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Jeanie Orr
2 q tI;l
From: Jeanie Orr
Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2009 8:04 AM
To: Michelle McConnell
Cc: AI Scalf; Stacie Hoskins; Jeanie Orr
Subject: FW: SMP Comments 6/15/09
From: Robert Triggs [mailto:littlestoneflyfisher@mail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2009 12:34 PM
To: #Long-Range Planning
Subject: SMP Comments 6/15/09
Dear Shoreline Master Planners,
My public comment here is a general one but my intention is to address the overall process and attitude
toward marine riparian use and protections. I have lived on the shorelines of the Atlantic coast in New
England, Maryland, and Florida for some years. I have also worked and played on the water of North
America most of my fifty five years. I have lived on the Olympic Peninsula for over nine years and I
spend most of my time on the beaches and rivers as a professional fly fishing guide. I have seen some of
the most beautiful places on earth, in each corner of America, teeming with healthy ecosystems, fish and
wildlife as far as the eye could see. It used to be that way here too. Most of those great places that I lived
in, places where I fished and hunted and hiked, saw fish spawn and eagles nesting, waterfowl migrations
etc, are developed now; logged off, bulldozed, drained, mined, paved, and there are thousands upon
thousands of miles of roadways, sidewalks, parking lots, shopping malls, condos and homes, acres of
lawns and golf courses etc. In the past thirty years in particular the Puget Sound basin has seen the same
rapid and widespread development process, and we see the same results here; lost or damaged habitats
and ecosystems out of balance, the decline or near total loss of once abundant fish and wildlife species,
the dramatic decline of sea and shore birds. The numbers of fish have become so ludicrously low that
fishermen are fighting over who gets to kill the last fish. As the generation of elders passes away they
take their stories and experiences with them, and suceeding generations miss the fact that as recently as
50 to 60 years ago this was a very different place as far as fish, shellfish and wildlife go.
The scientific understanding of our environment has grown in parallel with the upward curve of human
population expansion, especially in the last fifty years. We now know that climate plays a pivotal role in
our environment, and the trend is not good as far as climate changes in relationship to human activities,
carbon production etc. Up until very recently no one was talking about this. We took our environment
for granted. The modern science of ecology and climate is a study of decline- we have had the greatest
amount of research and discussion during the most aggressive period of human expansion. So we are
beginning to see the impacts now at the cellular level of life. An emerging area of understanding in
science is that we are only beginning to see the effects of human activities on our marine waters and
processes, fish and wildlife etc. And we are becoming aware that we did not know as much as we
thought we did, and that many of our seemingly best efforts have had unintended negative
consequences. A consistent theme throughout is that we should have been more conservative in the
extraction and uses of our resources, and that we should have done more to protect our marine shoreline
habitats from development. Now that there are countless hundreds of thousands of acres of pavement,
roof tops, walkways etc, built at the waters edge and all draining into the shoreline waters, we are
6/18/2009
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bemoaning the loss of our favorite marine species here: the wild Salmonids. But from what we know
today we may have set the stage for that loss in decades old decisions to build too close to the shores, to
pave over critical habitats, and to take it all for granted that we knew what we were doing.
Everything in our history of land use and shoreline development points to a lack of foresight and
ignorance of natural processes, and an egocentric hubris for expansion, power and money. Much of the
worst damages done here were not intentional, some of it was, but the results are identical- it would be
nearly impossible to get some of it back once we destroy it. And the econimics of this is staggering. We
do know now that the farther away from the waters edge that we build or mine or pave, the better off the
marine shoreline species are. The beach and bluff process of natural erosion and sedimentation follow a
more natural course when we dont cut into the edges of things so closely . We know that the shoreline
vegetation plays a pivotal role in healthy salmon habitat. One of the reasons for this is because of the
richnes of insect life along the shoreline- baby salmon need insects for forage in marine waters too. And
just as vegetation is important for habitats in rivers, it is as important in marine waters. What if building
too close to the water or bluffs is one of the factors in the loss of our salmon? Do we want salmon and
other fish and wildlife? Or do we want the best view? We know today through the emerging science of
the hyporehic zone of rivers- the river that flows through the soil beneath the rivers that we actually see
above ground- that even greater rivers live underground too, and that the wider and less developed or
unnaturally obstructed the floodplains the better. This was not a serious topic of scienctific discussion
thirty years ago. Today this area of study is impacting riparian protection and development plans nearly
nationwide. And we do now have to admit that we didnt know as much as we thought that we did about
any of it.
With these patterns as a background I think it is important to place a very high value on the protection
of our marine shorelines here today. We have become very adept at placing a dollar cost on things
related to land use, mineral and timber extraction, development etc. What we are still not so good at is
seing the value of healthy ecosystems on a long term basis. Whatever we do to these shorelines, in terms
of development or preservation, whatever impacts that has on our fish and wildlife species, is going to
have a direct impact on our lives as well. Not esotericly, not cosmeticly, but on our health and very
lives. It is a question of humility and values in our stewardship of something much greater than
ourselves. What will we leave behind us?
Sincerely,
Robert Triggs
Box 261
Port Townsend, W A 98368
360-385-9618
littlestoneflyfisher@mail.com
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6/18/2009