The Surfrider Foundation: Olympic Peninsula Chapter

Meeting minutes: 9.3.2008

Attendees:

Dave Parks, Eric & Sarah Waterkotte, Mike, Lindsey and Conner Wheeler, Darryl Wood, Shannon Serrano, Michele Wilson, Jody Kennedy, Adam Plute, Eric Dukes, Scott Sullivan, Andrew Carlson.

Treasurers Report:

Beginning Balance: 2174.55

Monthly Expenses: 91.38 (Sani can) **Note sani-can fee went up due to gas prices

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Current Balance: $ 2083.17

Final thoughts on Surfing and Traditions

Membership drive brought in 12 total new opc memberships, all checks have been cashed.

ACCESS ISSUES

Changes to Makah Reservation Access (Adam Plute)

As with most spots on the Olympic Peninsula access to spots on the Makah reservation is sensitive and in the process of changing. Everyone must be sensitive to the fact that surfers are typically crossing 3 different types of private property on their way to certain breaks. The land owner who owns the land where everyone parks is not cool with surfing/surfers so we must remember to tread lightly and leave no trace. There is an opportunity to purchase lots in the area for 319,000 per lot so there could be the potential for purchasing a lot to be used for parking.

Changes to the cape

The era of "don't ask don't tell" is ending as the land out on the cape begins to be developed. The parking area is owned and the owner is concerned about getting blocked in. For the time being, we all agreed that it would be best to work with individual landowners in the case to negotiate good solution which minimizes the impact to local land owners and future residents.

Changes to the Elwha

Surfers are NOT allowed to park on the reservation side of the river mouth and should not be doing so or encouraging others to do so. The current parking situation is not accepted by the Elwha tribe. We must work on finding a truly legal and acceptable place to park and access this beloved area as we are coming up on the dike reconstruction project which will likely put a temporary end to parking down at the dike access parking lot where we have the porta-jon. As always, tread lightly, be sensitive and don't send people to park in places we all know are not allowed.

What can we do?

We need to start encouraging people to pay the tribes for parking passes. If the tribes see money come in from surfers, they will have a different attitude about allowing access. We could do this for La Push and Neah Bay and then work on getting the Elwha to consider a parking pass arrangement. One idea is to promote the proper parking, payment and conduct for surfing in these tribal areas through our website.
Do more work to get tribal kids surfing. Once a year won't cut it if we want to get tribal kids to get into surfing enough to help enact change and step up to leadership roles within their tribes.
Make sure people coming in to local surf shops for information are getting the right information regarding local customs, access and how to leave no trace at the surf spots they visit, tribal or not.

Projects and action items

Puget sound Partnership (Jody Kennedy)

Puget sound Partnership (http://www.psp.wa.gov/) is a state agency assembled to save Puget Sound (includes all of the Strait of Juan de Fuca). The strength of the agency is that they will be directing funding for local projects that can help save the sound. The issue of access is not widely discussed and there is and opportunity to inspire people to add access issues to the list. Jody Kennedy brought postcards that are to be distributed, filled out and returned by the next OPC Surfrider meeting on October 1st.

Outer coast Marine Sanctuary (Jody Kennedy)

The sanctuary is going to be updating their plan through a management review process which the public can participate in. This is a big deal because they don't update their plan frequently and the opportunity for public comments. We must be present to comment as they control vessel traffic in the sanctuary, wave energy projects and they want to connect with community groups. One thing we could encourage would be to support and help create a recycling program in Forks. Two up-coming meeting where we can comment:

September 29th, Peninsula College Longhouse
September 30th, Neah Bay

Youth Education Opportunities (Shannon Serrano)

Anyone interested in youth outreach and education related to surfing and The Surfrider Foundation should talk to Shannon as she has lots of information and resources. This fits in to our discussion on access and the idea to educate and share surfing with tribal youth so that one day we can work towards starting additional SF chapters in the areas of Forks/La Push and Neah Bay.

Twins Porta-John Project

Decision was made to start a "TPP Committee": members identified as Michele Wilson, Mike Wheeler, Eric and Sarah Waterkotte and Darryl Wood to tackle the following issues:

We need to find a location and get acceptance
We need to find funding or support through something like the "Scenic Byway" fund who might be tapped for building a "rest stop" for Highway 112 scenic byway users. Contact Gerald Nelson at the DOT.

Calendar of Events

September 29th: Marine Sanctuary management review meeting at the Peninsula College Longhouse

September 30th: Marine Sanctuary management review meeting at Neah Bay

October 1st: Next OPC meeting Location: DNR Compound

Next Meeting

October 1st (Wednesday) ^@6:30pm Department of Natural Resources compound.