Sheriff to clarify Bush Point rules

By JIM LARSEN
As another humpie season begins at Bush Point, the Island County Sheriff’s Department has called a meeting to explain the trespassing rules at the popular fishing beach.

Humpies, also known as pink salmon, run every odd-numbered year and always attract a horde of anglers to Whidbey’s westside beaches, where they can stand and cast a Buzz Bomb or herring with a good chance of landing a fish. Along with the humpies is the annual run of hatchery coho.

The westside fishing season opens Monday, Aug. 1 and anglers hit the beach as soon as word gets around that the humpies and coho have arrived.

Bush Point is one of the better fishing spots as it protrudes a bit into Admiralty Inlet, but there is also a conflict of interests between anglers and private property owners.

Its popularity has soared in recent years due to accounts in mainland media which have attracted anglers from as far away as Seattle, Portland and Vancouver, B.C.

One portion of the beach long popular with anglers was closed for the first time last year. No major problems were reported, but there will be many more anglers this year due to the humpie run.

Sheriff Mike Hawley has called an informational meeting for Bush Point residents and anglers for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 2 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Freeland.

Hawley will talk about fishing at Bush Point, public conduct, traffic, parking, trespassing, and the rules regulating tideland access by the public.

The major area of concern lies just north of the Bush Point Restaurant.

For years the only official public access on that beach was a 40-foot county roadend and land owned by the proprietors of the Bush Point boat launch.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife purchased the boat launch property a few years ago and this summer is installing a boat ramp there.

Anglers also traditionally fished in front of some 400 feet of private property and beyond that on public tidelands that range all the way to South Whidbey State Park toward Lagoon Point.

Only four private property owners are involved.

One is Dave Moulton, a retiree who took action with his neighbors when off-islanders started camping overnight in front of their property, littering, making noise, and even canning fish on the beach.

“They were yelling at 4 a.m. One guy waved at my wife while he was urinating. It was pretty disgusting,” Moulton said. “I got tired of cleaning up the beach every day.”

Last year they placed a “no trespassing, private tidelands” sign on the beach at the boundary with the Fish and Wildlife property. Recently, Fish and Wildlife planted a similar sign on the beach.

Moulton said the wording will be clarified this weekend when two new signs are placed, one on each end of the private tidelands. These signs will permit anglers and others to “walk through quietly,” he said, but not fish from the private area.

The new signs will make it clear to anglers that they can still reach the public tidelands beyond the private property. Moulton roughly estimates that the beach now starts with 100-feet of Fish and Wildlife public tidelands at the new boat launch area, 400-feet of private tidelands, and then hundreds of feet of public tidelands to the state park.

“We’ll put signs on both ends this weekend,” Moulton said Tuesday. He said anglers last year were “quite respectful” of the signs, and he hopes the new signs will further clarify the situation.

State Fish and Wildlife will be busy at Bush Point this summer.

Project engineer Kristen Kuykendall said Tuesday that the boat ramp project will go out to bid in a week or two.

The new 18-foot wide concrete ramp with a single dock alongside should be in place by the end of September. She anticipates construction will disrupt fishing for four days that month.

When that job is complete, crews will go to work in the upland portion, which will include a paved parking lot, restrooms with flush toilets and a small park. The Port of South Whidbey will manage the property when it is finished.

Meanwhile, people with boats can try launching at a temporary boat launch the state installed earlier this year. Kuykendall said the temporary ramp was damaged and shut down for a while but is now back in operation.

I am not sure which makes me angrier. . . That some jerks are so disrespectful and rude that they end up wrecking a pretty fun fishery for everyone. . . or that the State sold tidelands to private owners instead of allowing everyone to use them.

This problem has been building for at least 20 years. I don't blame the homeowners for their frustration, because there are definately some bad apples among us that ruin it for everyone else. On the other hand though just because you live on a beach does not mean you can ban all public access from all of the tidal areas. My big fear is you have Whidbey beach home owners, the Island Co. Sheriff, and WDFW all coming up with their own perceptions on public access issues for the Whidbey beaches. The Sheriff's office and WDFW need to consult to the Washington Department of Ecology who are responsible for being the stuards and setting state policy for the local jurisdictions to follow in regards public beach access rights on state shorelands. The Public Trust Doctrine is still alive and a legal doctrine declaring all tidelands below the ordinary high water mark as public domain. The problem is that the State during the 1950's -1970's sold alot of the tidelands to private property owners to raise tax revenue. This was in direct conflict to the Doctrine. So now we have a situation where tidelands are in private ownership but that doesn't mean the Doctrine no longer applys to their property. Ownership does not change the Public Trust Doctrine's basic right giving access to the public for at least ingress & egress on all lands below the ordinary high water mark (OHWM).

Below is a letter I sent to the Island Co. Sherrif's Office and Island Co. Planning Department last summer. I never got a reply back. I'll probably send it to the Sherrif's Office again today, and hopefully it will turn on some light bulbs before the Sherrif's Office gives their interpretation of the public beach access rights for Bush Pt. which more than likely is biased towards the local land owners who pay the taxes which pay the sheriff's income.

I won't be able to attend Tuesday's mtg., but perhaps someone can read this letter at the meeting.

Dear Mr. XXXXX Island Co. Planning Dept:

Hello, allow me to introduce myself, my name is Matt XXXXX, and I work for XXXXXX County Planning Dept. My main responsibility is reviewing and issuing shoreline permits, amongst my many other tasks.

Last weekend I was fishing off of the beaches of both Bush and Lagoon points public access areas, and became alarmed with several "no trespassing", "private tidelands", & "trespasser will be reported to Island Co. Sheriff's Dept" that threaten beach goers if they stray from the delineated access points. These signs are not consistent with RCW 90.58.020 "…The public's opportunity to enjoy the physical and aesthetic qualities of natural shorelines of the state shall be preserved to the greatest extent feasible…". The Public Trust Doctrine describes all lands waterward of the OHWM as "public domain". The Washington State Attorney General opined "…that the public has a right to use the wet and dry sand portions of the beach to the line of permanent vegetation". Line of permanent vegetation meaning a line that is arguably at the OHWM or landward of the OHWM. This written opinion has stood for over 29 years without a challenge.

In addition, placement of fences (such as the ones at Lagoon & Bush Pts.) waterward of the OHWM requires an U.S. Army Corps permit. As you know citizens are not allowed to place structures waterward of the OHWM without an approved Corps Permit. Did the person or County ever apply for Corps permits to erect these fences?

In closure, why is the Island County Sheriff coming to the aid of beach side owners and collectively banning public access (protected under the Public Trust Doctrine) from beach walkers, fishermen, and other "pedestrian" type activities?

Thank you for your time, I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

Matt XXXXX

BD

Matt,
Good letter.

The Sheriff's office has been very reasonable about this issue. I fish Bush about 4-5 times/wk and never have had a problem with them.

I have not once seen WDFW show up at Bush Pt. I hear they do, but ... I've not seen them.

Last humpy run was a mess down there, and all the crap mentioned in the article above did happen. Regardless of who's land it is, I'd still be pissed if that was going on where my family lived.

Shoot me and email next time you're fishing Bush/Lagoon, etc. - anyone

Though it's been a few years since I've been there, I could see both viewpoints. As a property owner, I would hate to see even some of the chaos that happens on Bush Pt., at the same time, as an angler, the land owners should come to expect people walking by their homes at ungodly hours just to catch a humpie! There's got to be a little give and take with both parties involved. I think that maybe the state should become a little more involved to see that the rights of all involved are secured.

What should happen is that people should learn to respect other people property. look at the obnoxious behavior that some buffoons pull out on the water, at the launch's and on our highways and roads. In times past, resource users would have acted graciously and chastised other's for not using the resource in a responsible manner.

So the next time a snot nosed kid dis-respects some one else without repercussion, you will have witnessed the next generation of dis-respectful resource users and abusers..........

Just curious did anybody go to the meeting last night and if so, could you give us a briefing of the discussion.

I sent my letter to the Sheriff's Office last week and still haven't gotten a reply.

BD

I went out to Bush Pt on Monday afternoon; there's a sign near the former boat launch marking one end of the four property owners private tidelands, and the makings of another sign at the other end of the four properties. I presume this sign will be completed shortly. Talking to guys, it's ok to traverse the four properties to access the bluff beyond; many people did so without incident (as did I). Apparently, you're not supposed to fish on the private tidelands, but can traverse and fish the bluff beyond. I think this a good solution and there's plenty of room beyond the four private tidelands to fish.

Incidently, fishing was slow; a brief flurry and a few fish caught at around high tide.