By Sam Merrill and Sue Danver
YIPEE….It is time to celebrate…..
All God’s critters got a place in the choir
Some sing low, some sing higher
Some sing out loud on the telephone wires
And some just clap their hands, or paws, or anything they got now
-Bill Staines, Folksinger
Yes, there has been a reprieve for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Rocky Prairie Wildlife Area just southeast of Millersylvania State Park! The Thurston County Commissioners voted to defer a request by NorthPoint of Kansas City, Missouri, to rezone, to industrial zoning, an 800-acre Port of Tacoma (POT) property on the north boundary of WDFW’s Rocky Prairie Wildlife Area. (Technically, the Commissioners voted not to put the rezone request on their 2020-21 docket.) NorthPoint had hoped to build a roughly 6 million-square-foot warehouse complex on the POT property. Commissioners Menser and Hutchings expressed strong opposition to the request.
Friends of Rocky Prairie (FORP) spearheaded a year’s effort to convince the County Commissioners that the warehouse industrial development on the POT property between Millersylvania and the Rocky Prairie Wildlife Area, in the heart of rural Thurston County, with its rare prairie habitat and critical species, would be inappropriate. BHAS members also helped collect over 6,000 citizen signatures opposing the development. They sent personalized messages to deny the warehouse project on postcards with photos of South Sound prairies and their species to the Commissioners. BHAS further supported FORP’s efforts with a hydrogeologic report by Jim Mathieu that stated Deep Lake at Millersylvania State Park could be degraded by any spills at the warehouse development site. FORP, BHAS, and many Thurston County citizens will continue working to protect this special place. We extend special thanks to BHAS member Sally Nole for her tireless work on this issue. Also, we are grateful to Dennis Plank and Rod Gilbert for providing us with their gorgeous prairie photos. Thank you all for helping to achieve this monumental victory.
