PORT ANGELES — Clallam County commissioners moved this to revise and send a response letter tied to the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe’s request to transfer the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge and Protection Island into tribal trust ownership.
Commissioners said the letter will recognize the tribe’s historic connection to the land while also spelling out county concerns over the broader impacts of future federal trust land transfers. They also plan to provide copies of the finalized letter directly to Jamestown tribal leadership before sending it to federal officials.
The Sequim City Council has already backed the proposed refuge transfer, which would ultimately require congressional approval.
During Monday’s discussion, commissioners focused heavily on how future trust land transfers could affect county tax revenue and local land-use authority. County Administrator Todd Mielke warned that transferring land into federal trust status shifts more of the county’s tax burden onto remaining property owners.
“It is a shift, doesn’t reduce the amount of collections, but it does have an impact to those parcels that remain responsible for a larger percentage of the property tax burden of the county,” Mielke told commissioners.
Commissioners also discussed requiring mitigation agreements in future trust land transfers to help offset impacts on county taxpayers and services.
“We would like some mitigation for the property tax impacts in the way of an agreement similar to the Quileute Tribe. And then we would attach that. It just says there’s a recognition that there is an impact on property taxes and stuff like that and we would like that considered as a requirement of the transfer,” said Mielke.
Commissioners stressed they were not targeting the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe specifically, but instead trying to establish a broader county position as more trust land requests emerge in the future.