NAHCOTTA — A Willapa Bay oyster farm that wants to keep its operation chemical-free has won the right to control invasive salt marsh grass without using herbicides.
Grays Harbor Superior Court Judge David Edwards ruled last week that a Pacific County weed control board violated the rights of Moby Dick Corp. when it rejected the company’s plan to control spartina manually with weed whackers.
The judge said the weed board acted in an “arbitrary and capricious manner” and that the company could proceed with its plan to control the invasive weed without chemicals.
Moby Dick, which owns a hotel and 6.5-acre oyster farm at Nahcotta on the Long Beach Peninsula, says the herbicides are dangerous and would ruin its reputation for chemical-free oysters.
“I feel justified,” Keith Stavrum, who runs the oyster operation for the company, told The Daily News in Longview. The state should reconsider using any poisons, he added.
He said restaurants pay a premium for Moby Dick’s oysters because they are herbicide-free, so spraying spartina with chemicals puts that at risk.
County and state officials say the chemicals are safe and used extensively by public agencies to control spartina, a perennial grass that public agencies in the state have tried for years to eradicate from Willabay Bay and other areas.
The weed spreads quickly and crowds out habitat for shellfish, birds and other wildlife. It has taken over thousands of acres of tidelands in Willapa Bay, according to the state.
Pacific County administrative officer Bryan Harrison said the weed board tried to work with the company to use an herbicide-free method to control Moby Dick’s oyster beds. He said the company rebuffed the offers.
Stavrum said the company declined the offer at the time because it was given only two week’s notice and the beds were full of oysters and steamer clams.
The company sued in Pacific County in March to overturn the weed board’s order to use herbicides, but the case was ultimately heard by a Grays Harbor judge, Stavrum said.
The herbicides used include imazapyr and glyphosate. Harrison said the chemicals are found in common household weed killers like Round Up and Rodeo, and have been approved for use by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Ecology, Harrison said.
“They know how important it is to kill this weed so we can get our shorebirds back,” he said.
Harrison said 300 property owners in Willapa Bay have agreed to the chemical use. He said officials have been able to reduce the spartina in the bay from 8,500 to 50 acres in the past five years.
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