SEATTLE — The state Department of Natural Resources is considering granting Taylor Shellfish a lease to harvest geoducks it grew illegally on state lands.
The state’s largest shellfish grower applied for a lease earlier this year after learning it grew the large clams in Totten Inlet near Olympia on what turned out to be state land.
The state is considering the five-year lease over objections from neighbors and environmentalists, and even as it seeks damages of up to $1.3 million from the Shelton-based company for trespassing on state land.
On Monday, the agency concluded its environmental review and will make a decision in January, after a 14-day comment period.
If approved, it would be the first state lease allowing a geoduck harvest on state aquatic lands. Existing harvests occur on private lands.
“No one should be able to plant geoduck on state lands and then keep it. Why should Taylor?” said Laura Hendricks, spokeswoman, Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat.
The group has submitted its own lease request to protect the tideland habitat, which it says is critical fish habitat and a designated sand lance spawning ground.
The lease would allow the company to grow oysters and harvest 300,000 geoducks already grown. No additional geoduck seeds could be planted, and the company wouldn’t be able to harvest more than one-tenth of an acre at any one time.
Patricia Henson, a Natural Resources spokeswoman, said the agency would require the company to follow good management practices, including having a independent group study the impacts of harvests.
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