QUILCENE — The Navy and The Nature Conservancy have entered into a five-year agreement that they said benefits the environment and protects the Navy’s underwater research range on Dabob Bay.
The Navy agreed to provide $3 million for a Navy/conservancy partnership to acquire interests in land around Navy installations to protect underwater ranges, including Dabob Bay.
The money will allow for Navy acquisition of land to set aside for preservation and future Navy access, acquisitions to come later, a Navy official said.
“There is still a lot up in the air,” said Liane Nakahara, Navy Region Northwest spokeswoman, adding that the Navy and conservancy were merely announcing the new agreement.
Shellfish-rich Dabob Bay is one of the most pristine, least developed and ecologically important estuaries in Hood Canal and Puget Sound.
The state Department of Natural Resources established the Dabob Bay Natural Area in 1984 to protect rare examples of intact salt marsh and sand-spit plant communities.
Initially created as a natural area preserve, the site was enlarged in 2009 to include additional land designated as a preserve, along with lands designated as natural resources conservation area. This provides additional opportunities for low-impact public use.
The Dabob Bay Natural Resources Conservation Area is 6,287 acres, which includes shorelines and the forested uplands.
The Dabob Bay range is also the Navy’s premier location in the United States for research, development and testing of underwater systems, such as smaller unmanned underwater vehicles used in conjunction with submarines.
“We are honored to enter into this agreement with the Navy,” said Karen Anderson, the conservancy’s Washington director.
“There has been a long history of collaboration at Dabob Bay for conservation of forests and shorelines. We’re thrilled that the Navy, a longtime user of Dabob Bay, is now entering into this collaboration to protect their research and testing range.”
Rear Adm. Douglass T. Biesel, Navy Region Northwest commander, said the Navy was happy to partner with The Nature Conservancy.
“Access to land and water spaces to test and train are vital to our success in maintaining high levels of readiness to defend our nation,” Biesel said.
This “encroachment protection” agreement, Biesel noted, is part of the Department of Defense’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Initiative that is designed to support partnerships to work with willing landowners to protect habitat and ensure that development or use of lands, water or air space in the vicinity of areas related to a military installation, range or airspace is compatible with the military mission.
Robin Stanton, The Nature Conservancy’s spokesman in Seattle, said the conservancy was ready for the agreement in part because about two years ago, state DNR extended the boundaries of the natural resource area.
“It makes it possible for the state to acquire land in the area from willing sellers,” Stanton said of the agreement.
“Now that we have that natural resources area, it just enables the mechanism for the state to buy the land there.”
Stanton said the conservancy will continue its work with a coalition including the Northwest Watershed Institute, Jefferson Land Trust, DNR and other state and federal environmental agencies to acquire land around Dabob Bay from willing sellers to preserve it as part of the state-designated natural area.
The conservancy has a 40-year history of working with the Navy and the other military services to protect the environment while protecting the military’s ability to perform its missions.
The first project between the conservancy and the Navy was an agreement to manage natural resources habitat at Naval Weapons Systems Training Facility Boardman in Oregon.
The Navy has conducted underwater testing at Dabob Bay since 1956.
It is also a component of the Department of Defense Major Range Test Facility Base, the core set of test and evaluation infrastructure recognized as critical assets to national defense.
Because the Navy is a seagoing force, many of its environmental initiatives focus on ocean stewardship.
“This is an excellent example of the [Defense Department’s] Readiness and Environmental Protection Initiative helping to protect the Navy’s substantial investment in the Dabob Bay range while preserving water quality and wildlife habitat in Hood Canal,” said Rep. Norm Dicks, ranking Democratic member of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, in a statement.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
