On the other side of the Cascades the three year drought in the Yakima Valley creates uncertainty and hard decisions
Another good article about the effects of the third worse drought on record. Farming there is going from bad to worse.
Filed under: Climate Change, Eastern Washington, Global Warming, Washington State | Tagged: Climate Change Impact, Farming Challenges, Water Resource Management, Yakima Valley Drought | 5 Comments »
Another day, another threat from the Trump administration to open public lands, revoke roadless areas to open them to cutting on Federal forests. This press release is from the Sportsmen for Wild Olympics.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 8th, 2025
QUILCENE, WA—September 8th, 2025: Today, Sportsmen for Wild Olympics released a new map with photos illustrating the devastating impacts that developing key roadless backcountry public lands on Olympic National Forest could have on critical headwaters of prime trophy fishing rivers and public access on the Olympic Peninsula. The group is calling on Congress to pass the Wild Olympics Act as a proactive solution to permanently protect these lands.
“This map tells Congress and the Administration: protect the Olympic Peninsula’s public lands—don’t privatize or develop them,” said Ashley Nichole Lewis, a Quinault Indian Nation fishing guide and spokesperson for Sportsmen for Wild Olympics. “It gives our fellow sportsmen and women something to fight for, not just against—a lasting solution to threats we are confronting right now.”
The urgency comes as the Trump Administration announced a shortened comment period ending September 19th on their plans to rescind the Roadless Rule in order to log & develop sensitive spawning habitat on public lands, a key federal safeguard for undeveloped backcountry areas across national forests, including Olympic National Forest. The new map with photos highlights & names the critical ancient forest roadless headwaters & salmon streams on Olympic National Forest that are now threatened by the Trump Administration’s plan to lift protections for these backcountry public lands prized by Olympic Peninsula sportsmen for the clean water, critical habitat & access they provide.
What is the Roadless Rule?
The Roadless Rule, established in 2001, protects undeveloped areas of national forests from new road construction and logging. These “roadless” areas are often rugged backcountry landscapes that provide crucial habitat for fish and wildlife, protect water quality, and offer remote hunting and angling opportunities. Removing these protections opens the door to industrial development in some of the last remaining intact, healthy forest lands in the country.
“Rescinding the Roadless Rule is yet another attempt to hand over our essential public resources to special interests—at the expense of salmon, clean water, and future generations,” Lewis said.
The coalition—comprising thousands of local and regional hunters and anglers, and over 30 leading sportsmen organizations—has already punched well above their weight earlier this year playing an outsized role in the national backlash opposing the unprecedented threats to public lands coming from both Congress and the Administration. Lewis says these threats highlight exactly why the group supports the Wild Olympics Wilderness & Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, recently reintroduced by Senator Patty Murray and Representative Emily Randall.
“The different public land sale efforts in Congress and the new plan to strip protections from 59 million acres of core forest headwaters nationwide—including lands on the Peninsula—show that they will use any tactic to privatize or exploit our public lands,” Lewis said. “This map shows what that would actually look like. Congress & the White House must reverse course and pass Wild Olympics to permanently protect these critical salmon streams instead.”
The Wild Olympics Act, developed with years of local input, would enhance hunting and fishing access while permanently protecting some of the last, best intact salmon-spawning habitat left in the Lower 48. Importantly, it would not close existing roads or cost timber jobs. It has broad local support with over 800 local endorsements.
The new map & photos show how the Wild Olympics proposal would protect key areas such as South Quinault Ridge, Moonlight Dome, and other core ancient forest headwaters & rivers vital for hunting & fishing on the Peninsula —areas the Administration now plans to open for logging by rescinding the Roadless Rule.
(The steep forested slopes of the Moonlight Dome Roadless Area forms the critical headwaters for both the East and West Forks of the Humptulips River (seen ok the left), one of the top ten Trophy Fishing Rivers in Washington State).
The map also reveals that 300,000 acres of Olympic National Forest have been identified as eligible for sale under different plans by the Administration and some members of Congress during earlier drafts of the budget bill passed earlier this year. While the land sale provision was struck from the budget, proponents continue to push this idea forward.
The unprecedented threats to public lands recently sparked Senator Murray to throw down the gauntlet in the Senate, announcing she will block any public lands legislative package that comes out of Utah Senator Mike Lee’s Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee unless it includes her Wild Olympics bill, a move that galvanized local supporters to pull out all the stops to get it done this Congress.
Lewis hopes the map inspires more hunters and anglers to join the thousands who have already signed their petition.
“The outdoor community is powerful. Our fishing and hunting guides are pillars of this community. The same places we work the hardest are the ones we return to after the day is done—because we love them. Let’s use that collective power to ensure a single pen stroke can never take our public lands away. Let’s pass the Wild Olympics Act.”
###
HOW TO FIGHT BACK.
1) Sign the WildOlympics.org/wild-olympics-petition/ telling Congress ancient temperate rainforests of the #WildOlympics aren’t for sale & to permanently protect Olympic Peninsula #publiclands & rivers against travesties like this in the future.
2) Those who can afford it PLEASE WildOlympics.org/DONATE to fuel our fight. We helped defeat this four years ago. Help us defeat it again & pass the Wild Olympics Wilderness & Wild & Scenic Rivers Act to permanently protect ancient forests & salmon streams once & for all.
3) SUBMIT A COMMENT AT PORTAL LINK Comment Period Ends Sept 19th. Tell USDA to uphold the Roadless Rue to protect Olympic Peninsula Ancient Forests & critical salmon nurseries that were already centuries-old when our nation was born.
For more information, including a rolling list of articles from sportsmen outlets covering the threats to public lands, visit: SportsmenForWildOlympics.org/threats
Waters West Guide Service (Montesano)
Bad Ash Outdoors (Tahola)
Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association
Northwest Guides & Anglers Association
The Washington Wildlife Federation,
Izaak Walton League (Gr. Seattle Chapter) Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, (Washington Chapter)
Association of Northwest Steelheaders,
The Gray Wolf Fly Fishing Club (Sequim)
SAGE Fly Rods
Doug Rose Fly Fishing (at request of family)
Bad Ash Fishing (Tahola)
Washington Council of Trout Unlimited
Little Stone Fly Fisher (Port Townsend)
Johnson Guide Service (Sequim)
Olympic Peninsula Skagit Tactics (Forks)
Able Guide Service (Seiku)
Mike Z’s Guide Service (Forks)
Brazda’s Fly Fishing
Angler’s Obsession (Forks)
Sea Run Pursuits
Peninsula Sportsman Guide & Outfitting Service (Port Townsend)
Waters West Fly Fishing Outfitters (Port Angeles)
The Wild Steelhead Coalition
Piscatorial Pursuits (Forks)
Able Guide Service (Sekiu)
LimbSaver
Oly Women On The Fly
WA Council of Fly Fishers International
Puget Sound Fly Fishers
Coastal Cutthroat Coalition
Filed under: Clallam County, Environmental Protection, Government, Jefferson County, legislation, Olympic Peninsula | Tagged: Era of Trump, Roadless Rule, Trump Administration, Wild Olympics Act | 3 Comments »
More attacks on our local environment. This, if enacted will likely open up a great deal more logging destruction in our nearby National Forests.
“The U.S. Department of Agriculture, parent agency of the U.S. Forest Service, announced Wednesday that it is moving ahead with plans to rescind a rule that has restricted logging and construction on millions of acres of federal lands in the American West for more than two decades.”
Read and subscribe to The Washington Standard.
Filed under: Olympic Peninsula | Tagged: Canada, Environmental Protection, Olympic Peninsula | Comments Off on Trump administration advances plan to reverse federal rule that limits logging in national forests
A few years after Alexandra Morton was successful in getting the BC government to end fish farms, which she proved were causing great harm to native runs, there is a massive return of native fish.
A reminder to any new readers, that over the last 15 years, I personally was present as employees of Taylor Shellfish did everything they could to discredit anyone challenging the fish farms. They disrupted a presentation by a leading scientific researcher in Port Angeles, Dr. Larry Dill and they routinely called Alexandra Morton a non scientific fraud in public meetings of the Jefferson County Marine Resources Committee. I was chair of the committee during these moments and was routinely needing to stop the outbreaks by a representative of the company who presented falsehoods about her credentials. I never knew whether they represented the management of the company, but since one of them was a manager of a local location of Taylor, it seemed reasonable to assume they did. Perhaps the time has come to have management at Taylor apologize for the behavior of their employees.
I am grateful to see the success of wild salmon returning to areas that just a few years ago were littered with the bodies of fish that died of parvovirus before being able to spawn.
“…Miller detected piscine orthoreovirus, or PRV, a new virus discovered only a few months earlier, as the cause of heart and skeletal muscle inflammation—HSMI—a disease spreading unchecked through the salmon farming industry in Norway. “ From The Georgia Strait newsletter.
From The Tyee, a B.C. newsletter this week.
“But in late July of this year, he said, the number of returning sockeye suddenly spiked.”
“That was incredible,” he said. “That was the most fish that’s ever been caught on that date, since test fishing began.”
While the nation was still waiting to hear on a commercial fishery, Svanvik said that each household was able to get 15 fish to fill their freezers — still a far cry from more than 100 in previous decades.
Svanvik also credits the spike in salmon to the removal of more than 40 fish farms from the salmon’s migration route.
While Taylor cautioned that “correlation is not causation,” he did say that this year’s positive returns shift responsibility onto government to prove that the aquaculture industry hasn’t been harming wild salmon.
“You don’t want to go back to those poor returns,” he said. “I think the onus shifts with this, and I think that’s the most important part of it.”
https://thetyee.ca/News/2025/08/14/Fraser-Sockeye-Returns-Prompt-Fishery-Openings/
Filed under: Around the Salish Sea, fishing, Olympic Peninsula | Tagged: Canada, Net Pens Aquaculture, Salmon | 2 Comments »
Jefferson County, WA. Recent shellfish samples tested by the Washington Department of Health (DOH) have found high levels of the biotoxin that causes Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP). Therefore, DOH has closed Port Ludlow and Mats Mats Bay for the recreational harvest of all species of molluscan shellfish including clams, oysters, mussels and scallops. Jefferson County Public Health has posted Danger signs at public access points in the area. Crab and shrimp are not included in the closure. Even if the crab meat is safe, toxins can accumulate in crab gut and butter (the white-yellow fat inside the back of the shell). Clean crab thoroughly and avoid eating the crab butter and guts.
Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning can be fatal. Illness is caused by eating shellfish contaminated with toxins from the naturally occurring marine plankton Alexandrium. The biotoxin is not destroyed by cooking or freezing. Symptoms of PSP can appear within minutes or hours and usually begin with tingling lips and tongue, moving to the hands and feet, followed by difficulty breathing and paralysis. Anyone experiencing any of these symptoms after consuming shellfish should contact a health care provider immediately. For extreme reactions, call 911.
To find out which areas are safe to harvest shellfish in Washington and the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW) harvesting seasons and rules, please check the map at www.doh.wa.gov/ShellfishSafety.htm or call the Biotoxin Hotline at 1-800-562-5632. For the latest information on regulations and seasons, visit wdfw.wa.gov/places-to-go/shellfish-beaches or call WDFW Fish Program customer service at 360-902-2700.
Filed under: Jefferson County | Tagged: Jefferson County, Port Townsend, Shellfish | Comments Off on Port Ludlow and Mats Mats Bay closed for shellfish harvest
From Jefferson County Public Health: There is a summer surge of Covid nationally and here. ( I know two friends that recently got it.) There have been 3 people hospitalized in Jefferson county because it has been a long time since the last vaccines. There also has been a pediatric hospitalization. Public health are recommending a second booster for those over 65 with underlying conditions. If you haven’t had a second booster QFC has the vaccine now, the new vaccines should be available in October. The vaccines are covered by Medicare.
On covid–if you got all the vaccines you should have, are you still protected in any way? Yes, your risk of serious disease is less. The virus is just as dangerous as it always was, but most of us have some level of immunity. Babies are at the highest risk. Folks over 65 have a harder time holding onto their immunity. If you’re under 65 do you need an annual vaccine? Yes.
The Canadian broadcasting Company (CBC) had a show recently on new research that is showing that the long-term effects of Covid are perhaps much worse than we have originally thought. Titled:
“Beyond long COVID — how reinfections could be causing silent long-term organ damage
Even if you think you’re done with COVID, COVID might not be done with you”
One of the takeaways:
“There is no such thing as a COVID infection without consequence,” says long COVID researcher, David Putrino, from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.
The long-term effects can show up as long COVID, with symptoms such as shortness of breath, digestive problems, fast or irregular heartbeats, extreme fatigue and brain fog, or as silently accumulating cellular or organ damage.”
It is worth a quick read or listen to at this link:
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/beyond-long-covid-1.7485888
Also. Pertussis transmission is up – two diagnosed here, 30 in Clallam. Only about 10% of active cases get detected, so the numbers are more like 20 here and 300 in Clallam, and school has not started yet.
There were two cases of vibrio (a bacteria in brackish water) in raw shellfish. The food safety team got on it really quickly and no one had done anything wrong, it’s just a side effect of raw oysters in hot weather. Best to avoid oysters when the weather is hot.
Filed under: Olympic Peninsula | 2 Comments »
The escorts are meant to help reduce oil spill risks in waters around the San Juan Islands, Bellingham and Anacortes.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s People for Puget Sound pushed for an escort tug to protect the Strait of Juan de Fuca. After enormous lobbying (and resistance from the industry and the Coast Guard) our State Representative at the time, Kevin Van de Wege, got the bill passed through and into law. The tug has assisted dozens of ships in mechanical trouble since then. Now Friends of the San Juans are promoting this new effort, which could significantly improve the chances of spill protection in the event of a mechanical breakdown.
Support this effort.
Originally published in Salish Current.
https://salish-current.org/2025/08/12/effort-to-dial-up-oil-spill-prevention-meets-pushback/
Filed under: Around the Salish Sea, Environmental Law, Environmental Protection, Straits of Juan de Fuca | Tagged: oil spill prevention, Rescue Tug | Comments Off on Plan to expand WA’s tugboat escort requirements for oil tankers stirs pushback
The Peninsula Daily News reported that Protection Island is seeing what may be the last breeding pair of Tufted Puffins. Smith and Protection Islands were what state officials believe to be the last islands with nesting pairs.
According to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, in 1909, there were an estimated 25,000 Tufted Puffins across 44 nesting sites on the coast of Washington and in the interior Salish Sea. By 2009, the population had plummeted to less than 3,000, with only 19 nesting sites remaining and only two in the Salish Sea.
Tufted Puffins are still thriving in Alaskan waters, however …”a troubling mass die-off event on St. Paul Island in 2016 raises significant concern for the species’ future. Over 350 severely emaciated carcasses washed ashore, underscoring the urgency for further research and conservation efforts to safeguard these remarkable birds.” (as reported in https://www.adventuresnw.com/rare-birds-the-endangered-puffins-of-the-salish-sea/)
The loss of Puffins may be from a wide variety of causes, including habitat loss and the loss of species of fish they eat.
Salish Sea on cusp of losing tufted puffins
also check out “Dispatch from the Last Colony”
https://www.eopugetsound.org/magazine/field-dispatch-last-colony
Filed under: Endangered Species, Olympic Peninsula | Tagged: protection island, Tufted Puffins | 1 Comment »
There is only one voting choice to be made on the primary ballot: city council. My choice is Fred Obee. Fred has a long history in this community and has a lot of experience following the City Council.
The fact that Dylan Quarles is a young, inexperienced person in local politics along with some of the city council members and mayor coming out in favor of him, make me wonder if he is simply being viewed as a rubber stamp for their ongoing spending habits, which have been called into question by many people in this city.
Fred did very well in the recent League of Women Voters debate. (listen to it on KPTZ.ORG)
Fred will be a critical voice on the council and will stand up against the go along, get along nature of the current city council.
I look forward to Dylan spending more time around the politics of this city and continuing to participate in the issues.
Vote for Fred Obee.
Filed under: Olympic Peninsula, Port Townsend | Tagged: Fred Obee | Comments Off on Port Townsend City Council Election- Vote for Fred Obee
This has been called off. The water has been declared safe.
A tragic truck crash poisons a key drinking water source for Port Angeles and destroys a salmon bearing stream.
Not sure when the oil will wash through the system. Check with local web sites for updates.
Filed under: Olympic Peninsula | Tagged: Port Angeles, Salmon Recovery, Water Pollution | 2 Comments »
If you find you have a rat problem, you may be tempted to either contract with a pest service or purchase those black bait boxes at a farm supply store. However, here is the story on that bait box and its dangers to our local population of rat predators, meaning the owls, hawks and eagles we have in our area.
The most common poison for rats these days is bromadiolone. I queried the Ai program, Perplexity about the dangers of bromadiolone to predators. Here’s its answer.
Even at a mix rate of 0.005% per 1 oz. block, it poses a significant danger to owls that eat rats poisoned by it. Bromadiolone is a second-generation anticoagulant rodenticide (SGAR), which is known for its high risk of secondary poisoning—when a predator like an owl consumes prey that has ingested the poison.
Key points:
• Bromadiolone is classified as a moderate to high secondary poisoning risk for birds, including owls.
• Residues of bromadiolone can persist in rodent carcasses for over 100 days, meaning poisoned rats can remain toxic to predators long after death.
• Owls and other birds of prey have been found with bromadiolone residues in their livers, and studies show widespread contamination among wild owl populations.
• Owls are particularly vulnerable because they have a limited ability to detoxify anticoagulant rodenticides, making them more susceptible to poisoning than some other birds or mammals.
• Even sub-lethal doses may impact owl health and survival, especially during periods of stress or food scarcity, though the exact effects of low-level, chronic exposure are not fully understood.
In summary: Using bromadiolone as a rodenticide creates a real risk of harming owls and other predatory wildlife through secondary poisoning, regardless of the specific concentration in bait blocks. Safer alternatives or non-chemical rodent control methods are recommended to protect owls and other non-target species.
Filed under: environmental education, Olympic Peninsula | 1 Comment »
In what might be the final blow to the solar industry of the United States, Trump and the Republicans are planning to essentially kill it and hand all the production to China.
How this makes America great again is beyond me, except for the fact that this country seems to have had a coup d’etat pulled off by the oil industry. That is usually what happens when the fossil fuel industry is the main industry in a country. Look at any country around the world, perhaps other than Sweden that hasn’t had a political takeover by pro fossil fuel politicians.
This won’t cure the move to solar and wind, because the economics of it is already overtaken fossil fuels. It simply destroys the manufacturing capacity of the United States to be a leader here.
This is going to put people out of business,” said Mike Carr, the executive director of Solar Energy Manufacturers for America, which represents more than 15 companies and 6,100 manufacturing workers. “This is going to devastate the industry.”
The utter stupidity of these politicians is truly beyond comprehension, other than the fact that they keep lining their pockets with the money from the petroleum industry.
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/02/business/energy-environment/trump-bill-solar-panels-china.html
Filed under: Olympic Peninsula | Tagged: climate change, environment, goverment, Government Legislation | 4 Comments »
There is so little real documentation of what happened in the 1960s and 1970’s known as the “fish wars” in the Pacific Northwest. Now a new documentary is out that I highly recommend. The Boldt Decision was perhaps one of the most important legal decisions of the 20th century. It re-established Treaty Rights in a totally new way that impacted tribes across the country and influenced indigenous leaders around the world.
The award-winning documentary FISH WAR, tells the story of tribes’ fight to secure their fishing rights — and the monumental Boldt decision that reaffirmed those rights — is available to buy. You can find the feature-length film on Amazon, Vimeo, Google Play, Apple TV+ and Fandango at Home here.
Filed under: Environmental Law, First Nations, Olympic Peninsula | Tagged: boldt decision, Puget Sound, tribes | 2 Comments »
Last week I received info from a friend that U.S. Representative Emily Randall did not vote during the key vote to “claw back” monies already allocated to a variety of important causes, including U.S. food and health aid to many foreign countries, along with the funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which includes funding for PBS, StoryCore, NPR and funding for many stations around the U.S.
It was hard to believe that Rep. Randall would miss such a key vote.
What did this vote affect? From Congress.gov:
This bill rescinds $9.4 billion in unobligated funds that were provided to the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), various independent and related agencies, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
The rescissions were proposed by the President under procedures included in the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974. Under current law, the President may propose rescissions to Congress using specified procedures, and the rescissions must be enacted into law to take effect.
Specifically, the bill rescinds funds that were provided to the State Department or the President for
The bill also rescinds funds that were provided for
The vote came down to a simple majority needed. As you can see, it passed by only 2 votes.
Four Democrats did not vote. One was Emily Randall. With her vote and only one other, the bill would have failed.
Why did she not vote on this key piece of legislation that all the other Democrats voted on as a party? Where was Emily that night and what caused her to miss this? I have reached out to her office, identifying as a member of the press and asked for someone to get back to us and give us an answer. No one has returned our calls. I’ve been in touch with other members of the Democratic party in this county/district and they too have gotten no feedback. In addition to this bill, Randall has not voted on 11 bills in total in June! Of course, some bills are very low priority. But her record is becoming a question.
Another question is “Where was Democratic Whip Katherine Clark? “ She is supposed to be in charge of getting out the parties votes? Why did she not get Randall there?
This is an unacceptable situation . Randall ran as the darling of the left, with huge support from unions and the LGBTQ wing of the Dems. This support helped many of us, who were unfamiliar with her background support her, as she did not represent this district in her prior roles in government.
We have waited 13 days to get an answer to our questions. It’s time her staff and her went public about this. We will not drop this issue until an explanation is forthcoming. There is a Jefferson County Democratic fundraiser in July and if answers are not here by then, it is going to cause some problems for the fundraiser. How many are willing to give money when the results are a person that does not vote for key legislation?
Filed under: Olympic Peninsula | 2 Comments »
A Trump administration budget proposal would essentially eliminate one of the world’s foremost Earth sciences research operations the Oceanic and Atmospheric Research office at NOAA.
The insanity of this move is breathtaking.
“This Administration’s hostility toward research and rejection of climate science will have the consequence of eviscerating the weather forecasting capabilities that this plan claims to preserve,” Representative Zoe Lofgren, the senior Democrat on the House Sciences Committee, said in an emailed statement.
As stated some months ago, we are witnessing the death of the environmental movement, and our scientific supremacy. There have only been a few times in human history of a similar dismantling of the key scientific expertise: The fall of Rome along with the sacking of the Library at Alexandria (done by Christians against the ‘Pagan” religion of the Roman elite class); the execution by guillotine during the French Revolution of the country’s key scientists; and Nazi Germany’s purge of all scientists who were not willing to tow the party lines. The current administration most closely resembles Nazi Germany’s purge.
It’s up to all of us to stand up to this outrageous behavior, before the sun sets on the American era. It could not have been better done if the Russians themselves had invaded. Maybe they have and we just don’t know it yet.
Filed under: Olympic Peninsula | 2 Comments »
As members of our current Supreme Court validate kidnapping by anonymous masked men and shipping of their prisoners to foreign countries that they never originally came from, dropping them into hellholes around the world with no visible means of support, or knowledge of the language spoken, I’m reminded of the words of Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas.
Filed under: Olympic Peninsula | 5 Comments »
This is happening in our state. ICE appears to be employing tactics to require immigrants to suddenly have to come in to the office or face deportation. Little time is given to comply.
“Svendsen arrived first at 7:30 a.m. on a Wednesday. Her client, an El Salvadoran woman who asked to be identified only by her first name, Veronica, walked up to her in tears and gave her attorney a long hug.
In Veronica’s hands were the medical records of her 8-year-old daughter, a U.S. citizen who has autism. “She needs me all the time,” Veronica said. Her daughter doesn’t speak and cannot eat or use the bathroom by herself.
Since receiving the summons two days before, Veronica had worried she might be detained and separated from her family, which also includes a 17-year-old daughter. Her daughters were upset too, the crying of the oldest prompting her sister to do the same.”
How is this helping make America great again?
As pushback grows to WA immigration court arrests, ICE changes tactics
Filed under: Olympic Peninsula | 2 Comments »
The Trump administration said that it would open up 58 million acres of back country in national forests to road construction and development, removing protections that had been in place for a quarter century. Read more: https://nyti.ms/4k6iKKa
“President Trump has called on cabinet secretaries to bypass endangered species laws and other environmental protections in order to boost the domestic supply of timber.”
Maybe you should do something about it?
Filed under: Olympic Peninsula | 1 Comment »
The battle over keeping industrial aquaculture out of our National Wildlife Refuges, is still being played out in the courts. Recently three environmental organizations have successfully sued to get the US Fish & Wildlife Service to complete a “compatibility determination (CD)” for the industrial operation. The court has ruled that a CD must be performed. It is not clear whether the company must now stop any work in the refuge.
Here is the press release from the plaintiffs. Please consider donating to any of them to help offset the costs of the lawsuit. It’s *our* wildlife refuge at stake.
In 2023, Protect the Peninsula’s Future, Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat, and Beyond Pesticides sued the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) for its failure to conduct a compatibility determination (CD) for a proposed industrial shellfish operation at the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge (DNWR). The case is being reviewed by the U.S. Federal District Court in Tacoma.
USFWS regulations state that for any project on or near one of its refuges, a CD must be written. These cases are not unusual, and the Dungeness case is especially important because if the case is lost, industrial shellfish operations might be free to open at other Refuges.
Last year the Court ruled the case should proceed because it is clear the USFWS must write a CD.
The industrial shellfish operator – the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe (JST) – sought to moot the plaintiffs’ case due to potential financial impact to the JST. The JST received various agency permits to plant 80,000 non-native oyster spat (larvae) in large plastic bags to be anchored to the substrate in the refuge area on 34 acres. The then manager of the DNWR had determined the shellfish operation was incompatible with the mission of the refuge, but higher ups in the agency overruled her and refused to write a CD. In the meantime, the JST started planting oyster spat.
The federal court allowed the JST to present arguments against the plaintiffs’ suit.
On 15 May 2025, the court responded in our favor. The case will not be mooted; the USFWS must follow its regulations.
From the Court documents:
“Compliance with the statutory procedures in the Refuge Act is undoubtably a public right that safeguards environmental protection.
Only the public right to administrative compliance with the Refuge Act procedural requirement to complete a compatibility determination and/or require a special permit are ripe for adjudication.
Drawing all reasonable inferences in favor of plaintiffs, Jamestown appears to have planted seeds after it was aware that it was probable the Service would conduct a compatibility determination.
Therefore, it is hereby ORDERED that Jamestown’s motion to dismiss, Dkt 44, is DENIED. “
The plaintiffs now wait for the Court’s final ruling against the USFWS, ordering it to write a CD.
Filed under: Aquaculture, Clallam County, Environmental Activism, Environmental Law, Environmental Protection, Olympic Peninsula, Straits of Juan de Fuca | Tagged: jamestown s'klallam tribe | 1 Comment »
This just in from the Puget Sound Partnership’s Strait Ecosystem Recovery Network (ERN). Want to create a rain garden? Or other neighborhood storm water program? Get together with your town or county peeps and apply!
The RFP for the Neighborhood Stormwater Education and Assistance grants will open on May 7th and there are informational webinars on the horizon. These funds can support projects including:
Filed under: Clallam County, Environmental Protection, Jefferson County, Olympic Peninsula | Tagged: epa, grant, rain garden, storm water program | Comments Off on
