The Chinook Indian Nation is looking to acquire nearly 400 acres of wetland and flood-prone forest that borders Raymond and along Monohon Landing Road. The current owner is looking to sell the property, and the tribe is hoping to acquire it with federal grant funding.

Western Rivers Conservancy (WRC) is leading the acquisition effort, along with the Columbia Land Trust (CLT), which are working to secure federal grants from the Salmon Recovery Funding Board and a National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant.

The potential purchase is known as the Willapa Sitka Marsh Acquisition. It encompasses 393 acres bordering 2.2 miles of river and inlets. The land is classified as 99% wetland. It’s unclear if the remaining portion could be developed.

The stakeholders, comprising WRC, CLT and the tribe, met with the Pacific County Commission and Pacific County Chief Administrative Officer Paul Plakinger, as well as Human Resources/Risk Manager Marie Guernsey, in a public workshop on June 16. The stakeholders were hoping to gain the board’s support in applying for the federal grants.

Jessica Inwood, a project manager from WRC, headed up the meeting.

“The idea, the plan for this acquisition would be for Western Rivers to do the initial work with the current landowners to acquire it and do it as a back-to-back transaction with the Chinook Indian Nation,” Inwood said. “Western Rivers is never a long-term owner of the property; we typically, when a property is for sale, we can just do all the initial negotiations and work with the landowner to acquire it.”

According to Inwood, the property is currently appraised at $470,000, and Western Rivers was tipped by the state that the property owner, Silvimantle LLC, based out of Gig Harbor, wanted to sell the property.

The topic arose after probing from Commissioner Lisa Olsen about how the deal was negotiated.

“Somebody from Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife reached out to me knowing that we acquire properties,” Inwood said, “and suggested that I reach out to the landowners because this was a really cool property for protection and thought that the landowners had been wanting to sell it and they hadn’t had it on the market yet. So, I reached out to them.”

The commissioners and county officials were fairly reserved during the meeting. Commissioner Jerry Doyle prodded the tribe and the others about a lack of public outreach, as not many were aware of the potential acquisition. The purchase is progressing through an expedited process that began in March and is expected to conclude next April.

“You talked about public outreach, but I don’t know what public outreach you’ve actually… done within the community on this, or is it just the commissioners on a very short time frame to get an acceptance approval letter from us?” Doyle asked. “Trying to get an approval letter within a matter of few days or even less than a week… seems rushed.”

To meet the timeframe for applying for the grants, the group would need a letter of support from the commissioners within a handful of days. Inwood said the timing has been “tricky.”

“The timing has been funny, because the cycles of when you apply for the grant happened to kind of coincide with us working on the initial acquisition of it. So typically we would have more time to have done a lot of outreach and had known a lot more, had the appraisal in a long time ago, all that kind of stuff.”

Noah Dolinajec, lands and planning liaison for the tribe, was present and spoke about the lack of outreach later in the meeting.

“Just to comment on the public outreach portion of this, which I understand the concern for sure,” Dolinajec said. “Part of why we have been a little more quiet about it is because there is the tribal aspect to this, and so there is an extra level of sensitivity with the tribe doing work and what that looks like in some people’s eyes.”

Doyle also had several questions about whether access to the property would be restricted for the general public, considering it is a pristine fishing section. Dolinajec mentioned multiple times that the tribe had no intention of changing anything.

“We are not planning on fencing the property or changing anything with it,” Dolinajec said. “It is more about making sure we can take care of the resources that are there so that the tribal community can have those resources for generations and everyone else that calls the place home now can also access those resources for generations. So, it’s more about protecting the source for fish and plants and birds and all these things that the Pacific County community relies on for quite a bit.”

Inwood mentioned that the habitat supports multiple wildlife species and contains a mineral deposit.

No official stance was taken by the commissioners, and Commissioner Dave Tobin was not present to gain insight into the potential acquisition.

“Obviously we can’t make a decision at a workshop here. We will have to have a conversation about it in an open public meeting,” Doyle said, adding that Plakinger can reach out to Tobin to share the information from the workshop with him.

“[We’ll] see what we can do in a short time frame, but [it’s] doable for sure,” Doyle added.