SEQUIM – There’s a place for them after all.
This particular area has natural food and water, little private property and plentiful public access, so it could be just right for the Dungeness elk herd, according to an ad hoc committee of Sequim planners and wildlife advocates who met on Thursday.
The only thing the land, which is south of U.S. Highway 101 between Blyn and the Dungeness River, needs: a fence.
That’s where the committee came in.
The six-member subset of the Dungeness Elk Working Team, formed last month, mapped out five fence routes in the course of several meetings and hikes.
Now it has settled on a route that would run an eight-foot-tall fence along the south side of Highway 101 from the 7 Cedars Casino west to Simdars Road and the city of Sequim, then south along Simdars’ east edge to Huffman Heights Road.
From there, it would run along Happy Valley Road to the west side of Johnson Creek, and follow the state Department of Natural Resources land boundary all the way to the Dungeness’ banks.
The group plans to continue discussing fencing before presenting the preferred option at the March 21 meeting of the full Dungeness Elk Working Team.
Once it has decided on a recommendation, the full team will send it to the herd’s co-managers, the state Fish and Wildlife Department and the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe .
