HomeMy WebLinkAbout062126 email Protection Island ! Please Help!ALERT: BE CAUTIOUS This email originated outside the organization. Do not open attachments or click on links if you are not expecting them.
Please maintain Protection Island’s full protection as a National Wildlife Refuge.
Protection Island National Wildlife Refuge was established by an Act of Congress in 1982. That action placed the island firmly in public ownership, halted ongoing development, and protected
the unique seabirds and marine mammals that depend on its habitat.
Protection Island is especially important to the Salish Sea ecosystem. Approximately 70% of the seabirds that nest in Salish Sea habitats nest on Protection Island, including Tufted
Puffins, Rhinoceros Auklets, and Pigeon Guillemots.
Today, Protection Island remains protected because of a years-long, citizen-led grassroots effort rooted in this community. That protection—and the public ownership that makes public
input possible—is once again at risk.
The current partnership is working. For the past year and a half, Protection Island has been successfully managed through a joint agreement among the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe.
This partnership allows public voices and public concerns to be heard while ensuring that the birds and wildlife remain the top priority. It also honors the value of tribal traditional
knowledge within a shared management framework.
I am concerned that transferring complete control and sovereign ownership to the Tribe would remove the legal requirement or guarantee that public concerns will continue to be heard
and heeded. Sovereign ownership would mean complete ownership and control, and that would fundamentally change the public protections that generations of citizens worked to secure.
Please do not try to fix something that is not broken. I urge you to maintain the existing joint management agreement, so Protection Island remains publicly owned, publicly accountable,
and managed in partnership with the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe—with the birds, wildlife, and long-term ecological health of the island always coming first.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
L Bruce Hedrick
81 Beach Dr.
Sequim, WA 98382