Rolfes joins effort to revive waters of the sound.
They’re coaching the comebacks of salmon and oysters while cleaning the mat of industrial waste and toxic trash.
Citizen-based “marine resource committees” are putting up a fight backed by federal and state bucks in the north end of Puget Sound with results that have grown quite an audience.
Now Rep. Christine Rolfes wants to bring the show south, spreading MRCs to her hometown and the rest of the sound.
“I looked at a map and saw they surrounded my county but didn’t touch the shorelines,” said the Bainbridge Democrat. “I thought, ‘that’s not cool.’”
“Our citizens could benefit from the same activism (other counties) are benefiting from.”
Rolfes is spearheading legislation in Olympia that would authorize the expansion of the MRC program beyond the sound’s seven northernmost counties.
Established by an act of Congress in 1998 through the Northwest Straits Marine Conservation Initiative, the MRC program allows citizen groups to identify local restoration priorities and then leverage federal dollars to help fund implementation.
Current MRC projects include surveys of marine habitat, creosote log removal, clean-up of derelict industrial fishing gear and the restoration of native shellfish beds.
Introduced with its first public hearing on Friday, Rolfes’ House Bill 2049 has a spirited cheering section among environmental groups.
“This gives a unique opportunity to engage people and empower them with on-the-ground projects,” said the Surfrider Foundation’s Washington policy coordinator Jody Kennedy, whose group has teamed with MRCs on various projects.
Kennedy credits MRCs for initiating the largest forage fish mapping project in the state, coordinating the work of nine counties, three tribes, two universities, various environmental groups and hundreds of volunteers.
“I think that’s a good example of the power of marine resource committees,” she said. “They bring together all these groups to empower citizens and make things happen.”
The MRC conservation initiative was sparked in the late 1990s when residents near the Strait of Juan de Fuca grew frustrated with the “top down” approach and regulatory bureaucracy encumbering federal efforts to clean the sound.
In a reversal, the feds handed authority to MRCs composed of local representatives who could redirect funding toward goals that better fit the environmental concerns of the sound’s seven northern counties.
“People kind of rebelled and the federal government came back with a ‘bottom-up’ approach,” said Betsy Peabody, executive director of the Bainbridge-based Puget Sound Restoration Fund. “Now people can set priorities at the local level (with) good broad-based representation in a community.”
Peabody’s group has teamed with several MRCs to restore native oyster beds in the north sound. She says expanding the program to include Kitsap and other counties is a “good move” on Rolfes’ part.
Duane Fagergren, chair of the Northwest Straits Commission, said Rolfes’ bill will bring “more ideas to the table” on how to heal the sound’s wounds.
“It’s the people that live in these areas that come up with the great ideas,” he said. “Getting these people involved in innovative projects is what we need to protect Puget Sound.”
Under Rolfes’ proposal, which is slated for a House committee vote this week, the state would give each city and county bordering the sound the authority to establish an MRC.
The new MRCs would fall under the jurisdiction and budget authority of the state Puget Sound Partnership and would not compete for dollars against the existing federally-funded seven MRCs in the Northwest Straits Committee, according to Rolfes.
Puget Sound residents desiring an MRC could petition their local legislative authority, which would then have 60 days to respond, under the bill’s guidelines.
MRC membership must include balanced representation from local governments, scientists, business leaders, conservationists and recreational users, according to the bill.
An MRC would then review existing ecosystem data and conservation programs to craft prioritized recommendations.
“This is a good, natural outgrowth of what citizens are already doing to come together and benefit the entire sound,” said Rolfes.
