QUILCENE — The Dabob Bay Natural Area on Hood Canal, home to rich shellfish beds, is getting 384 acres of school trust land to expand.
The state Natural Resources Board last week approved the transfer to add to the existing 195 acres of coastal spits, estuary and upland forest land.
The natural area is one of the largest high-quality salt-marsh estuary and sand-spit complexes in the state and the area is important for shellfish beds.
The 384 acres will be transferred from the state’s Common School Trust, which helps pay for school construction, the Peninsula Daily News reported.
In exchange, the trust will be reimbursed for the $2.8 million value of the land with money from a state land transfer program.
Dabob Bay is at the heart of the state’s largest concentration of oyster farms along Hood Canal and home to its namesake oysters.
The state’s Natural Heritage Program had identified the parcels to be transferred as helpful to protecting the area’s unique natural features.
The state Department of Natural Resources has set a goal to expand the natural area even more, including buying private property from willing sellers, said DNR spokesman Bob Redling.
The proposed expansion could add up to 3,565 acres of upland and 2,440 acres of aquatic lands to the natural area.
It includes coastal bluffs and shorelines that conservationists say would benefit the shellfish industry and support the coastal spits’ ecological function.
Some timber groups, such as the Washington chapter of American Forest Resource Council, oppose the proposal. Conservation groups such as the Jefferson Land Trust and The Nature Conservancy support it, saying it’s needed to protect the pristine ecosystem.
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