CLALLAM COUNTY – It’s been a long process, 12 years in fact, but the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe has finally gotten the go-ahead to open, on a limited scale, an oyster farm in the Dungeness National Refuge area within Dungeness Bay.

A Clallam County Hearing Examiner granted a Conditional Use Permit and a Shoreline Substantial Development Permit on January 10.

The Clallam County Department of Community Development had recommended against the permit, arguing that the project would negatively impact wildlife at the Refuge but, as Director Mary Ellen Winborn explains, the Tribe prevailed.

“We originally denied the project or the proposal and then the Tribe came back and they gave a very compelling argument about how it was a preexisting non-conforming use and they done oyster farming in the past. And the water quality had diminished over time and they put a lot of money into improving the water quality. And so the hearings examiner heard that and thought, you know, he wanted to give them the opportunity to do Phase 1 of the proposal. He wouldn’t have done it had they not had that preexisting non-conforming use.”

The Tribe can go forward with Phase 1 of the planned oyster farm, Which means they’ll start with 5 acres of the 30-acre operation they hope to eventually develop on land that will be leased from the Department of Natural Resources.

Tribe CEO Ron Allen says the next step is to get the permit from the Army Corps of Engineers, which he believes should be forthcoming soon. After that, it’s a matter of getting oyster seed in the water so they can begin harvesting as soon as possible.

“Well, it’s a great opportunity and will create a number of jobs and, you know, we have every intention of expanding it because we want to get into the retail market. So we already have a market for our products, you know, with that with the restaurants and then Distributors out there, but we’d actually like to sell fresh stuff in our

Allen says the hope is to get oyster seed in the water sometime this Spring.

Rectangle within the Bay marks proposed oyster farm.

Banner photo: Oyster seeds.