PORT ANGELES — The four forensic canines who patrolled 50 acres of Port Angeles’ waterfront late last year for buried Native American remains indicated 93 percent of the area was of “no or insufficient interest,” according to a statement released by the city late Tuesday.
None of the dogs alerted at their top level, defined as “on top of a burial,” according to the statement.
“In summary, very few areas studied along the waterfront contained enough historic human remains scent to cause specially trained canines to alert to a statistically accepted level,” said the statement, released by city spokeswoman Theresa Pierce.
The study, conducted under a $19,200 contract with the Institute for Canine Forensics of Woodside, Calif., showed the remaining 7 percent of the study area was ranked from “some interest by at least one dog” to “great interest by at least two dogs.”
The location of the 7 percent that interested the dogs was not announced in the city statement.
Lower Elwha Klallam Tribal Chairwoman Frances Charles said the survey, which she said late Tuesday she had not seen, indicates good news for development interests.
“I think it is good, and hopefully it relieves a lot of the surrounding areas about the potential out there in that aspect,” she said.
“Economics is greatly needed in our area.”
Charles added that a protocol is in place that ensures the protection of full and isolated remains should they be discovered when development occurs
A shoreline survey conducted last summer by city archeologist Derek Beery showed a medium to high statistical probability that Native American artifacts or remains are present under half of Port Angeles’ waterfront.
It encompassed 872 acres and showed general areas of archaeological interest, Beery said at the time.
“The dogs are just one small component of the overall predictive model,” city Planning Director Nathan West said Monday.
“There’s basically 10 different components of the predictive model that make this come together,” West added.
Beery would not be interviewed about the canine project on Monday or Tuesday, saying Monday he would issue a press release on the dogs’ findings.
He was not available for comment once the statement was released, which was after City Hall closed to the public on Tuesday.
The area patrolled by the dogs did not include the 75-acre site of the former Rayonier pulp mill east of downtown, Nippon Paper Industries USA west of downtown and an unidentified business.
Rayonier was built on the site of the Elwha Klallam village of Y’ennis, and Nippon was built near the ancient village of Tse-whit-zen.
Representatives of Rayonier and Nippon refused to allow the dogs on their properties when the canines were in Port Angeles from Nov. 30 through Dec. 4.
Charles downplayed the significance of those refusals, saying remains are already known to exist at those sites.
The canine-survey study area included 2,049 units of 100 square meters each
Results
The results were as follows, according to the release:
• 1,900 units were of “no or insufficient interest,” or 92.7 percent of the study area, or 46.35 acres
• 83 units were of “some interest by at least one dog,” or 4 percent; 2 acres.
• 56 units were ranked “interest by at least two dogs,” or 2.8 percent; 1.4 acres.
• 10 units were ranked “great interest by at least two dogs,” 0.5 percent, with no acreage given.
The five-year city archaeologist position and the canine study are funded with $7.5 million in settlement money the state of Washington paid the city when Tse-whit-zen was discovered in August 2003 during construction of the state Department of Transportation’s failed graving yard project.
“In conjunction with the settlement agreement, we’ve been asked to focus on the most innovative technology out there to best ascertain the high, medium and low probability areas where cultural resources are in terms of the shoreline,” West said.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsula dailynews.com.
