Buying Short’s Family Farm makes no sense | Letter to the editor

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Sometimes things just don’t make sense. For example, why is the Port of Port Townsend purchasing the Short’s Farm in Chimacum? Today I believe I found the answer in a Leader news article dated Dec. 21, 2022. A quote from the article states: “A particularly unique use that was negotiated by the Shorts was hunting rights.”

“The farm is the only place in east Jefferson County where hunters can get a reservation to hunt waterfowl, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife even approached the Shorts previously to try and buy the land in the years before the family was ready to sell.”

‘[Department of Fish and Wildlife] has reached out to the port a couple of times and expressed a real interest in maintaining access to this property for seasonal waterfowl hunting,’ Berg said.”

The Short’s farm becomes a lake most of the winter where flocks of ducks, trumpeter swans, and geese winter over. Hunting water fowl there will be like shooting fish in a barrel. Allowing this carnage does nothing to enhance “conservation” in our county. I am deeply disappointed in our elected leaders for pursuing this. They have put targets on the backs of innocent waterfowl, who should be left alone to live their lives in peace.

Pamela Roberts
QUILCENE