Recently there have been two puff pieces in area papers featuring the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge (WNWR) project leader celebrating the removal of the first dike at the Lewis Unit. The most egregious of these was in an un-named paper upriver. Both featured un-rebutted statements and quotes from the leader, which are demonstrably not true.

    In the upriver article she stated she has not heard any complaints about the final Comprehensive Conservation Plan (CCP)! The article further stated the dikes were blocking salmon from spawning habitat. They are not. I was in fact one of the attendees at a meeting with the leader and her management in Kelso earlier this year, well after the final CCP was issued. We were a group of concerned citizens renewing the publics concerns over the plans, which were then fast approaching implementation. The meeting was arranged through Rep. Herrera-Beutlers office.

    I have also read the formal complaint filed by Washington Waterfowl Association describing how citizens were denied due process by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in the flawed CCP process. This was sent to the inspector general of the USFWS after the meeting and after the CCP was finalized.

    One example given in the complaint was how the refuge signed a contract to remove said dikes before the public comment period was over. Readers may recall that this contract was to utilize money from the state of Washington being granted to the federal government (USFWS) to remove the dikes. Public opposition was so strong the money was taken back and the contract was cancelled.

    Back then I wrote a piece stating how one of the drawbacks of central planning without meaningful input utilization is that as unworkable plans do not work out, The Truth must be altered to justify continuing forward and to verify to the public the sanctity of the original planning process. My title was  The End of Truth. I will not go into detail about why on earth a state with a budget shortfall would be trying to give our tax money to the federal government. It may have something to do with layers of state and local government, which would get a cut called overhead along the way.

    The truth about the burgeoning, generically justified dike-busting projects in the Northwest is being made hard to pry out. Waterfowl counts are stopped or misplaced well before the projects start. There is thus no baseline data. At Nisqually Delta, counts have now been started after the damage to waterfowl habitat was done. Numbers are said to be going up. Dike busting must be helping the ducks!? After the dikes were busted it looked like a tsunami had hit! No birds. Numbers had nowhere to go but up. This is like monitoring the progress of crash victims starting after the crash and concluding it must have been good for them. No baseline.      One of our county commissioner candidates was the director of the Friends of WNWR and was on the panel at the large public hearing sponsored by Rep. Herrera-Beutler last year. It now comes out that this individual was being paid to manage this organization under a grant from USFWS! He vigorously supported dike busting, needless to say.

    This November we have an opportunity at several levels of government to vote for more deception, grant pandering, and waste of money and wildlife habitat, or for less. We need improvement in my opinion.

ROSS BARKHURST

South Bend