Also be sure to ask if they supported the killing of the Salmon and Crab by spraying the Spartina instead of mowing it.

A true steward of the bay would not do any of the above

This may be of interest to you, if it’s new info: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6087547.html
It has to do with a “product” of spartina, which acts against certain halogenated hydrocarbon compounds. While I don’t totally support the application of the patent (eg a vehicle for genetic engineering), the quality of the spartina in this case makes it a potentially valuable ally against chemical pollution of a particularly nasty realm of chemical agents. chow ^..^

From State Weed Board draft minutes, May 15 2007. Sent to my attorney as a courtesy, and not to be considered final. Also states that all information contained is subject to change upon further review and approval by the State Weed Board.

The Pacific County Noxious Weed Control Board requests the following upgrade from Class B to Class A: Smooth Cordgrass(spartina alterniflora)

County Board Rational
Tremendous progress has been made, and think they can eradicate it successfully with the proposed change.

The Committee discussed:
* Distribution
*A desire to have Mary Toohey/AGR weigh in on the issue
* The probability that it can be eradicated this year or next.
*Definition of control which allows the mowing of seed heads but leaves plant parts
*Class A definition will force landowners to eradicate
*Use of public money to eradicate this weed.

Committee Consensus: The Committee leans toward upgrading Spartina alterniflora to a Class A, and they would like the opinion of WSDA before the July meeting.

Note from fritzi: In the Skagit Valley news article Kim Patton was quoted as saying that within 8 years Washington State would be spartina free. It should also be noted from the minutes that The Nature Conservancy was asking that Common cord grass,( spartina angelica) be upgraded from B to A. The Committee Consensus was that they would like to hear from Skagit, Island and Snohomish County coordinators about distribution.
Since Miranda Wecker has made it quite clear that pesticides are the only solution for eradication its quite likely that the pressure for pesticide application will be irresistable if angelica is upgraded to A. I think Alterniflora is already an A in those counties.

The Commercial Oystermen, Taylor Industries
and Coast Oyster Co among the largest have been spraying
Carbaryl since 1965 tokill the native ghost shrimp.
NRDC has asked EPA to ban all uses of Carbaryl.

For over 15 years the state and local government
and US Fish and Wildlife have been spraying
spartina alterniflora , considered a non native but
which has naturalized over the more than 100 years
that it has been in the bay.
The Nature Conservancy and the Audubon Society
from the inception have been cheerleaders
for the eradication of Spartina in Willapa Bay .
Initially Monsanto’s Rodeo was used, but
in the last few years a new chemical combination
has been put in use, Imazypyr and Aquaneat,
with various surfactants. Imazypyr has neurotoxic
properties.
This quickly registered combination is described
as less toxic than Rodeo but more effective in doing the job.

Willapa Bay unlike Puget Sound has never been affected
by Red Tide or algae blooms.
Eradication scientists insist
that the east and gulf coast experience,
where spartina is revered
are irrelevant on the West Coast.

Efforts to eradicate Spartina grasses are not only
taking place in Washington State but also in
San Francisco Bay and being encouraged in
British Columbia.

BEWARE OF THOSE WARNING OF NON-
NATIVE SPECIES
ALMOST ALWAYS THERE IS A CHEMICAL
AGENDA

MOBY DICK HOTEL AND OYSTERFARM

PO BOX 82

NAHCOTTA, WASHINGTON 98637

June, 25, 2007

To Jaime Shimek, asst. to Senator Patty Murray

From Fritzi Cohen

My schedule makes it impossible for me to reschedule a meeting. However I will try to convey my thoughts in this email.

#1 IT IS IMPERATIVE FOR SENATOR MURRAY TO REVISIT THE SPARTINA ERADICATION PROJECT ON WILLAPA BAY

#2 A MORATORIUM FOR THIS YEARS SPRAYING SHOULD BE INSTITUTED WHILE A CLEARER PICTURE OF THE DANGERS OF THE HERBICIDES AND THE BENEFITS OF THE GRASS ITSELF ARE EXPLORED.

#3 THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO SENATOR MURRAY SHOULD TALK WITH TO BALANCE THE INFORMATION THAT SHE HAS BEEN RELYING ON. I WOULD SUGGEST SEVERAL INDIVIDUALS:

BOYCE THORN-MILLER has a working familiarity with this project since she cfitiqued the original EIS on what to do about spartina in 1992 or 3. She is now working on developing a balanced approach to scientifically dealing with what are considered non-native species. Boyce is a graduate of the University of Washington and her mother lives in Seattle. Boyce also has several colleagues who she could engage in a discussion with Senator Murray.

STEVE HERMAN, professor emeritus at Evergreen in Olympia. Steve is the bird expert. His student Jared Parks concluded in his thesis that shorebirds use areas colonized by the grass in Willapa Bay, contrary to claims by eradication supporters that they do not. STEVE who was never a fan of spartina grass now belives the grass has played a beneficial role in the bay.

-2-

DOROTHY LEONARD was the first executive director of the Willapa Allilance on an assignment from NOAA. The Board of Directors of the Alliance was divided on the issue of using pesticides(carbaryl) to kill ghost shrimp that destabilize the substrate. Carbaryl also kills juvenile salmon, Dungeness crabs and oysters. However, led by TNC and the large oyster companies, the Board supported the use of both pesticides and herbicides (Monsanto’s Rodeo to get rid of Spartina.) In response, Dot left the Alliance for a position as Director of Fisheries for Maryland. Dot is an international expert on oyster restoration.

JENNIFER DOLD, a partner in Bricklin, Newman and Dold who can talk about the settlement that was made in 1994 or 5 to keep the spartina project in a research mode .A settlement that was immediately eroded by the State Legislature at the behest of the Nature Conservancy who had tried unsuccessfully to have the action brought by Friends of the Earth, the Shoalwater Nation ad the Ad Hoc Coalition summarily dismissed.

DR WARREN PORTER is a professor at the University of Wisconsin Department of Zoology. He is the author of the critique of the risk assessment for imazypyr which I left for you on Friday. He has never visited the Bay to the best of my knowledge. His critique is based purely on science and his own vast experience in looking at chemicals and the results of their use.

LEFKOS CHRISTODOULIDES who lives in Seattle, has been to the Moby Dick Hotel and Oysterfarm, is an admirer of our oysters, and is firmly against the use of chemicals in the bay.

My business on Willapa Bay is under seige. Protecting my oysterbeds is uppermost in my plans. Secondarily I am intent on exposing the gross mistatements of facts on which this insidious eradication project is based. Finally, although The Nature Conservancy has been quoted that they would like their 600 acre Ellsworth slough to be the guinea pig for this eradication project, they have no right to make the entire bay, and the rest of this ecosystem a guinea pig for their experiment.