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Jeanie Orr
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From: Jeanie Orr
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2009 7:41 AM
To: Michelle McConnell
Cc: AI Scalf; Stacie Hoskins; Jeanie Orr
Subject: FW: Shorelines Master Plan Comments
From: Larry Dennison [mailto:ldennison@q.com]
Sent: Friday, June 12, 2009 10:56 AM
To: #Long-Range Planning
Subject: Shorelines Master Plan Comments
Please accept my comments on the County's draft Shoreline Master Plan. I was a Jefferson County Commissioner
from 1984 through 1991. During this period, Jefferson County joined with Mason and Kitsap Counties, the Hood
Canal native tribal councils, and the State DOE, to form the Hood Canal Coordinating Council to preserve the
Canal's unique environmental qualities and sustainable marine resource productivity. As you know, the years since
the HCCC was created have not been good to the Hood Canal. This is primarily due to serious public policy flaws
that have allowed residential and commercial development, logging activities, and inadequate safeguards for this
irreplaceable and very vulnerable fjord.
We now have a unique opportunity to create protections that will truly safeguard the future of Hood Canal by making
prudent choices in shoreline policy. It makes no sense to continue lamenting the health of Hood Canal while at the
same time continuing to allow the same watershed-degrading activities that have pushed it to the brink of collapse in
the past.
I urge you to take a perspective that finally PROTECTS the Hood Canal, rather than continues the status quo of
believing we can have our cake and eat it too. I especially urge you to prohibit mining, transportation, and barge
loading operations in the Hood Canal conservancy shoreline. There are plenty of gravel and rock resources
throughout western Washington that do not pose a threat to unique environments. To allow these activities on Hood
Canal creates the message that this irreplaceable resource is a lower priority for Jefferson County, than resource
extraction and low cost commercial transportation.
After 25 years of half-hearted, yet expensive planning and "coordination" between and among the counties on Hood
Canal, the State government, and the native tribes it is past time to make a firm and forward looking statement that
we value the qualities of Hood Canal above the convenience of certain commercial and industrial activities. Millions
of tax dollars have been poured into reversing the decline of the Hood Canal salmon runs. Countless volunteer hours
have been logged in planting shade plants along the watershed and in painstakingly re-establishing extinct runs of
chum and coho salmon. There simply is too much at stake with too little long-term potential economic upside for us to
take the risk of further sacrificing the health of the Hood Canal and the communities, including Jefferson County,
that depend on it. Hood Canal is a resource that could very easily be lost forever if allowed to degrade much further.
Thank you for considering my comments. I ask that you enter them into the official hearings record for the Jefferson
County Shorelines Master Plan process. Feel free to call me at the number listed below if you wish to verify this email
message, or have any questions of me.
Sincererly,
Larry Dennison
1224 Cleveland Street
Port Townsend, W A 98368
360301-0120
6/15/2009