The state Department of Fish and Wildlife is accepting public comment on a draft management plan that outlines goals for areas from Morse Creek to Tarboo Bay.
The goals are for a newly defined North Olympic Wildlife Area, which encompasses 1,800 acres on the North Olympic Peninsula.
Written comments will be accepted through Thursday, April 15.
Among the plan’s goals are to increase acreage under state control in the Snow and Salmon creeks area of Discovery Bay, which now encompasses 156.38 acres north of U.S. Highway 101 and state Highway 20, and the Lower Dungeness Unit, which is 47.89 acres 3.5 miles north of Sequim off Towne Road.
The plan does not say how many acres would be added.
The department plans to finish restoration of the log cabin at Morse Creek, three miles east of Port Angeles off U.S. Highway 101, and to transfer either management responsibilities or ownership of the Tarboo unit, at the mouth of Tarboo Bay, to the state Department of Natural Resources Natural Areas Program.
Management of all areas is in concert with partners and outside grant funding is the primary funding mechanism for projects, the plans says.
Special five-area focus
It focuses especially on five areas in Clallam and Jefferson counties, with the goals of preserving habitat, maintaining healthy populations of native animal and plant species and providing diverse opportunities for the public to use the areas.
The emphases for each area, and the partnerships under which they are managed, are:
• Snow and Salmon Creek — estuary and forest restoration.
Partners are the North Olympic Salmon Coalition, the Jefferson Conservation District and the Jefferson Land Trust.
• Morse Creek — channel restoration and public education on 133.22 acres.
Partners include the North Olympic Salmon Coalition, Peninsula College and the Clallam Conservation District.
• Bell Creek — restoration of Oregon white oak woodland and savanna on 89.4 acres east of Sequim.
Partners are the National Resources Conservation Service, the Sequim Community Foundation and local volunteers.
• Lower Dungeness estuary — salt marsh restoration, forest and flood plain restoration, freshwater wetland enhancement, and waterfowl hunting.
Partners are Clallam County, the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe, the North Olympic Land Trust, the Olympic Peninsula Audubon Society and the PCC Farmland Trust.
• Chimacum estuary — forest restoration and public beach access on 108.78 acres that are 2.5 miles north of Chimacum and six miles south of Port Townsend.
Partners are the Jefferson Land Trust, North Olympic Salmon Coalition, the Rainshadow Chapter of Trout Unlimited, Jefferson County and Wild Olympic Salmon.
Also included in the North Olympic Wildlife Area are 62 acres five miles west of Port Angeles called the Elwah Unit, 8.9 acres upriver from the Lower Dungenes Unit called the Dungeness Unit, 21.51 acres south of Jimmycomelately Creek called the South Sequim Bay Unit, 47.5 acres of Protection Island, and 150.55 acres northeast of Quilcene and south of Port Townsend at the mouth of Tarboo Bay and Dabob Bay called the Tarboo Unit.
Goals outlined in the include:
Snow, Salmon Creeks
• Maintain forest buffers, analyze the feasibility of removing railroad grade at the Snow/Salmon Unit to restore the Discovery Bay estuary, and work with the Peninsula Trails Coalition to utilize the Discovery Bay railroad footprint as part of the trail.
Lower Dungeness
• Plan restoration and enhancement on 50 acres at Lower Dungeness Unit (River’s End) to maximize benefits for fish and wildlife species.
• Coordinate release of 720 pheasants on Voice of America Dungeness Recreation Area.
• Renegotiate a management memorandum of understanding with the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe and Clallam County.
• Transfer several parcels along the Dungeness River from Clallam County to the state.
• Evaluate transferring a conservation easement to the North Olympic Land Trust.
Morse Creek
• Assist the North Olympic Salmon Coalition and the Jamestown S’Klallam and Elwha Klallam tribes in Morse Creek remeander project.
• Temporarily rent the Morse Creek house.
Bell Creek
• Maintain 20 acres of recently planted Oregon white oak — or Garry oak — trees to expand and enhance native oak forest habitat.
• Remove buildings at the Chaplain (Bell Creek) parcel.
South Sequim Bay
• Assist the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe with the prairie/oak woodland habitat enhancement at South Sequim Bay.
The plan, which was developed with the help of a local citizen advisory group, is posted on the Fish and Wildlife Web site at wdfw.wa.gov/lands/wildlife_areas/management_plans/.
Comments may be submitted by completing the online feedback form at wdfw.wa.gov/lands/wildlife_areas/management_plans/plan_review.html or by writing the Fish and Wildlife at: Wildlife Program/North Olympic Wildlife Area Management Plan Comments, 600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501-1091.
