PORT TOWNSEND — The eight-member Conservation Futures Citizen Oversight Committee voted unanimously Monday to recommend that Jefferson County commissioners fund $200,000 in Conservation Futures dollars toward the purchase and ultimate preservation of Jefferson County icon Tamanowas Rock.
Jefferson County commissioners are expected this year to consider the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe and Washington State Parks’ request for the $200,000 in county Conservation Futures Fund dollars generated through county property taxes.
‘Bridge’ owner
Jefferson Land Trust purchased the 63-acre rock property in December 2009 for $600,000 and will remain the “bridge” owner until the tribe and state parks come up with the money to purchase the property and land adjacent to Anderson Lake State Park
Creating a nature sanctuary around the more than 100-foot rock, a spiritual symbol to Northwest tribes and others, is key to its protection, those wishing to preserve the site said.
After ranking the proposal highly for funding and discussing it, the eight-member Conservation Futures Citizen Oversight Committee voted 8-0 in favor of advising the county commissioners to approve the $200,000 funding when they consider it in late May or early June.
The recommendation came after committee member Herb Beck raised his concern about public access required for a tax-revenue funding proposal, an issue raised in reference to the possibility of the property being closed for tribal spiritual ceremonies.
Northwest Native Americans such as the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe have used the site at the rock as a sacred place of worship.
“We’re talking public funds to help fund this,” Beck told committee members. “My feeling is that it should be open 100 percent.”
Other advisory committee members, however, said tribal representatives, including the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe’s attorney, said they only planned to close the site for short periods during rituals.
Committee member John Wood said the tribe had indicated it wanted to consider having a caretaker on the site and provide a boardwalk with interpretive signs to educate people about Tamanowas Rock.
Member Barbara McColgan Pastore said she was excited about funding the project because it ties in with other projects in the area.
Pastore said funding was for conservation of the site, not to preserve it for recreation.
Access a concern
Martin Mellish, a resident of the Port Townsend area who climbs the rock two to three times a week, told the committee he believed the purchase should not be funded unless access was guaranteed.
“My feeling is if public money is going to go in this . . . there needs to be a definite and firm access plan,” Mellish said.
Otherwise, he said, the county would be buying “a pig in a poke.”
Mellish said he would not be opposed to short, temporary closures of the property for tribal use, just permanent closure.
The rock juts up out of the forest east of Anderson Lake State Park.
Sarah Spaeth, Jefferson Land Trust executive director and a member of the Conservation Futures Citizen Oversight Committee, recused herself from voting Monday, saying she represented the land trust as a project sponsor. She then left the meeting.
The tribe in 2005 obtained loans to purchase 86 privately owned acres adjacent to the rock which might have been developed as home sites.
Jefferson County’s Conservation Fund partially funded purchase of a conservation easement of the tribe’s property just north of the rock, a deal completed in 2008.
In November 2008, Washington State Parks entered into a purchase agreement for 63 acres of the Tamanowas Rock property.
State Parks then transferred that agreement to Jefferson Land Trust.
And last December, the Land Trust purchased the property for $600,000 — $480,000 of which came in a two-year loan from the Bullitt Foundation, documents show.
The tribe came up with the funding balance through loans from community members.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
