homes are bought out, removed and flood plains put back in place. Flood plains are the “lungs” of the river, and our destruction of them was incredibly bad news for salmon. Now we are on a path to restoration with best available science helping guide decisions being made by large groups of representatives from our cities, counties and environmental organizations.

I interviewed men who ran sports fishing boats out of Sekiu and other places. Herb Balch told me how he and other sports fishing fleet owners begged the Department of Fisheries to put limits on the salmon fishing during the 50s and 60s because they felt it was wasting the resource. He mentioned to me he would take out a boat of Boeing executives who would want to fish the “limit” and would come back with a boat of 30 to 50 fish. The customers might take one or two leaving him needing to gut and give away the rest. He could never find high school kids to be ready to do the work and in disgust, would dump the remaining fish over the side. This went on, day in and day out during fishing season.

Herb Balch, photo by Al Bergstein

Dick Goin, the late long time fisherman who was the spark for removing the Elwha dam, also documented the dramatic decline in salmon from the 1930s, when he arrived, to when he ended his fishing career. I have a copy of his legendary document, “Roll Call of the Lost” if anyone would like to see it.

Dick Goin photo by Al Bergstein

Ray Hunter, who grew up in Dungeness Bay, recalled the day that the boats came in and swept across the bay, dragging nets that destroyed the bottom and brought an end to many of the fisheries that he experienced growing up in the 40s and 50s.

Ray Hunter photo by Al Bergstein

Peter Becker told me of being on fishing boats in the late 70s with the latest fish finders and him and the crews wondering who would catch “the last salmon”.

Peter Becker photo by Al Bergstein

None of these men were environmental radical activists. They were simple fishermen, paper mill workers, truck drivers and businessmen that were appalled by the destruction they watched. They watched the ‘baseline’ as it’s called in science, move, and understood what was happening. From a baseline of virgin forests to a pillaged clear cut, from dozens of dead salmon floating away in the Strait, it was clear to them what was happening. Dick worked hard to reverse it, and the removal of the Elwha Dam and the return of the chinook and other fish to the upper reaches is now being seen. It’s not yet to a place where river guides can make a living, but we are headed that way. Unfortunately, it is not likely to be done in Pat Neal’s lifetime. It just isn’t that simple.


You can watch my film, “Voices of the Strait” on YouTube. Unfortunately, I was requested at the time to keep the running time short, and had to cut many interviews. I’m hoping to return to the film someday and make the running time long enough to include much of what was left “on the cutting room floor”.

You can watch my film, “Working for the River” about the Dungeness recovery efforts, on Vimeo.

Groups Sue USFWS for Failure to Protect Dungeness Spit

DUNGENESS NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE UPDATE (DNWR): Groups Sue USFWS For Failure to Protect the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge 

On August 17, Protect the Peninsula’s Future (PPF) was joined by The Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat and the WA D.C. national organization Beyond Pesticides in a legal action to hold the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) accountable to follow its regulations and protect the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge. They were represented by the Seattle WA law firm Bricklin and Newman 

Beyond Pesticides Press Release

The August 17 federal complaint, submitted to the United States District Court For The Western District of Washington, states that the USFWS must “take action that is required by the Refuge Improvement Act and conduct a compatibility determination and require a special use permit for a proposed industrial aquaculture use” that will abut and impact the Refuge. 

Plainly, the compatibility determination would decide whether this industrial- shellfish operation is compatible with the mission of the Refuge.The Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge was created in 1915 by President Woodrow Wilson. The Refuge provides habitat, a preserve, and breeding grounds for more than 250 species of birds and 41 species of land animals. The shellfish operation lease is for 50 acres of Washington State bottomlands. 34 acres would be covered with up to 80.000 plastic grow-out bags of non-native shellfish spat, staked into the bottomlands and potentially killing all marine life underneath and snaring wildlife in the netting. These plastic bags will cover the primary feeding grounds for the birds, essentially starving them as they peck through the plastic trying to reach nutrients. This operation would shift the natural year-round-sediment drift, moving the sediment into and covering the eelgrass beds – beds protected for rearing salmon for whales and nourishment for particular migratory ducks. To protect the birds, the area is closed to the public during the migratory bird season.  However the USFWS will allow the shellfish operation in to the area all year long to the detriment of the birds.

Please see this publication for further detail. https://www.ehn.org/dungeness-national-wildlife-refuge-oyster-2660613389.html

Rat Island experiencing an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI)

Bad news for the Caspian Terns on Rat Island

Friends of Fort Flagler has been sponsoring trained docents to help protect the Caspian Tern population that is currently nesting on Rat Island. Recently a number of dead birds have been sighted and test results provided to Fish and Wildlife have confirmed that the birds are carrying Avian flu.

Here is the press release from Friends of Fort Flagler

Avian Flu in Jefferson County

Keep your dogs on leash and away from the shoreline! We are experiencing an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), commonly known as bird flu, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) is closing public access to Rat Island near Fort Flagler State Park. Dozens of Caspian terns have died in the area and there are more that appear sick. Samples from bird carcasses were collected and have tested positive.

The HPAI virus occurs naturally among wild aquatic birds worldwide and can infect poultry and other bird and animal species. The virus is contagious among birds through saliva, nasal secretions, feces, and contaminated surfaces.

WDFW is asking the public to avoid contact with sick or dead birds and/or seals as a preventative measure. Also do not attempt to transport them to a veterinarian or a private property for treatment. Moving sick animals can spread the virus to areas where it did not exist before. Please keep pets away from bird carcasses or sick birds to avoid exposure to HPAI.

Public access to Rat Island had recently been discouraged to reduce disturbance to the tern colony and harbor seal pups present there, and shellfish harvest is closed around the island, but extreme low tides have led to more foot traffic to the island from Fort Flagler State Park. Staff are posting “closed” signs and information on HPAI around the island, the campground, and the boat launch. Keeping humans out of the area is a preventative measure and helps prevent the spread of the virus.

Please help spread the word about this closure and not touching sick or dead wildlife.

Friends of Fort Flagler

Coalition Takes Legal Action to Stop Logging in the Elwha River Watershed

Commissioner Franz continues to work against the concerns of the local constituents. And this woman wants to be governor?


Timber Sale threatens drinking water access, wildlife habitats, and biodiversity – Washington DNR ignores community requests to pause logging. 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 30, 2023

Contacts: Elizabeth Dunne, Esq., Director of Legal Advocacy, Earth Law Center edunne@earthlaw.org

Port Angeles, WA – On June 30, 2023, a coalition of groups–Earth Law Center, the Center for Whale Research, and the Keystone Species Alliance–filed a notice of appeal to challenge the “Power Plant” timber sale, currently set to be auctioned on July 26th, 2023, by the Washington Department of Natural Resources. The proposed “Power Plant” timber sale is a 126-acre timber sale that borders popular recreation routes such as the Olympic Adventure Trail, the Colville MBT, the trail to access the old lower dam site, and nearby climbing areas.

The forest is in close proximity to the Elwha River with a diverse mix of Douglas fir and Western redcedar, many at least a hundred years old, and a diverse, naturally regenerated understory. This timber sale is incompatible with the restoration of the iconic Elwha River, which underwent the largest dam removal in US history, completed in 2014. $327 million of federal funding has been invested in the river’s restoration to date. The legal action alleges that DNR has systematically engaged in extensive logging of older legacy forests in the Elwha River Watershed without studies or consideration of impacts to instream flows, groundwater recharge, and water temperature. Past, current, and future planned timber sales will remove hundreds of acres of forest.  

The lawsuit also alleges that DNR failed to consider how the logging could impact this critical riverine wildlife corridor, soil health, salmon and orca populations, and ongoing Elwha river restoration. The Elwha River is City of Port Angeles’ residents only source of drinking water

The forest is in the headwater area for Colville Creek and small tributaries of the Elwha River, areas critical for the recharging of groundwater to feed these streams. The Forest, its streams, and the rejuvenating Elwha River work together to support two keystone species: returning salmon populations and the critically endangered Southern Resident Orcas, who depend upon consuming salmon for their survival. Given their proximity to the Elwha River, these older forests provide critical habitat for endangered and threatened species, including Southern Resident orcas, Chinook salmon, and the Marbled murrelet. In fact, a juvenile Marbled murrelet was recently found just miles from the proposed harvest.

The legal action specifically identifies Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz’ pattern of skirting community input to push through unlawful timber sales, including the Power Plant sale. This forest could be saved today if Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz directed the harvest to stop. 

Community groups launched an ambitious campaign today to raise funds to negotiate for the protection of the forests from imminent logging. Pledged funds from the “Elwha Forest Fund” will go solely to replace the revenue that would have come from the extractive timber harvest auction. 

This legal action is by no means the first action taken by community groups in opposition to timber sales in the Elwha watershed. In addition to public comments formally submitted to DNR, community members have come out in droves to DNR’s meetings to speak during the open comment periods in opposition to this timber sale. Additionally, on March 5, 2023, over a hundred community members, largely from Port Angeles, the lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, the Jamestown S’klallam Tribe, the Lummi Nation, and surrounding areas in the Olympic Peninsula, joined together in a peaceful rally at the Elwha River Observation Area near an active timber harvest site called “Aldwell.” Aldwell was logged earlier this year by the DNR. 

The Port Angeles City Council in particular submitted letters to DNR to plead for the “Aldwell” auction to be put on hold. Despite community advocacy, DNR and Commissioner Hilary Franz did not adhere to local concerns and logged “Aldwell” without meaningfully considering community input. The city once again wrote to Franz to request delaying the auctions for “Power Plant” and “TCB23,” along with letters from many concerned local residents. For example, see the Mayor’s June 1, 2023 letter about the Power Plant sale. 

Forest Protection Advocates Banner Port Angeles

This morning, Clallam County residents joined forest & climate activists across the PNW in hanging banners calling for forest protection as key to mitigating the worst impacts of climate change.

A local hike in Clallam County took place on Saturday as part of the region-wide Week of Action for Forests & Climate.

On the Anniversary of the 2021 Heat Dome, PNW Communities Mobilize for Massive Week of Forest and Climate Action

PORTLAND, OR – Today, on the two year anniversary of the 2021 Heat Dome, communities throughout the Pacific Northwest are mobilizing a massive week of action to shine a spotlight on the significance of forest defense as climate defense. From the Rogue Valley in southern Oregon, to Bellingham, Washington and out east to the Rockies, communities are holding events to call on elected officials — from the White House and Forest Service to governors and state forestry agencies — to protect PNW forests as a vital strategy to mitigate the worst climate impacts, create jobs restoring lands and waters, and ensure forests and communities thrive for generations to come. The week of action comes just days after Multnomah County filed Multnomah v. Exxon, a bold lawsuit seeking to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for the Heat Dome which caused more than 100 deaths in the state of Oregon.

Brenna Bell, Forest Climate Manager for 350PDX says, “It is beyond time for all levels of government to treat the climate crisis like the emergency it is. I am heartened by Multnomah County’s bold action last week to hold Big Oil accountable for their role in creating the climate crisis. Now, governments need to recognize that Big Timber has also massively profited off clearcutting Oregon’s best defense against climate chaos and act quickly to protect and restore our forests.”

To kick off the week of action, today activists hung 20 banners that called for forest protection over highway overpasses across Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana in a coordinated action to highlight the growing grassroots movement to protect forests for climate mitigation. This action coincided with the release of an open letter from more than 30 organizations to the Biden Administration and federal leaders, calling on them to:

Protect federally-managed old-growth and mature forests in the Pacific Northwest as foundational to protecting our communities and a livable climate;

Listen to, resource, and support communities on the frontlines of the climate crises;

Support rural economies by redirecting federal subsidies away from the extractive timber industry and towards sustainable restoration and reforestation jobs;

Start acting like the climate crisis is the emergency that it truly is, and be a bold and decisive leader in protecting both the current and future generations.

“Protecting our remaining mature and old growth forests is crucial to mitigating the climate crisis and creating thriving climate-resilient communities,” says Madeline Cowen, Steering Committee member with the PNW Forest Climate Alliance. “Our forests have tremendous capacity to absorb and store carbon — we must prioritize safeguarding them for community benefit over short-term corporate profit.”

“We’re calling on our elected officials–from the White House and Forest Service to our Governor–to stand with our communities and protect our forests as a core part of meaningful climate action,” says David Perk, of 350 Seattle. “In Washington, we call on the Commissioner of Public Lands to follow through on her commitment to propose and implement an improved policy for the preservation of our remaining mature forests.”

Residents and organizations from around the region see a significant need to raise awareness around the need to protect PNW forests – some of the most carbon-rich in the world – as a key pillar of climate action and connect the dots between destructive logging and catastrophic climate impacts. They believe that these must be managed for community benefit, not to maximize profits for Wall Street corporations and shareholders. The actions will focus on the climate, water, wildfire, biodiversity, and economic impacts if their elected do not act now to protect PNW forests.

Dozens of actions are planned in 18 towns and cities across the PNW.

For the full list of actions visit: forestclimatealliance.org/weekofaction

The PNWFCA is a network of organizations and activists working at the intersection of forest defense and climate justice.

Opinion: A national wildlife refuge at risk of industrialization

This article originally was published in Environmental Health News. We use it with permission of the author.


SEQUIM, Wash.—Jutting out into the Strait of Juan de Fuca is a fragile, slender spit of sand and glacial till leftover from the Pleistocene Epoch nearly 1.2 million years ago.

It is the longest spit in North America, a refuge and protective barrier for marine mammals and some 250 breeds of shorebirds, several of whom stop on their way between South America, Alaska and beyond to build up fat to fuel their long journeys.

And it is also about to become commercialized for private profit by an industrial oyster corporation.

The Dungeness Spit, part of the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge, extends for five miles. Declared a refuge in 1915, its lush eelgrass beds are a pantry for waterfowl and a nursery for salmon that eventually feed whales and other wildlife. The Dungeness Bay itself is considered an important bird area by Audubon, for its significance for bird population conservation.

The refuge attracts birders and other recreationists from around the world. Territory enjoyed and cherished and serving as a nursery and refuge for wildlife that literally span the globe, will be subsumed for private gain. It is like a war on our marine ecosystem.

The Washington State Lands Commission, the Washington State Department of Ecology and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) issued permits for the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe to commercially grow non-native oysters in Dungeness Bay. These will be sold to restaurants, consumers and exported to other countries.

The operator will initially anchor 20,000, with a buildup to 80,000, on-bottom toxic plastic bags of non-native oyster spat over tens of acres smack dab in the primary mudflat bird feeding area – an area that today is off-limits to human access. Tens of thousands of shorebirds from across the Western Hemisphere depend on the mudflat as a critical feeding stop during migration.

The bags will be anchored into the sediment, smothering the intertidal zone benthic life underneath, and will affect the nearby eelgrass. This plastic is a type of PFAS, the group of chemicals also known as forever chemicals, able to contaminate the water that the filter-feeding oysters will ingest. This chemical could then move up the food chain to unsuspecting consumers.

The plastic nets are known to have ensnared birds and fish at other industrially-operated shellfish farms.

The Corps refused to conduct an environmental impact study, yet in an internal 49-page Memorandum to Record, the Corps admitted to the destruction the shellfish operation will have, but still permitted it.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), a division of the U.S. Interior Department, with authority to protect its refuges, withdrew its opposition to the operation. To protect the birds and their primary breeding and feeding grounds, this section of the refuge is closed six months of the year to human activity. Now the USFWS is permitting the industrial shellfish operator access to this protected area year-round, day and night.

As well, the USFWS is circumventing its own mandatory step of writing a compatibility determination.. Since this operation is incompatible, to write the determination would force the agency to publicly disallow the shellfish operation.

Violated, as well, are the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act. Organizations and individuals throughout the United States submitted comments, spoke out and petitioned to stop this shellfish operation. No agency acknowledged the public outcry.

The Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge industrial operation will be precedent-setting for our nation’s refuge system – and bodes poorly for what can happen in other protected areas.

Public funds upkeep national refuges. We have seen this sad song repeated over and over: When private corporations destroy public lands, the public is taxed to clean up the damage.

Today we are spending millions of dollars annually to clean up Washington state’s Puget Sound, the second largest estuary in the United States. Yet our state and federal agencies are opening these wildlife intertidal zones to more pollution and industrial activity. One third of Washington state’s coastal waters are filled with industrial shellfish aquaculture and plastic, leaving wildlife to forage elsewhere.

“In wilderness is the preservation of the world,” Henry David Thoreau wrote in 1862.

We should heed his words and protect rather than pollute our natural world. The state and federal governments should get back to protecting our wildlife refuges rather than acquiesce to their destruction.

Darlene Schanfald

Darlene Schanfald, Phd, has been active in environmental campaigns for more than three decades and is a board member of Protect the Peninsula’s Future.

Supreme Court shrinks definition of the Clean Water Act

Well I’m sad that this case ended this way. But I really think that there is a silver lining in this. For too long the EPA has decided what could be protected under the Clean Waters Act and frankly I understand though I don’t agree with the Supreme Court decision.

Congress ultimately ought to be the arbiter of putting into the law specific protections rather than having some vague understanding of wetlands somehow being connected to navigable waters of the United States. I’ve never understood exactly what that definition is and thought that it was being quite lenient or overly protective, perhaps Republicans would say overreaching, for the EPA to make those decisions rather than to have them baked into law. I have always thought that navigable waters meant rivers, lakes and ocean areas that would be usable by commercial boats. I don’t know that I would consider Priest Lake, a “navigable water” if it was my decision to make. Apparently, the justices felt the same way, given that there was no dissent, just differences of opinion on the decision. It is hard to imagine on this Supreme Court a 9 to nothing decision but that was what this was. So I don’t know that I would necessarily blame conservative judges though it’s so easy to do so given their recent uncovered flaws.

ALITO, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which ROBERTS, C. J., and THOMAS, GORSUCH, and BARRETT, JJ., joined. THOMAS, J., filed a concurring opinion, in which GORSUCH, J., joined. KAGAN, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, in which SOTOMAYOR and JACKSON, J.J., joined. KAVANAUGH, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, in which SOTOMAYOR, KAGAN, and JACKSON, JJ., joined.

The justices wrote,

The uncertain meaning of “the waters of the United States” has been a persistent problem, sparking decades of agency action and litigation. Resolving the CWA’s applicability to wetlands requires a review of the history surrounding the interpretation of that phrase.

21-454 Sackett v. EPA (05/25/2023) (supremecourt.gov)

There are many other areas where agencies determine what is the proper law for an industry. Thinking specifically about NOAA and the Army Corps of Engineers in their decision making processes that the court has over and over again found flawed. In fact the Army Corps of Engineers was one of the agencies that was specifically called out in this decision by the court.

I’m hoping that out of this fiasco, that allows homeowners to build homes out over wetlands, that we can come to some new type of laws that will actually regulate our waters properly.

Supreme Court shrinks definition of the Clean Water Act — High Country News – Know the West (hcn.org)

Cooke Aquaculture leaves Puget Sound

(From Wild Fish Conservancy) -Cooke Aquaculture, is pulling up stakes, hitting the road, and leaving Puget Sound forever. All week, local residents and members of the public stood on the shores of Bainbridge Island watching workers operating loaders and cranes packing up nets, removing debris, and pulling up anchors and chains that have been holding the industry’s net pens in place for over forty years.  Across the Sound, in Kiket Bay, local landowners watched as the Hope Island net pen was rigged up to a towboat and pulled out of sight and away from the waters it polluted daily at the mouth of the Skagit River. Below is a photo taken on Wednesday immediately after the Hope Island net pen was removed, showcasing the bay’s first moments free of commercial net pens.

In November, Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz made clear she heard the voices of the nearly 10,000 individuals and hundreds of organizations and businesses working together under the Our Sound, Our Salmon coalition when she issued her groundbreaking decision that the Department of Natural Resources was taking bold action to protect Puget Sound from commercial net pen aquaculture. Not only did Commissioner Franz deny the industry’s request for new decade-long leases to operate in our public waters, but she took an even bolder step by enacting a new policy banning commercial net pen aquaculture in Washington marine waters indefinitely. 


Whether this will hold up to the court challenge being brought by some Tribes remains to seen. Franz, running for Governor against Attorney General Bob Ferguson and facing criticism by some environmental organizations for her forestry policies, needed to bolster support from the environmental wing, while deciding that alienating tribes like the Jamestown S’Klallam would not cost her much in the way of votes. Certainly this will play well on “The eastside of the Sound” where her fundraising will be primarily done, as Seattleites rarely understand the subtleties of the issues raised by those on the Peninsula. Why? The Jamestown have been working with Cooke on changing the net pens to native Black Cod (Sablefish). So they are not happy about this decision. Other tribes have supported this decision, once again highlighting that the Tribes of the Salish Sea are not a single entity in their decision-making, but a coalition of individual political entities with unique needs. It is unclear of how this may play out as the State works with the Tribes on future negotiations around fishing regulations.

Years ago, I interviewed a local elderly fisherman, who had fished the areas around Agate Pass. His belief was that after the net pens came in, he noticed a significant drop in wild salmon the following years. Of course, this could have been coincidental, given the amount of destruction happening through rampant development about the same time to the spawning streams of Puget Sound and overfishing off the coast. But I was also hearing similar things from other older fishermen about the Hood Canal Floating Bridge, which then turned out to be true. A large sum of money is being spent right now to mitigate what has only lately proved out to be the correct assumption of that “old timer” regarding Hood Canal. We’ll get to see if salmon numbers recover in the Agate Pass area, now that Cooke is gone.

EVENT: Heroes of Our Time May 6th

The Northwest Toxic Communities coalition is proud to present our annual Summit 

 “Heroes of Our Time”

Hear the challenges they have faced along the way to success

Saturday May 6  –  9 AM – 3 PMJoin us virtually to celebrate Dr. David Carpenter, public health champion for communities v. Monsanto Attorney Marc Zemel on the Spokane River PCB cleanup against the USEPA Attorney 

Charlie Tebbutt, author and public advocate for cleaning up CAFOs

RSVP here: https://nwtoxiccommunities.org/event/annual-summit-2023-heroes-of-our-time/  (And see an enlarged flyer)

Option:  If the RSVP Google.doc link above does not work for you; email me your name and email address:  darlenes@olympus.net

The URL to the meeting will be released Friday, May 5.

WA Dept of Ecology & Rayonier Port Angeles Superfund Site

The Washington State Department of Ecology recently mailed out the first report in a long time to residents near Ennis Creek in Port Angeles. This report covers the update to the work that has been going on for over a decade to try and restore the superfund site at Ennis Creek. There has been feedback from concerned citizens on the issue.

Status Update: Port Angeles Cleanup Sites and Natural Resource Damage Assessments

It’s the first report we’ve seen from Ecology since 2019 about what’s happening at the Rayonier site, Port Angeles Harbor and several other contaminated sites in the PA area that are being cleaned up, or will supposedly be cleaned up.

Here is the reply from the Friends of Ennis Creek.

ECOLOGY MAILING PROMPTS QUESTIONS, COMMENTS.

You may have recently received a 4-page mailing titled “Status Update: Port Angeles Cleanup Sites and Natural Resource Damage Assessments.”

It was sent out to North Olympic Peninsula residents and other interested parties by the state Department of Ecology (ECY) the first week of April.

The mailing came as a result of requests from Friends of Ennis Creek and others concerned about how long it’s taking to deal with toxic contaminants at the Rayonier mill site and in Port Angeles Harbor and impacts on Ennis Creek, our last best chance of a salmon stream in Port Angeles.

Here’s a link to the 4-page mailing Ecology sent — https://apps.ecology.wa.gov/cleanupsearch/document/123269.

The mailer provides a great deal of information — but it’s also concerning.

Robbie Mantooth, co-founder of Friends of Ennis Creek, found the Ecology mailing wanting in several areas:

“The city of Port Angeles, area tribes, Friends of Ennis Creek and many other governmental and non-governmental entities have told ECY leaving a toxic landfill on the Port Angeles waterfront is unacceptable.

“Public concerns have included how contaminants are likely to spread on water and land because of sea level rise and extreme weather.

“This mailing doesn’t provide enough detail to make the public’s overwhelmingly consistent demands clear.

“We have asked for speeding up actions, including doing cleanup and restoration whenever possible.”

Your comments about the mailing would be appreciated.

Please post them in this post’s comments section, below, and also email them to Barry Rogowski, program manager of state Ecology’s Toxics Cleanup Program. His email is brog461@ecy.wa.gov.

You also can email Robbie at ennis@olypen.com.

Here is Robbie’s reaction:

The public needs information about negotiations with Rayonier to restore land and water harmed by the company’s mill operations. If they must be confidential, the public deserves an explanation.

The public needs assurance that the change in property ownership, from Rayonier Properties LLC to Rayonier Advanced Materials (AM), will not affect the company’s financial responsibilities to pay for cleanup and restoration.

The public needs clarification of such subjective terms ECY is using — such as “maximum extent practicable” — and assurance this doesn’t mean a limit to the company’s responsibilities.

The public needs assurance that ECY is responsive to concerns expressed in more than 160 comments sent to ECY during the last public comment period.

Almost every comment demanded the removal of ALL contaminants from the former Rayonier mill site — but the ECY Model Toxic Control Act (MTCA) team’s most recent preferred alternatives would continue to cover and leave toxic wastes in our community rather than removing them.

We are also concerned that existing signage on the Rayonier fence does not adequately inform the public about the level of contamination and about toxic exposures to human health.

(Darlene Schanfald of the Olympic Environmental Council would like new signs at the Rayonier site and along the Olympic Discovery Trail that parallels it: “Eye-catching, informative signage is needed on the fences around the Rayonier site to inform the public why they should not enter the site.”)

The city of Port Angeles, area tribes, Friends of Ennis Creek and many other governmental and non-governmental entities have told ECY leaving a toxic landfill on the Port Angeles waterfront is unacceptable.

Public concerns have included how contaminants are likely to spread on water and land because of sea level rise and extreme weather.

This mailing doesn’t provide enough detail to make the public’s overwhelmingly consistent demands clear.

We have asked for speeding up actions, including doing cleanup and restoration whenever possible.

ECY has reported dissatisfaction with Rayonier’s failure to include some of the agency’s proposals into what is called the Interim Action Plan.

We have asked ECY to make those concerns available to the public as well as what Rayonier has proposed.

Ecology says 30,000 tons of contaminated material have been removed — but doesn’t describe the amount or contents of what remains.

When will the cleanup be finished?

A report to the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) included a revised timeline much more specific than what was in the ECY mailing this month.

The timeline is especially concerning since the mailing says ECY doesn’t “yet know how far the contamination from the mill spreads.”

We have asked ECY to focus on land and water affected by the Rayonier mill — even though we share interest in the Port Angeles Harbor to the west.

Although we commend the agreement among those who have agreed to pay for the western harbor cleanup and restoration, we want to be sure that progress doesn’t detract from what remains be done for people, fish and all other life continuing to be affected by what Rayonier left behind.

We also need to clarify how the cleanup under Washington State’s Model Toxics Control Act (MTCA) is related to the federal EPA.

Darlene Schanfald, who has led public involvement efforts with a grant under MTCA through the Olympic Environmental Council, provided some history of what happened after the Rayonier mill closed in 1997.

“The U.S. Environmental Protection Administration considered a Superfund designation for the land and water impacted by Rayonier Pulp Mill operations.

“EPA agreed to let the state Department of Ecology lead the cleanup under the state’s Model Toxics Control Act, but EPA would oversee actions and would have to sign off on a delisting.”

Friends of Ennis Creek and others have asked for copies of the annual report EPA requires from Ecology.

We’ve received only the one for October 2022 but have asked to be notified when others are made available, as we were told they would be, on the ECY website ( https://ecology.wa.gov/Rayonier ).

We have asked our congressman, Derek Kilmer, who grew up in Port Angeles, to help us meet with an appropriate EPA representative.

Canada Shuts Down 15 Fish Farms in B.C., Citing Risks to Wild Salmon – Maritime Executive

The pressure is building on Canada to end the use of net pens that effect wild salmon runs. A huge win for Alexandra Morton and her supporters, but more importantly, for the wild salmon runs which, as the article points out, are in serious decline.

After years of concerns over the impact of aquaculture on wild sockeye salmon, Canada’s fisheries department has decided not to renew the operating permits of 15 Atlantic salmon farms in an environmentally sensitive area of British Columbia. 

Canada Shuts Down 15 Fish Farms in B.C., Citing Risks to Wild Salmon (maritime-executive.com)

How a River Breathes

Filmmaker John Gussman caught two views of the new levee project on the Dungeness River recently. This is what is also known as a floodplain. By allowing the river to “breathe” and overflow it’s banks, without endangering manmade structures like homes and farms, you save the river and the ecosystem that it exists in. As you can see, this is less than one month apart. Allowing home development in such a location is asking for problems, and problems were what the Dungeness valley had for many decades after white people attempted to tame the river. This is a compromise. The river is allowed to breathe, a few farms and homes are paid to relocate, and moving forward, the likelihood of more salmon coming back to a habitat that they can survive and reproduce in is given a much higher probability of success. In addition to fish, this promotes a wide array of flora and fauna, including ducks, geese, and many others. The Dungeness River Management Team (DRMT), which includes farmers, duck hunters, and with help from the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe worked for decades to make this possible, with millions in help from the federal and state government and our State and Federal representatives. For a more detailed look at this issue, you can watch my 2010 film, “Working for the River” that covers the issues in recovering the Dungeness. https://vimeo.com/80651319

Thanks to John Gussman for use of the drone photos. John is available for video and still work. Check out Doubleclick Productions – Photography-Video Production-Stock Imagery-UAV Drone Services located on the Olympic Peninsula (dcproductions.com) for his other projects.

Newest round of clean-water funding focuses on small communities including Jefferson County

State Ecology is handing out funding to many organizations around the state for clean water initiatives. Here’s the Jefferson County proposals.

Jefferson County Public Health is proposed to receive a $500,000 grant, $7.5 million loan, and $2.5 million in forgivable-principal loans to establish a watershed-conservation fund, providing a scalable loan fund for acquisition of land critical to improving water quality in high-priority watersheds. This innovative program will provide nimble funding, so nonprofit land trusts and other public entities can purchase properties for conservation and sustainable stewardship as land becomes available, rather than being tied to the government funding cycle. This pilot project will complete a feasibility assessment, program design, and purchase of two properties to establish the program

The battle of sea lice and salmon goes on

An update on the battle to remove fish farms from Canada. The industry denies it’s a problem here, 100 miles south…

  • Increased sea lice infestations, scientists say are caused by salmon farms, threaten the already-vulnerable wild Pacific salmon populations in western Canada, worrying conservationists and First Nations.
  • Three First Nations in the region are now deciding on the future of open net pen Atlantic salmon farms dotting the channels and waterways in and around their territories. They hope their decisions will pave the way to protect wild salmon, a culturally important species.
  • So far, ten farms have been closed and the future of seven farms are to be decided this year, in 2023.
  • The impact of the closure of the farms on sea lice and wild salmon populations is still unclear, say scientists, and more time to monitor the data is needed.

As sea lice feast away on dwindling salmon, First Nations decide the fate of salmon farms (mongabay.com)

Court Recommends Halting Alaska’s Unsustainable Harvest to Protect Wild Chinook and Southern Resident Killer Whales

Yesterday, The federal court in Seattle issued a landmark decision. The outcome of this is still to be determined. But it likely means an end to Chinook harvest in Alaska. NOAA has been losing in court due to their lack of rigorous science behind their decisions. This lawsuit was brought by the Wild Fish Conservancy, one of the most effective environmental organizations in the Pacific Northwest. If you want to support their work, it’s a good time to donate.

More to come on this. 

December 16, 2022— In a massive international and coast-wide decision for wild Chinook and Southern Resident killer whale recovery, Seattle’s federal Court issued a landmark opinion on Tuesday that recommends terminating unsustainable commercial salmon harvest that has persisted for decades until new environmental reviews of those fisheries occur. Overfishing was found in a previous ruling to illegally harm the recovery of both endangered Southern Resident killer whales and wild Chinook salmon across the Pacific Northwest.


On Tuesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Michelle Peterson issued a report and recommendation on Wild Fish Conservancy’s lawsuit, agreeing that halting the summer and winter seasons of the Southeast Alaska Chinook troll fishery is the most appropriate remedy. Simultaneously, the judge found the federal government’s inadequate biological opinion should be remanded back to NOAA in order for the agency to address violations of environmental law.


In August, U.S. District Court Judge Richard A. Jones issued a stunning summary judgment based on a previous report and recommendation by Magistrate Peterson confirming that NOAA violated the law by improperly relying on undeveloped and uncertain future mitigation to offset ongoing overfishing authorized by NOAA.


In their most recent analysis of this fishery’s impact on threatened and endangered species, NOAA admits that over the last decade and continuing today, Chinook harvest is occurring at levels that are unsustainable for the long-term survival and reproductive success of both threatened wild Chinook populations and endangered Southern Resident killer whales. The overharvest of the whales’ prey has been ongoing for decades.


“The benefits to wild Chinook and Southern Resident killer whale recovery from the Court’s action cannot be overstated,” says Emma Helverson, Executive Director of Wild Fish Conservancy. “If adopted by the District Judge, this recommendation will result in the first scientifically-proven recovery action in the Pacific Northwest to immediately provide Chinook for starving killer whales. The decision will also recover and restore the larger and more diverse life histories of wild Chinook these whales evolved to eat, which are fundamental for rebuilding both populations.”


While these Chinook are harvested in Southeast Alaska marine waters and currently certified by major U.S. seafood certifiers as ‘sustainable wild caught Alaskan Chinook’, approximately 97% of all Chinook harvested in the Southeast Alaska troll fishery actually originate from rivers throughout British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon. Currently, these Chinook are harvested prematurely, before they can migrate back into southern waters where the Southern Resident killer whales encounter them. In 2021, the fishery of concern harvested approximately 150,000 Chinook, many of which were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
For the first time in decades, Magistrate Peterson’s recommendation to terminate this fishery would finally allow these Chinook to migrate back down the coast and pass through the Southern Resident killer whales’ key foraging areas. Similarly, this action would support the coastwide recovery of wild Chinook stocks by allowing far more wild Chinook to return and spawn in rivers in B.C., Washington, and Oregon.


“I want to emphasize that Alaskan fishers are not to blame for NOAA’s chronic mismanagement of this fishery, and we are sympathetic to the burden this decision may pose on Southeast Alaskan communities,” says Emma Helverson, Executive Director of Wild Fish Conservancy. “However, it’s critical to also acknowledge that for decades this fishery has harvested majority non-Alaskan Chinook at unsustainable levels with cascading and coastwide consequences for fishing communities throughout British Columbia, Oregon, and Washington. In addition to the unparalleled benefits to killer whale and Chinook recovery, the Court’s decision will restore more control to communities over the recovery of their local Chinook salmon populations, particularly tribal people and First Nations.”


Southern Resident killer whales were listed as Endangered in 2005. Currently, there are only 73 individuals in the population, an alarming decrease from nearly 100 only 25-years ago. Reduced prey availability, specifically large and abundant Chinook, has been identified by killer whale experts and NOAA as the primary cause of their decline.


“With less fishing in Alaskan waters, more Chinook can return to spawn in their home rivers in British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon,” said Dr. Deborah Giles, Science and Research Director at Wild Orca. “An increase in larger, mature fish is essential—not just for the whales— but for the survival of these imperiled Chinook populations, whose future also hangs in the balance. A recovery for Chinook benefits all fishers, whales, and humans alike.”


“Despite the clear evidence, for too long government agencies, certifiers, and the media have been unwilling to acknowledge and address the unsustainable salmon harvest management in this fishery and others that is harming the recovery of the Southern Resident killer whales and the wild Chinook they depend on,” says Helverson. “The Court’s finding is playing an important role in bringing science and policy closer together for the benefit of wild salmon, killer whales, and coastal communities.”


In the coming months, the Magistrate Judge’s report and recommendation and any objections from the defendants will be considered by the District Judge presiding over the case for a final ruling.
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