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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLetter of Support re: DNR's Expansion of Dabob Bay Natural Area - 062424 df o ` js_ - Board of County Commissioners s 4- GO 1820 Jefferson Street m PO Box 1220 Port Townsend, WA 98368 • Kate Dean,nisi Het I Heidi l:isenhour, District 2 Greg Brotherton, District 3 fft NC' June 24,2024 Jayana Marshall, Assistant Division Manager Conservation and Recreation Division Washington State Department of Natural Resources PO Box 47014 Olympia, WA 98504-7014 Re: Support for DNR's Proposal to Expand the Dabob Bay Natural Area Dear Ms. Marshall: We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Washington Department of Natural Resource(DNR) for its support for expanding the Dabob Bay Natural Resource Conservation Area(NRCA). Once the boundary expansion is approved by the Commissioner of Public Lands,there will be additional steps necessary to formally add lands into the NRCA, such as the"Trust Land Transfer program for state trust lands,and willing seller land acquisition for any private lands. As stated in our November 2023 letter, we support this proposal with one modification as detailed below. As you know, Dabob Bay is one of the natural treasures of Hood Canal and Puget Sound and this proposal would provide more complete protection and improved long-term viability for the ecosystem as a whole, for the shellfish industry,and treaty reserved resources of four Tribes. In 2020, a coalition of regional and statewide conservation groups,shellfish growers,the Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe,and the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe urged DNR to expand the Dabob Bay Natural Area along the lines now proposed. We added our support in August 2023,after a statewide effort succeeded in revitalizing the Trust Land Transfer Program. In December of 2023, DNR announced that it had identified 671 acres of about 910 acres of older forest within the proposed boundary for protection with Climate Commitment Act(CCA)funding. This funding will allow the CCA forests to be protected as soon as DNR buys replacement lands for the timber trusts that will benefit the county's junior taxing districts. We support the proposed NRCA boundary expansion as a practical way for DNR to steward these forests over the long term. We also understand that approval of the new boundary will make the remaining state trust lands eligible to be transferred into Natural Area management through future Trust Land Transfers or CCA funding opportunities that provide for replacement timber lands that will benefit trust beneficiaries over the long term. Phone (360) 385-9100 Fax (360) 385-9382 jeffhoccC'co.jefferson.wa.us Support for Additional Recommendation for Boundary Expansion (160 acres) Finally,as we stated in our previous letter,we ask that DNR add the 160 acre"West Dabob"parcel to the boundary expansion proposal.This parcel was included in Jefferson County's 2023 requested boundary proposal to DNR. Protection of this tract within the Dabob Bay Natural Area would do three things: I)better ensure long-term conservation of the marbled murrelet site currently protected under the HCP, 2)protect forest connectivity and prevent future habitat fragmentation between the murrelet site and existing Natural Area, and 3)allow the Trust Land Transfer process to compensate the county and junior taxing districts for the currently encumbered murrelet habitat. DNR's conservation work at Dabob Bay over the past decade has been recognized at the state and national level and is a spark of hope in the larger effort to protect and restore Puget Sound. We greatly appreciate DNR's effort to expand the Dabob Bay Natural Area to secure protection of this cherished landscape while also better positioning the timber trusts using the secured Climate Commitment Act funding and future Trust Land Transfers. We urge you to approve the proposed boundary expansion with the West Dabob addition proposed here. Sincerely, 1 0111111..°11111. • Kate ean, Chair Het i Etsenhour reg Brotherton District 1 Commissioner District 2 Commissioner District 3 Commissioner