The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

To The Eagle:

The article in last Thursday's edition of The Eagle concerning the shoreline master plan (SMP) would have you believe that there was a positive consensus between the members of the initial County Shoreline Advisory Committee and the county planning board. Nothing is further from the truth.

While we all want clean air, clean water and a healthy environment, the challenge that occurs is in the accomplishment of this goal.

The Department of Ecology (DOE) would attempt to accomplish our shared goal with methods that would result in force, punitive requirements, and rules that clearly rise to the level of eminent domain/taking of private property without compensations.

Those in opposition of the DOE methods of protecting our environment would instead achieve our shared goal through education. Families that have lived in Wahkiakum County for generations already know what works and how to be good stewards of the environment. I believe the county citizens can create an SMP with a common sense approach coupled with all science, not just politically motivated or profit driven science.

The county planning board presented many concerns to the DOE only to be shot down. We were told numerous times that if we did not "stay within the goalposts" and recommend the plan that CREST wrote to our commissioners, "something worse would be forced upon us."

You would have been proud of your county commissioners as they met in a work session the morning of May 9. They expressed serious concerns with the plan, but they will need our support to fight it. Watch your mailboxes for a letter from the County Real Property Rights Advisory Board. It will further explain the impact this will have on your property and what you can do to support our commissioners in their effort to protect our county.

Lily Kolditz

Shoreline Advisory Committee

Member, county planning board

Chair, County Real Property Aright Advisory Board