LETTER: Balance of life

Published 1:30 am Saturday, March 7, 2026

When developers, and perhaps even the city of Sequim, view our bay, they see a beautiful view with high income potential. They totally miss the point that Sequim Bay is a living system with an intricate balance of all the elements needed to sustain life, with each element dependent on the others.

The baby salmon hatched in Jimmycomelately Creek need a mixture of fresh and seawater as they adapt to living in a saltwater environment. Pitship Pocket Estuary provides that.

Young salmon eat the forage fish, which are hatched in unarmored and untrammeled beaches where their eggs are placed.

Eelgrass provides shelter for crabs.

The bay is vulnerable to pollutants from the surrounding environment. The inevitable silt from logging and excavation for a development will smother the eelgrass. The residue from tires on surrounding roadways enters the bay in stormwater and is deadly to marine life. As traffic increases with construction and paving, so will the toxic residue that will bring nutrients into the bay.

Nutrient-driven blooms of algae are an issue in Sequim Bay. The die-off of these blooms robs the bay of life-giving oxygen.

The living web of a functioning ecosystem brings thousands each year to Sequim to harvest the bounty that is here.

With the siltation and pollution that the Westbay development would inevitably bring, this critical balance of life in the estuary, the nearshore environment and the bay will degrade.

In short, Westbay places the ecosystem of the entire bay at risk.

Carol von Borstel

Sequim