The Associated Press
OLYMPIA — A judge has ruled that the Navy SEALs won’t be able to use Washington State Parks as training grounds.
In January 2021, the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission voted 4-3 to approve the Navy’s proposal to use up to 28 parks — including several on the North Olympic Peninsula — for training purposes for the elite units, where SEALs would emerge from the water under the cover of darkness and disappear into the environment.
The Northwest News Network reports the decision rankled many recreationalists, who said during public comments they would avoid those areas for fear that SEALs would watch them without the knowledge or consent of visitors.
On Friday, Thurston County Superior Court Judge James Dixon said the commission’s decision was illegal and outside its purview, which includes the protection and enhancement of parks.
In addition, Dixon ruled the commission violated the State Environmental Policy Act by not considering fully how the trainings could deter visitors.
The judge’s decision could be appealed.
Opponents of the decision often said the presence of out-of-sight SEAL trainees would incite a “creepiness factor,” removing a sense of calm often found in nature.
Dixon said he couldn’t come up with a better legal term than that.
“It is creepy,” he said.
In earlier public hearings, Navy officials said Washington’s natural landscapes provide critical cold water training for SEALs. Washington’s coastlines and currents pose challenges to SEAL trainees that are difficult to find elsewhere, said Warrant Officer Esteban Alvarado at a Nov. 19, 2020, public meeting, calling the region a critical component in training exercises.
According to the decision reached in January 2021 by the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission, each park would have to be permitted separately, and by requiring more parameters on where permits would be allowed, the state had effectively reduced the number of parks that will be used. The “best guess” at the time was that the original 28 parks would be cut to 16, according to Toni Droscher, State Parks spokesperson.
North Olympic Peninsula parks the Navy originally requested to use were Fort Flagler, Mystery Bay, Fort Townsend, Fort Worden, Shine Tidelands and Dosewallops in Jefferson County and Sequim Bay State Park in Clallam County.
In addition to parks on the Peninsula, the Navy also is seeking permits to use Manchester, Pacific Pines, Cama Beach, Salsbury Point, Camano Island, Cape Disappointment, Deception Pass, Grayland Beach, Joseph Whidbey, Skagit Island Marine, Fort Casey, Twin Harbors, Fort Columbia, Leadbetter, Westhaven, Fort Ebey, South Whidbey, Westport Light and Triton Cove state parks.
J. Overton, the deputy public affairs officer at Navy Region Northwest, said in January 2021 that the Navy had been using state parks for similar training for “decades” through single use agreements between individual parks and the Navy.
“And then a few years ago (in 2015), we decided to make the agreement with the parks department themselves,” Overton said then.
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The Peninsula Daily News contributed to this story.
