Dabob Bay preserve land swap seen to protect timber trust revenues
By Jeff Chew, Peninsula Daily News
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North Olympic Peninsula timber-industry interests oppose the state Department of Natural Resources proposal, saying it threatens their ability to harvest timber and produce revenues toward the county's junior taxing districts that support fire protection and schools.
Remote Dabob Bay is known for its salt marsh estuaries, marine riparian shorelines and the oysters that grow in its clean waters deeply embedded between Toandos Peninsula and the Olympic Mountains.
The pristine bay is at the heart of the state's largest concentration of oyster farms along Hood Canal. It is to a great extent why Washington state today leads the nation in oyster producers.
Shellfish growers have joined with conservation groups and Jefferson County elected officials to work with Resources in an effort to protect the bay.
They support Resources' proposal, which would dramatically expand the existing 195-acre Dabob Bay Natural Area Preserve.
Hood Canal jewels
"Tarboo and Dabob bays are the highest-quality nearshore ecosystem in the Hood Canal," said Heidi Eisenhour, Jefferson Land Trust executive director, whose Port Townsend-base nonprofit organization is one of those working with Resources to expand the preserve.
"Everyone is talking about Hood Canal dying, and here's a chance for us to protect it."
Eisenhour is among those working to come up with a complicated state land swap.
The idea is to transfer state-managed timberland inside the proposed preserve to other state lands outside the preserve's boundaries to offset revenue loss to the Quilcene-area fire and school districts.
The Natural Heritage Advisory Council, which advises Resources on natural areas, has approved the Dabob Bay preserve's proposed boundaries.
The final call on the boundaries rests with Doug Sutherland, the elected commissioner of state public lands.
"This is Doug's chance to show that he supports preserving Puget Sound," said Peter Bahls, Northwest Watershed Institute executive director in Port Townsend.
"It would be pretty much amazing for Doug Sutherland to approve logging in an area with a history of landslides and flooding."
Opposition
The proposal is not without its detractors: those who promote the Peninsula's timber industry, the North Olympic Timber Action Committee and Washington-based American Forest Resource Council.
"My concern is that we're taking active state trust lands out of production, and including private lands, without thinking of the consequences," said Bob Dick, American Forest Resource Council state manger.
Dick said he believes Resources already has a "highly restrictive" habitat protection program.
Further tightening state trust land, along with existing federal land restrictions imposed in the early 1990s to protect the endangered northern spotted owl, could devastate timber companies, he said.
"That's why state trust land has become absolutely vital to our members," he said. "We take a [Resources'] asset and turn it into money."
Dick cites, as an example, a specific Resources timber sale proposal for East Fork Tarboo, which is off Coyle Road, and which lies mostly within the proposed preserve.
Resources is calling for a minimum bid of $994,000 on the sale, which is tied up in litigation in Jefferson County Superior Court.
Several property owners and oyster companies located near the site say in court records that they fear flooding if the property is clear cut. Runoff from flooding threatens their property and shellfish beds in the bay, they say.
Timber management
Carol Johnson, North Olympic Timber Action Committee executive director, said she is concerned that the proposed preserve would end timber management, which could lead to wildfires and insect infestations in trees.
It also could lead to more dependence on foreign timber, the timber-industry advocates contend.
"We have an appetite for the resource, and we can buy it here or from foreign countries that are less managed than us," Johnson said.
"Canadians have largely lived on insect-deteriorated timber."
Adjoining Tarboo Bay further inland, Dabob is one of the least developed bays remaining in Puget Sound.
It is 87 percent undeveloped, say county and state conservation groups.
Bahls said the Dabob Bay natural area boundary is not regulatory, allowing Resources to work with willing private landowners.
This allows the state to raise grant dollars for outright purchase of conservation easements, and makes state lands eligible for land swaps to reimburse the trust, and manage it as part of the natural area, he said.
The designation eliminates liability from landslides associated with logging, logging roads and development, Bahls said.
Meetings, support
The preserve proposal drew about 150 to a May 27 public meeting at Quilcene High School, and has prompted at least 75 letters of support.
Among the plan's supporters are U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair; state Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim; the Hood Canal Coordinating Council of Jefferson, Kitsap and Mason counties and the Skokomish, Port Gamble S'Klallam, Lower Elwha Klallam and Jamestown S'Klallam tribes.
Shellfish growers supporting it include Taylor United Shellfish, Broadspit Oyster Co. and Rock Point Oyster Co.
Also supporting the plan are state and local conservation organizations such as the Hood Canal Environmental Council, Admiralty Audubon Society and the Jefferson County Marine Resources Committee.
Bill Taylor, president of Taylor United Shellfish — which has a shellfish hatchery and two-thirds of a mile of shellfish beds on Dabob Bay — met with conservation groups, Resources officials and Jefferson County commissioners on Friday to come up with a land swap that allays all concerns.
Taylor said after the meeting that he was confident an agreement could be worked out with Resources.
"We're just trying to make sure that all the different parties that get tax revenues from these lands are taken care of, so the fire districts get their money."
Quilcene Fire District No. 2 Chief Bob Wilson said, "It sounded like, in principle, that everyone was in agreement" in making sure that a land swap would alleviate any loss of funding.
"We really appreciated the spirit in which everyone was cooperating."
Protecting income
Jefferson County Commissioner John Austin, D-Port Ludlow, — whose district includes the proposed Dabob Bay preserve — said he believes an agreement can be worked out with Resources that will not hurt taxing districts.
"The challenge now is to go through this incredible series of administrative issues to take advantage of it," said Austin.
The county is concerned about the potential loss of revenues that the preserve posed if a deal could not be worked out, he added.
"We came away with an agreement to work closely together," John Viada, Resources Olympic Region operations manager.
"We've got a stage set where we're going to continue to share the information and work our way through this particular matter."
Of the 1,170 acres of Resources state trust lands in Jefferson County, Viada said, "We will try to work with the county to keep state forest trust lands benefiting the junior taxing districts, so they have the same potential for income."
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Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
Last modified: June 28. 2008 9:00PM