Unknown to most citizens our Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge is threatened by a commercial shellfish operation.
This refuge provides a safe habitat for 244 species of birds, 29 of mammals and 26 of fish.
The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe received a 10-year, 50-acre lease within the refuge’s prime bird feeding and sheltering area.
This is not a tribal gathering of oysters for subsistence or local use.
This is under a non-tribal-corporate permit seeking profits by selling oysters nationally and overseas while significantly reducing feeding areas and habitat for birds and marine-dependent life.
The applicant proposes to phase in a large-scale operation that, if all phases are approved, would allow 80,000 plastic oyster bags anchored to the seabed floor.
It would include placing and harvesting an unknown quantity of non-bagged oysters on beach areas.
All of these operations require human disturbance of birds, forage fish, sea grasses, and microscopic marine life.
I think it will also limit eelgrass spread, an important component of healthy nearshore environments.
Most agencies and citizens are concerned about the use of plastics in marine waters.
The plastic bags attract and release toxins present in salt water.
Yet Clallam County, the Department of Ecology, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Department of Natural Resources have permitted this project.
If you want our taxpayer-supported refuge to remain a refuge, send an email to Hilary Franz, Commissioner of Public Lands, cpl@dnr.wa.gov, asking her to rescind the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge lease allowing this oyster operation.
Janet Marx
Port Angeles