HomeMy WebLinkAbout011524 email - FW_ Further Questions for Geoduck operators from yesterday's meetingALERT: BE CAUTIOUS This email originated outside the organization. Do not open attachments or click on links if you are not expecting them.
I originally sent this email comments to the 3 JeffCo commissioners and should also have cc’d this email address to officially submit these comments for your consideration.
Please add my comments below to your official comments 😊
Steve Dittmar
206.619.6822
From: Steve Dittmar <swdittmar@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2024 12:19 PM
To: heisenhour@co.jefferson.wa.us
Cc: GBrotherton@co.jefferson.wa.us; kdean@co.jefferson.wa.us
Subject: Further Questions for Geoduck operators from yesterday's meeting
Heidi,
Thank you for asking the Taylor representatives the 2 questions I and others brought up during our comments. As I thought about their responses I believe their answers didn’t really
address the core of my questions, specifically:
1. Question #1: What % of the geoducks in our area are shipped internationally (out of our local region).
She answered with Taylor’s “goal” is 50/50 (local/international) but did not state what their actual % is. I believe their goal is 50/50 but I doubt their actual is anywhere close.
I believe it was our local geoduck operator here at Shine (Brad Nelson) that told be back around 2014 that about 99% of his get exported to China.
The market drives their actual percentage not their goals. I don’t believe I have ever seen a geoduck in stores or on a menu around our region. My experience, of course, is not exhaustive
but if it was anywhere close to 50% of over a million pounds/year I believe we would see a lot more evidence of geoduck in our restaurants and stores around here.
My purpose in asking this question at the meeting is that IF you commissioners are including the value of a locally grown food source for our local population that we get accurate *actual*
% of harvest exported over the last 10 years so that you commissioners have accurate data to add to your decision making.
2. Question #2: How much local labor is used in the normal operations of a geoduck tidelands based operation (like the one here in our Shine tidelands)?
The Taylor representative answered with his total employees for Taylor’s overall geoduck operation and only a few of those are located in JeffCo. His answer, I suspect, may include
other Taylor operations (geoducks, geoduck “seed” production, subtidal harvesting, oysters, etc), most of which is not relevant to benefiting Jefferson County population. If the employment
benefit to JeffCo is a factor in your CUP decision I suggest that you request this information from Taylor in writing and request labor hours that are specifically related to geoducks
and more importantly the labor hours specific to a complete plant/harvest cycle of tideland geoduck farming.
The real focus of my question is how many labor hours come from the local JeffCo population over the course of a planting cycle (5 to 7 years) for a typical tidelands base farm? I personally
look out over the Shine geoduck farm and personally observe the 3 or 4 times there are groups of people working out there over the 5 to 7 year planting cycle.
From my observation the planting cycle utilizes the following rough order of magnitude level of effort:
- Planting: 10 people 4 hours/day (low tide cycle) for around 5 to 7 days (280 person hours every 5 years)
- Net removal after 1 year: 5 people for 4 hours/day over 2 days (40 person hours every 5 years)
- Tube removal after 2 years: 6 people for 4 hours/day over 4 days (96 person hours every 5 years)
- Local site manager: maybe 4 hours/week (observation, inspection, picking up loose tubes, etc) (52*4=208 person hours/year)
- 1 Full Time Equivalent is generally 2000 hrs/yr. The above hours equate to approx. 350 person hours/year or .18 FTE. This is less than 1 day/week for 1 local JeffCo person over the
5 year planting cycle. Even double or triple these numbers and its still less that 1 basic labor job in our county.
The final harvesting process only takes 2 workers and 1 boat here at Shine, and if my understanding is correct, they both come from outside the county.
I suggest that Taylor’s overall geoduck headcount is really not a relevant number that accurately reflects JeffCo local labor benefit so if your CUP decision includes data about benefit
to our local labor base then I believe further questioning is required to get (in writing) local labor hours for a local farm and not the general head count for Taylor’s overall geoduck
operation.
Please also note that: questions over all these facts and figures are the whole point of a proceeding before a hearing examiner, who is charged with evaluating the mix of conflicting
claims, based on the record, and for a specific site. The job of the Board of County Commissioners is not to decide these conflicts, but rather to set up a fair process for resolving
all of these claims, and that is the standard CUP process for all 3 categories of applications.
Thank you to all 3 of you for your service to our county. I know this has been a tough decision to process but the stakes with our environment are really quite large. Thank you for your
time, effort and careful consideration in making this CUP decision 😊
Steve Dittmar
206.619.6822