The rezoning proposal would displace the numerous animal populations currently living throughout the site's undeveloped timberland.
As large tracts of timber land are clearcut to make way for new development, all of the creatures that previously lived in those woods must flee to find new habitat.
Deer, bear, cougar and other displaced creatures are treated as a problem, rather than the victims of habitat destruction. Habitat destruction in other areas of North Kitsap make this a cumulative problem with overall devastating loss of biodiversity in our County.
Fish and Wildlife in Kitsap by Marla Powers
In 2023-2024, Kitsap County is conducting a periodic update of our 20-year comprehensive plan and critical areas ordinance (CAO), as called for in the state’s Growth Management Act (GMA). The comp plan is a multifaceted vision of how growth should proceed in unincorporated Kitsap County over the next 10-20 years. The CAO is a set of regulations the county uses to protect the environment and public safety when evaluating proposed development. The five interdependent critical area types are Wetlands, Critical Aquifer Recharge, Frequently Flooded, Fish and Wildlife Habitat Conservation, and Geologically Hazardous areas. This article is a brief introduction to some of the issues being discussed concerning fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas.
Fish and wildlife species and habitats are significant contributors to quality of life for residents in Kitsap County and are significant for the personal, cultural, and spiritual survival of the native Indian tribes. The Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe and Suquamish Tribe both hold treaty reserved rights in Kitsap County as their usual and accustomed place. Usual and accustomed areas for gathering, fishing, and hunting have significant overlap with the critical areas and shorelines of Kitsap County. Development in Kitsap County has been regulated by the CAO and Shoreline Master Plan (SMP) for many decades. Development that encroaches into a CAO or SMP can degrade the ecological functions and values. These impacts accumulate over time and with each new development.
For example, development impacts in critical areas cause fragmentation of habitat corridors and isolated systems that continue to function at a lower and lower value. The lower valued systems require smaller buffer protections and encourage more development. Development adjacent to a stream can cause impacts such as: straightening of the stream (water can run too fast for salmon and resting areas are lost), increased sediment (smother salmon eggs), pollution with 6PPD-Quinone, and bacteria (salmon are harmed/killed by toxins), warmer water (salmon can’t breathe), converted to culverts (can become a fish passage barrier), loss of habitat essential for salmon spawning and rearing, and habitat fragmentation. Every stream/river listed in the Draft EIS is described as having several impairments such as temperature, bacteria, and low summer flow.
Development impacts on the shoreline can be extensive. Bluff erosion is a natural shoreline ecological function. As it erodes, it sends material to the shoreline which creates beaches; the tide comes up the beach and carries some of this sand and gravel into the water, depositing it and creating other beaches. When a bulkhead is placed in the nearshore environment for the protection of a single-family house, for example, the ecological function of the nearshore environment goes away. Beach nutrients and the right type of rocky shore necessary for the spawning of forage fish such as herring, smelt and sand lance disappear. This results in no food availability for salmon. Shellfish harvest is also reduced. According to county data, 82% of shoreline properties within the county have been developed and 38 % of the shoreline has been altered with shoreline armoring. (Draft Environmental Impact Statement, Kitsap County, December 2023, Pg. 3-38).
The existing standard of development under No Net Loss (NNL) does not work or go far enough. The Best Available Science Summary Report, Critical Areas Ordinance Update, Kitsap County, May 31, 2023, is a tool the county is using to review and update the CAO. Improved standards such as using Riparian Management Zones and Site Potential Tree Height, are concepts that go farther to protect critical areas. The Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) issued a report that discusses a concept called Net Ecological Gain (NEG) in 2022. It describes how this change in policy will be able to enhance and restore critical areas. Finally, though not new, in 2017 the Treaty Indian Tribes of Puget Sound started implementing a unified tribal habitat strategy to protect and restore salmon habitat necessary to stop the ongoing loss and decline of important habitat. “This effort is based on what is needed for optimal ecosystem health, not just what we think is possible to achieve, given current conditions.” (https://nwtreatytribes.org/habitatstrategy/)
Maintaining the status quo is not an option because population growth is inevitable - but these updates are an excellent opportunity for public input into what that growth should look like.
Drafts of the Comp Plan update, Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and other associated documents are now available on the county’s website and public comments are welcome.
Marla Powers has worked as an Environmental Planner for the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe since December 2022. She has worked for 20 years as a land use planner across the state of Washington. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Urban and Regional Planning from Eastern Washington University in 2001. Marla has been on the Board of Directors for the Planning Association of Washington since 2015 and is currently the Past President and co-chair for the Conference Committee. She has recently been elected to the Treasure position with the Peninsula Section of the Washington State Chapter of the American Planning Association.