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All Point Bulletin • July 2022
opinion
All Point Bulletin All-hands-on-deck needed to The All Point Bulletin is published slow the spread of European Green Crabs each month by Point Roberts Press Inc. Total circulation is 9,000 copies including home delivery in Point Roberts and Tsawwassen, subscriptions and distribution to retail establishments on the Point. The opinion expressed by contributors is their own and is offered for the general interest of our readers. Mail and classified ads should be addressed to:
All Point Bulletin P.O. Box 1451 Point Roberts WA USA 98281
Publisher & Managing Editor Patrick J. Grubb Associate Publisher & Advertising Manager Louise H. Mugar Copy Editor Aly McGee Creative Services Ruth Lauman, Doug De Visser Advertising Sales Molly Ernst
Contributors In This Issue Rhiannon Allen Gina Gaudet Kris Lomedico Annelle Norman Administrative Services Jeanie Luna Founding Editor Glennys Christie Business & Editorial Office Phone: 360/945-0413 Fax: 360/945-1613 Email: sales@allpointbulletin.com
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www.allpointbulletin.com Printed in Canada • Vol. XXXVII, No. 3
Letters Policy The All Point Bulletin welcomes letters to the editor; however, the opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the editor. Letters must include name, address and daytime telephone number for verification. Letters must not exceed 450 words and may be edited or rejected for reasons of legality and good taste. A fresh viewpoint on matters of general interest to local readers will increase the likelihood of publication. Writers should avoid personal invective. Unsigned letters will not be accepted for publication. Requests for withholding names will be considered on an individual basis. Thank you letters should be limited to ten names. Only one letter per month from an individual correspondent will be published.
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Next issue: August 2022 Ads due: July 22
By Ed Johnstone Efforts are ramping up to control the explosion of invasive European green crab (Carcinus maenas) in western Washington. The invasive species reached San Francisco in 1989 and was first detected in small numbers on the Olympic coast in 1998. We’ve now reached the point where thousands are being caught every year in Grays Harbor, Willapa Bay and Makah Bay. The Makah Tribe developed a robust trapping program, which caught 1,200 within the first two months of the trapping season this year. In the Tsoo-yess River channels, they can find up to 40 of them within a span of 5-10 minutes. But not every tribe has the resources to keep up with this unchecked proliferation. My tribe, the Quinault Indian Nation, doesn’t have the staff to trap aggressively in Grays Harbor.
It was only a matter of time before the crab reached the Salish Sea. In 2012, a population of green crab was found in the Sooke Inlet of Vancouver Island, and in 2015, the state’s Washington Sea Grant Crab Team began monitoring Puget Sound shorelines. The crab team expanded its trapping efforts to Grays Harbor, Willapa Bay and Makah Bay in 2020. Last year, we saw exponential increases in green crab numbers in estuaries along the Olympic coast as well as in Lummi Nation’s sea pond in north Puget Sound. The shallow 750-acre sea pond is part of Lummi’s hatchery facility. It was designed to cultivate shellfish and juvenile salmon, but unfortunately, that made it a perfect incubator for an invasive species. The first green crab were found there in 2019 and last year, thanks to an extensive trapping effort, the tribe captured 70,000 of them. The Lummi Indian Business Council declared the European green crab invasion
a disaster in November 2021. In January 2022, Gov. Inslee ordered his state agencies to implement emergency measures to try to control the spread. The state Legislature made $8.6 million available in the 2022 supplemental budget signed in March. Lummi and Makah were given highest priority and received some of that emergency funding this year, and we’re working with the state to direct more resources to population control on the coast. At this point, there’s no hope of eradicating European green crab in our region. They’re here for good and they’re threatening our shellfish industry. They’ve traveled as far south in the Salish Sea as Hood Canal, where a male European green crab was found in May 2022. We’ve seen the damage they cause. On the East Coast, European green crab are to blame for the collapse of the eastern softs(Please see next page)
Letters To The Editor The Editor: The Point Roberts Taxpayers Association (PRTA) will be holding its annual general meeting (AGM) this month, on Thursday, July 21, at 5 p.m., at Kiniski’s Reef Tavern (outside patio, weather permitting). Appetizers and soft beverages will be provided by the association (and a cash bar will be available inside the Reef). We look forward to resuming this tradition of in-person AGMs, with stimulating speakers and lively discussion, after a two-year hiatus due to Covid-19. In 2020, we were unable to celebrate PRTA’s 50th anniversary, so this year we’ll actually be looking back at 52 years of service to the community. We are honored this year to have as our keynote speaker, Lisa J. Brown, PhD, Director of the Washington State Department of Commerce. Previously, Dr. Brown has served as the chancellor of the University of Washington, Spokane, and as a member of the Washington State Legislature, including eight years as the first Democratic female majority leader of the Washington State Senate. She holds a PhD in economics. The theme of her remarks at our AGM will be “Washington’s Economic Recovery: Helping Communities Thrive,” followed by Q&A with the audience. Our state representative Sharon Shewmake is also expected to participate. PRTA is very grateful to representative Shewmake and her staff for facilitating our invitation to Dr Brown. PRTA membership is open to all Point Roberts property owners (as well as fulltime renters). We sincerely hope you will join the association for only $10 annual dues (U.S./Canadian at par) for individual or household membership; but it’s not required. Everyone is welcome. Please mark your calendars to come to the Reef on July 21 to join us in celebrating over half a century of service to our community as per our motto, “United States and Canadian Citizens Working Together for Point Roberts, WA.” Mark Robbins, PRTA president Point Roberts The Editor: While Point Roberts might not consider itself a resort town, we are experiencing some of the same issues regarding housing for workers. Affordable rentals are going the way of the Dodo as more people move to “Covid-safe” Point Roberts, buying homes that were once rentals.
There are several Point Roberts businesses currently looking for employees. Shipping company workers, gas station attendants, waiters and waitresses, bartenders, grocery checkout clerks are all needed here on the Point. Why are these businesses having trouble filling these positions? There are several groups of people on the Point. Vacationers, who own homes and visit them occasionally. Retired people who live here full-time that don’t need or want to work. Professionals working from home, and those who need to work to live here. I’ll call them service workers for a lack of a better name. Vacationers, retirees and professionals mostly all own their own homes. Some service workers own their own homes here, but many rent their homes. When the property values rise and the rental owners sell their property, where will these renters go? There are almost no rental properties within the reach of service workers. They can’t afford $2,000 – $3,000 a month in rent, so they have to leave Point Roberts, reducing the number of service workers even more. There are other services that need to be filled. We need electricians, plumbers, building contractors, carpenters, dog groomers, etc. These workers won’t commute to Point Roberts on a daily basis. These needs could be filled if they could
find homes to rent for them and their families. Many homeowners here understand the issue of not being able to get their roofs, electrical wiring, appliances and plumbing fixed, or waiting months for an someone to help them. This issue affects them directly. Point Roberts hopes to build Green House Project care homes for residents needing special care. They will need to include affordable housing for nurses and other caregivers. The business community needs to support these workers by buying empty homes and renting them to the service workers. Residents of Point Roberts need to support this goal and owners of empty homes need to rent their properties. As the owner of Point Roberts Computer Services, I support many residents, fixing their computers, setting up their TVs and streaming devices, installing security systems and providing other electronic services. I will end up closing shop and moving away if I can’t find a place to live here on the Point. I’m aware of several other service workers desperately looking for places to live. If Point Roberts isn’t worker-friendly, it will end up a “golden handcuffed” community with businesses having to supplement workers’ housing, causing them to raise their prices or go out of business due to a lack of workers.
John Beals Point Roberts
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