Date: 10/27/26 10:16 am From: Teresa Michelsen via Tweeters <tweeters...> Subject: [Tweeters] FW: Protection is the key word: Protection Island and Dungeness NWRs
Elaine,
You asked for perspectives from those in favor of this land transfer and potentially, as you note, the possibility of additional transfers. I grew up in western Washington and after obtaining one of the first environmental science doctorates back in 1988, I returned home and joined many of my fellow colleagues in developing the first land and water cleanup regulations at the Department of Ecology and spent my career working with our partner governments and agencies to try to undo the damage that had been done by industrial use of our waterways and coastlines. I learned many things over this long career, in which I had the privilege of working with Coastal Salish and inland Tribes as partners in cleaning up and restoring areas of the great Salish Sea and the many coastal rivers that feed into it.
At some point along the way, my perspective fundamentally changed, like a seismic shift. I cannot possibly hold the collective memories that tribal nations who have resided here for 10,000 years have. Yet I caught a glimpse of how all of this must look, how our civilization must look, to them. Among many areas, I worked on cleaning up and restoring Port Gamble Bay, working with the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe and affiliated Tribes. The protection and nurturing of these waters is not any kind of abstract idea to them, not a job, not an opinion, not weighed and balanced against other things. I won’t try to speak for them, but I _know_ they will be better stewards of this land and sea than anyone in our government or even those of us who care to the bottom of our souls for the environment that surrounds us, no matter how dedicated we as individuals may be.
You can rest assured that their governments will never and have not abandoned their coastal waters to industry or development. In the meantime, our civilization, which has been here for less than 250 years, has caused untold damage to every aspect of the land and water, forests, fish, and birds. In that short time, the landscape has become unrecognizable, never mind global warming and oceanic changes. Tribal nations have worked tirelessly in the face of impossible odds to restore what amounts to very small areas within the Salish Sea. Meanwhile our President is doing his best to undo my life’s work and what several generations of environmental professionals in partnership with tribal nations have managed to accomplish in the scant 30 or so years we’ve had in which to try. No matter how much stewardship we may individually feel, we are not in control of our government, or industry, as recent events have made quite clear.
We should be asking the opposite question. What could or will happen to these areas we love in the hands of a government as capricious and compromised as ours. I lived in Port Townsend for some years also, and I treasure and value Protection Island and participated in seabird surveys, coastal surveys, went to the Salish Sea conference each year until I was unable to travel. While I have few concerns about how the refuge has been managed to date, I have concerns about the unpredictability of our US government. I feel privileged to live in an area with relatively strong environmental values as part of our state and local governments, but that could change anytime. Hard times are coming, and we need to get as much of this land into permanent protection as possible. Back into the hands of the people who managed it successfully for literally millennia and for whom its protection is sacred. I am not worried about what they will do with it.
