Imidacloprid in Willapa Bay: Comments on the DOE's Permit Denial are Due May 14

DOE Accepting Comments 

On Denial of Permit

Until May 14

Photo: Kevin Ebi/Alamy

The National Audubon Society

There's far more to Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor than non-native Pacific oysters

The Department of Ecology will accept comments on its decision to deny a permit application to a few select oyster growers in Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor. These few short-sighted growers saw the application of pesticides to shellfish beds and public waters as the only way to deal with a native species which other growers dealt with through alternative growing methods, very profitably. 

• Use DOE online comment form
• Submit your comment by E-mail: burrowing.shrimp@ecy.wa.gov
• Or submit by mail here:

Rich Doenges

Ecology Southwest Regional Office 
P.O. Box 47775
Olympia, WA 98504-7775

Questions?

Rich DoengesSouthwest Region Manager
burrowing.shrimp@ecy.wa.gov

360-407-6271

You've had your turn, now it's the public's

Shellfish growers in Willapa Bay have had multiple chances to show they are can create a sustainable model. Multiple times they have failed and simply tried to transform these waters into something they see as nothing but profit centers. In the mid-1800's they began to harvest the vast beds of native Olympia oysters to near extinction. They next tried importing Eastern oysters and found disease did not allow this non-native oyster to grow, but in the process of unpacking oysters shipped from the East Coast, they introduced the non-native Spartina grass which took decades of herbicidal application to control. Following that failure, they turned west and began importing the non-native Pacific oyster which, when unpacked from shipping crates, introduced the non-native Japanese eelgrass which, like Spartina, is being sprayed with herbicides to control. And now, pesticides to eliminate a native species.

Time to stop believing grandpa-knows-best 

Shellfish growers have had their turn. Now it's time for a new generation of forward looking growers, tribes and the public, who care about these great bodies of water and all they support (not just nonnative oysters)  to take back control and allow them to perform the great ecological services they have for thousands of years. Grandpa doesn't always know best, and in this case, it's time for him to sit down.

Get involved

It was only because a large number of people were willing to stand up to an industry used to getting its way that this short-sighted idea was brought to a stop. Groups such as the Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat; The Audubon; The Exerces Society; Beyond Pesticides; the Sierra Club; and, untold numbers of individuals worked long and hard to begin bringing the control of these great estuaries back to the species so desperately in need of habitat. They were involved. You should be too, for the present and the future.