The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About2961-20 .~MA . Pc.. ~{ ~t:.U. Michelle McConne~1 Z-t1 {p { Cc: Subject: Laura Hendricks [laura.l.hendricks@gmail.com] Monday, December 29, 2008 9:09 AM AI Scalf; jmiller@co.clallam.wa.us; rdf@co.mason.wa.us; pcharnas@co.kitsap.wa.us; barbara@co.mason.wa.us Michelle McConnell; ryanc@co.mason.wa.us; lIewis@co.kitsap.wa.us Seattle Pi Story--DNR--Gifting Millions to Taylor Shellfish---Restoration Ignored @ From: Sent: To: To County Officials, This DNR action is a very good example why Counties should require a permit for aquaculture which contains regulations that protects our shorelines and communities. Because Thurston County does not have an existing aquaculture permit requirement, DNR is trying to issue their own Determination of Non-Significance in one day after receiving the checklist from Taylor and avoid environmental review. We hope that you will take this state agency action into account when updating your Shoreline Master Program. Sincerely, Laura Hendricks To State Representatives and State Senators, State to allow Taylor To Harvest Illegal Geoducks and Keep Millions http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/393 714 taylor26.html Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland this week bestowed a gift worth millions on the state's largest and most influential shellfish grower: Taylor Shellfish Thurston County Planning requested a Two Week Extension for environmental review of leasing these 21 acres of shoreline and were only given three additional days by DNR so they can rush this lease thru before another administration can review it. Photo documentation and numerous adjacent witness statements provided to DNR and the state auditors conclusively prove that Taylor intentionally used state lands to grow geoducks knowing that DNR was prohibited from leasing intertidal state lands for geoduck production. Citizens ask that you review this situation and that of the gravel mine on Maury Island and pass legislation that will insure post election decisions are in the public interest. Coalition To Protect Pugct Sound Habitat 1 State to allow Taylor Shellfish to harvest geoducks ... fJost..Jnttlfi!ltnttr http://seattlepi.nwsource.comllocal/393 714_ taylor26.html State to allow Taylor Shellfish to harvest geoducks Proposal to resolve trespass case has groups steaming Last updated December 25, 2008 11 :32 p.m. PT By ROBERT MCCLURE P-I REPORTER Page 1 of3 Lame-duck Washington Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland this week bestowed a gift worth millions on the state's largest and most influential shellfish grower. Taylor Shellfish should get to harvest and sell shellfish the firm planted illegally on state-owned tidelands near Olympia, Sutherland's Department of Natural Resources announced. A coalition of citizens groups that has been battling the Shelton-based shellfish grower called it a giveaway of state funds at a time when the budget is facing its tightest pinch in years. They also point to a possible political motivation: Taylor backed Sutherland's unsuccessful bid for re-election to a third term. The shellfish involved in this week's proposal by the DNR were planted by Taylor workers in tidelands at Totten Inlet in Thurston County. At the time, the company says, it was unaware the state owned the land. Activists challenge that assertion. The DNR announced its intentions to allow Taylor to harvest and sell the geoducks -- an expensive type of clam popular in Asian restaurants -- as part of a proposal to lease the state's beachside land to Taylor to resolve its trespassing charges against the shellfish grower. SEAm E P-i "We're upset. The community wanted to restore that area and be able to use that shoreline," said Laura Hendricks, spokeswoman for the Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat, an umbrella group of Taylor critics. "DNR looked at nothing but the fact that Taylor wanted it, so they gave it to them," she said. The decision comes the same month Sutherland awarded a controversial lease of state tidelands to a company that wants to massively expand a sand and gravel mine on Maury Island. His term ends Jan. 14. Bill Dewey, a spokesman for Taylor, said the approximately 6 acres of geoducks at Totten Inlet are rightfully Taylor's. "We have considerable investment in those crops and would like to be able to recover that value," http:// seattlepi.nwsource.comlprinter2/index.asp ?ploc=t&refer=http://seattlepi.nwsource.co... 1/6/2009 State to allow Taylor Shellfish to harvest geoducks Page 2 of ,3 Dewey said. "There shouldn't be a windfall for the state because of our mistake." Based on what the company knew about the geoducks as of April, when the trespassing was discovered, the geoducks are worth about $3 million, Taylor estimates. The value could be higher or lower, depending on how the geoducks do over the course of their five- or six-year growing period, Dewey said. Hendricks disputes that value. She cited testimony by Taylor employees in an unrelated Pierce County case that geoducks the firm planted there were valued at $1.5 million to $2 million per acre. If that value were applied to the approximately 6 acres of geoducks at Totten Inlet, it would be about $9 million to $12 million. Hendricks estimates the value at $6 million to $9 million. But Dewey said the value of geoducks varies from site to site. He also said the company has spent millions over the years on pioneering geoduck-farming methods, with large losses at times. For example, he said, at Case Inlet in Pierce County, the company lost $1 million on geoducks when it mistakenly removed tubes and nets that protect the shellfish from predators too early in the geoducks' development. And despite sinking many millions into its geoduck hatchery, the company in 2006 was able to obtain geoduck "seed" in only two of the 12 spawnings it did in 2006, Dewey said. The following year wasn't much better. Last year was a banner year -- but even Taylor, acknowledged as a leader in the field, doesn't yet understand the factors involved in the success, Dewey said. Taylor also is on the hook to pay a fine for trespassing on state land when it planted the geoducks at Totten Inlet. If the DNR determines the company did it intentionally, the company would face a $1.5 million fine. If Taylor can convince the agency it believed the submerged land in question was owned by the company -- which does own adjacent land -- the fine could be reduced to $444,000, the DNR has said. The shellfish grower harvested millions of dollars worth of geoducks, clams and oysters on state-owned land at Totten Inlet over years, Hendricks said. The state also will get a percentage of the proceeds of Taylor's sale of the geoducks. That rate has not been determined, though it probably will be 10 percent to 12 percent of the value, Dewey said. Patty Henson, a DNR spokeswoman, said Sutherland wants to get the whole matter resolved before leaving office. "This issue of trespass was discovered during the Sutherland administration. The staff in the agency are trying to resolve it, as best we can, in the Sutherland administration," Henson said. http:// seattlepi.nwsource.com/printer2/index.asp ?ploc=t&refer=http://seattlepi.nwsource.co... 1/6/2009 State to allow Taylor Shellfish to harvest geoducks Page 3 of3 "The whole point of the lease proposal is they have this geoduck seeded there, and they want to be able to recover it." As a condition of the lease, Taylor would agree to use "best management practices" and would be overseen by the Washington Sea Grant research program. The agency is asking the public to comment on an environmental review of the proposed lease sale. The comment period opened this week and closes Jan. 8. Hendricks charged that Sutherland is paying off a political backer. Taylor has supported Sutherland, including giving him campaign donations. Hendricks backed Sutherland's opponent, incoming Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark. Dewey said Taylor supported Sutherland not because of anything connected to the Totten Inlet trespassing situation, but rather because Sutherland worked hard to resolve a dispute between shellfish growers and Indian tribes, including obtaining $11 million in state funding and $22 million in federal funding to settle the tribes' claims on tidelands where shellfish are grown. P-I reporter Robert McClure can be reached at 206-448-8092 or robertmcclure@seattlepi.com. Read his blog on the environment at datelineearth. com. <Q 1998-2009 Seattle Post-Intelligencer http:// seattlepi.nwsource.com/printer2/index.asp ?ploc=t&refer=http://seattlepi.nwsource.co... 1/612009