Uncharted waters
Dungeness Spit management to change this summer
A few years ago, the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge (locally known as "The Spit") had so many volunteers working the trailhead kiosk that it was a coveted position with a months-long waitlist. That's not the case anymore.
In an attempt to understand why volunteers have lost interest, the "Friends of Dungeness Wildlife Refuge" President sent out a questionnaire this spring. The questionnaire asked if volunteers disliked long shifts or if busy times were too stressful. Two of the options were: "I'm not happy that the Tribe will be co-managing the refuge" and "I do not agree with the Tribe's plan to farm oysters in the bay."
The March 2023 Jamestown S'Klallam Tribal newsletter's message from Tribal Council Chairman/CEO Ron Allen discussed the Tribe's desire to expand shellfish farming operations into the Refuge. The Tribe believes that its farming proposal is "in alignment with the Refuge's mission." If the U.S. Fish & Wildlife permit to start farming in Dungeness Bay is granted, the Tribe sees the management of the Dungeness Wildlife Refuge as the next natural step.
The article also discussed partnering with Cooke Aquaculture, the company responsible for a massive spill of Atlantic Salmon in Puget Sound when one of their farming pens disintegrated, releasing 250,000 non-native fish into our waters. Allen believes that partnering with the business will "keep our Tribe deeply rooted in the seafood business and will not only create jobs, but additional unrestricted revenue for our Tribal operations." Allen reported that the Tribe's two hatcheries, one on the Hood Canal and one in Kona, Hawaii, are doing well.
Allen’s article initially appeared online but was removed. However, his words survive in the print edition: "We are currently negotiating the scope of work and associated funding and are on schedule to manage the refuge in 2024," he said just over a year ago.
Friends of the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge don't know how the management takeover will affect the tremendously popular attraction north of Sequim. Still, they are hopeful the partnership will benefit Refuge programs.
Partnering with the Jamestown Tribe has been problematic in recent years. Clallam County partnered with the Tribe during the Lower Dungeness Floodplain Restoration project and realignment of Towne Road. That collaboration has been fraught with miscommunication and cost overruns, and taxpayer money intended to complete the road was funneled from public interests to special interests.
Most notably, the project partners may not have shared a common goal: the County communicated to the public and grantors that it intended to relocate the road, but the Tribe indicated over a decade ago that it wanted the road terminated. Surprisingly, the County recently revealed that Towne Road was never intended to be opened atop the Towne Road Levee (even though it was built at twice the necessary width). The debacle has kept Towne Road closed for over two years, and it was never intended to be closed for even one day.
Will the Tribe allow the public to continue hiking to the lighthouse? Will students be permitted to take field trips to the base of the spit? Or will the Tribe suggest launching a campaign to close the Spit (just as it did with Towne Road) and preventing the public from using the spaces they fund?
The lessons learned from Towne Road are just beginning. Skeptics believe that the Tribe’s ever-changing reasons for wanting the road closed were irrational and never fully revealed the Tribe’s motivations. The Tribe’s explanations changed from wanting to convert the road to an “outdoor classroom” to the desire to install pedestrian counters, to an interest in the ecological integrity of the road and wetland mitigation, to reviewing multiple drafts of the county’s stormwater treatment plans, to ensuring the county would pay for monitoring costs. County staff scrambled to satisfy the Tribe’s pivoting demands while the Commissioners spent two weeks drafting a letter of apology to Tribal leaders.
The commercialization of a wildlife refuge is a new concept. Many are leery that handing over management of our community spaces to a sovereign nation may put commercial ventures ahead of public interests. Although the Jamestown Tribe has benefitted from appropriating Clallam County taxpayers’ money for its projects and enterprises, its intentions haven’t always been transparent.
The fact that the tribe will take over ‘management’ of the wildlife refuge is new information to me.
It appears that the tribe is taking back Sequim and Clallam County one business, one organization, one housing development at a time.
Think of the investments we could make if we paid no taxes, could hunt & fish all we wanted, and get favorable treatment from government.... Pretty rosy, eh? I think this whole issue of Tribal sovereignty needs to be revisited.