Subject: Re: Dogs & policing Spencer Island
Date: Sep 26 15:18:47 1997
From: Laurel Cheap - lcheap at cac.washington.edu



More than you ever wanted to know about dogs on Spencer Island:

I just spoke with Debbie Terwilliger in the Snohomish County Parks
Department about this issue. According to her, Snohomish County code
specifies that no dogs are allowed on county property and violators
are subject to citation. Debbie was not sure of the penalty but will
look it up. Snohomish County owns the southern portion of Spencer
Island and the Department of Wildlife owns the northern portion. The
property line is north of the bridge and marked with white poles next
to the dike. The Dept of Wildlife has an easement along the dike from
the bridge to the property line to allow access to their property.
The island is managed jointly by the two agencies. The original
management agreement was that dogs would be allowed on the Dept of
Wildlife part of the island during hunting season only. Although no
official change to that management policy has been made, the Dept of
Wildlife is now telling people that they can take dogs on their
property year-around.

Debbie does not appear too happy about this unilateral decision and
plans to schedule a meeting with the Dept of Wildlife in October (no
specific date has been set) to discuss the issue. The public will be
invited. Anyone wishing to attend should contact Debbie in a week or
two to find out about the meeting. Writing letters to the Dept of
Wildlife might also help.

In the meantime, Debbie has a one sheet informational flyer available
entitled something like "Why aren't dogs allowed on Spencer Island?".
Anyone interested in having copies to hand out to people they meet on
the island should pick some up at the Parks office. Please call ahead
of time to make sure they have some. (Debbie was going to dig out the
original to leave at the front desk.) If you can't get them from
Parks, email me and I'll make copies of the one I have.

Also, a little history on the hunting issue: the Dept of Wildlife
purchased their portion of the island using Duck Stamp funds (see
http://www.fws.gov/~r9dso/ or http://www.refugenet.com/stamp.htm) so I
doubt that hunting will ever be banned.

Snohomish County Parks Department 339-1208
2828 Rockefeller
Everett

I'm on the tweeters digest so I hope I'm not duplicating information
- Debbie said Jan called her yesterday.

-Laurel
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Laurel Cheap lcheap at u.washington.edu phone: (206) 543-6383
Information Systems University of Washington fax: (206) 543-0831
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