OLYMPIA — Washington’s Department of Natural Resources invites the public to review the new draft Aquatic Lands Habitat Conservation Plan. Over the next 50 years, the plan is designed to guide DNR in better ways to protect at-risk native aquatic species on 2.6 million acres of state-owned lands under marine and fresh waters of the state. DNR manages these lands as a public trust for all Washingtonians.
“This document formalizes the agency’s efforts to conserve and enhance these lands,” Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark said in a news release. “It provides a stable framework grounded in science and based on the principles of sustainability.”
The draft HCP is a culmination of nearly eight years of effort by DNR aquatics staff, working closely with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service. It will protect 29 sensitive, threatened and endangered aquatic species — several listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. It will help identify and restore important habitat on state-owned aquatic lands.
The plan allows DNR to address protection of species and their habitats through management decisions, including authorizing public and private uses of state-owned aquatic lands.
These lands include the marine bedlands under Puget Sound, Strait of Juan de Fuca and the coast, including 30 percent of their related tidelands; the freshwater bedlands and about 70 percent of the shorelands of the navigable lakes and rivers — or basically, all the lands under the navigable water bodies in the state of Washington.
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