Originally Posted By: no fish10


At the meeting at port townsend the sportfishermen in attendance told WDFW that there was no way that they wanted to share that ramp with the Suquamish tribe. They wanted it for themselves only. The tribe will not sign off unless they also get to use the ramp. No sharing no ramp period. I saw the look on the faces of WDFW and I knew it was over. There will be no ramp at point no point unless we learn to share and we're too bullheaded to do that. Never gonna happen.



Since I testified at that meeting and have otherwise been involved in the PNP fiasco let me correct a significant error in what you have written.

The objection by tribal interests was that the launch MIGHT result in an adverse impact in their ability to exercise their Treaty rights. It was not because they could not use the ramp which WDFW has clearly and repeatedly said they could access.

What the tribes want to do is off-load product and have 24 hour use of the facility - both of which are problematic.

First is that the design and purchase of the property was accomplished using RCO money. Use of RCO money precludes commercial activities on the site - in this case read that as being the transfer of harvested product from fisher to buyer. The WDFW has repeatedly said that tribal fishers can use WDFW launches; they just have to do so IAW the applicable laws and regs to include the limitations set forth for RCO funds. It is not that the Tribes wouldn't be able to use the ramp - it is that they can't conduct commercial activities on site. That is a huge difference from what you presented.
It has absolutely NOTHING to do with what any non-tribal folks may want or not want.

The other conflict is that the overnight usage demanded by the tribal interests would be in direct violation of the operational limitations for the launch as established during Kitsap County's public process leading to the issuance of the permit to which you referred. Simply put, the neighbors understandably do not want 24 hour operations to include staging of operational reefer trucks in their residential neighborhood.

The real problem here is that the Corps apparently is unwilling to look at the overall picture and come to the conclusion that the tribal concerns were de minimis and that their demands were dead on arrival and amounted to nothing more than a way to kill the project.

Since you were at that meeting you certainly were privy to the letter from the Director to the tribes, right?
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