Editorial: Preserving wilderness areas vital to maintaining the health of Puget Sound

"Protecting our region’s natural assets is far cheaper than restoring what we’ve destroyed."
[Read editorial by Mr. Ruckelshaus and Ms. Konsgaard here]

In an op-ed piece co-authored by Mr. Bill Ruckelshaus, co-chair of Governor Gregoire's "Blue Ribbon Panel" on ocean acidification, he writes about the importance of protecting the region's natural resources. As the first head of the Environmental Protection Agency and at the age of 80, Mr. Ruckelshaus has seen over his lifetime how ecosystems become fragmented and transformation of landscapes occur.

He has seen how individually, small projects appear in the short term to have minimal impacts. Decades later, he has seen how those individual projects combine and transform entire ecosystems which will never be recovered. This perspective gained over time gives insight few have and is what the future of the Olympic Penninsula, Puget Sound's tidelands and species are dependent on. These ecosystems are changing and with that change, species dependent on them are leaving which will never return.

The future of Puget Sound's tidelands are at a turning point. The committee which Mr. Ruckelshaus co-chairs and the organization which co-author Ms. Kongsgaard is the current chair of, the Puget Sound Partnership, provide them key roles to help determine what that future will be.

Yesterday and today NOAA and the Department of Ecology made presentations at the Pacific Shellfish Growers Association's 2012 Annual Conference. Presentations included how the Washington Shellfish Initiative's "streamlining of permits" would be implemented, and on the Shoreline Master Programs which are currently being updated by a number of counties.

The shellfish industry is well versed in the political process and in how to craft regulations controlling what they want to do. They are well financed through the immense revenues gained from China's obsession with geoducks. If science does not agree with their point of view, complaints are filed through the "Data Quality Act". Scientists can then be hired to create the data quality they seek.

Support for the Wild Olympics Wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 2012, currently stalled in Congress, is important. So too is an understanding that the tidelands of the Olympic Penninsula are as critical to preserve, if not more so. Both Mr. Ruckelshaus and Ms. Kongsgaard, through their respective positions, are able to exert great influence on what the future Puget Sound's tidelands will be. If they are destroyed, they cannot be restored.

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/09/26/2310755/preserving-wilderness-areas-vital.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/09/26/2310755/preserving-wilderness-areas-vital.html#storylink=cpy