WDFW "Wallace" public fishing site update!
It's been a couple of years since I originally brought up the issue about public access at the WDFW "Wallace" public fishing site in Toledo WA.
It's time now to update this board and others on what has occurred at this public fishing site since the last time when I first brought it to this board's attention. For those of you that did not get the opportunity to read my original thread, here is the basic background on this extremely important issue. It is one of the many reasons why you see me harping so much on WDFW.
In 1971, WDFW bought several easements rights on the Cowlitz River. The "easements" were procured for the sole purpose that the "public" could use them perpetually, no matter who the owners of the land shall be to have fishing access to the Cowlitz. The project site was named after the person who the state had purchased these public easement rights from. The name of this site is called the "Wallace" site. You can get the directions to get there by going to WDFW's Website at
http://www.wa.gov/wdfw/lands/reg5accs.htm#wall1 It is by far the largest unknown, and unused public fishing access site on the Cowlitz River. In 1971, WDFW purchased 3 easement rights at what is now called the "Wallace" Gravel Pit site. WDFW originally paid over $40,000 dollars for these easement rights and to have the seller (pit owner) grade, and gravel an approximate 4000 foot stretch of easement roadway that went to a ½ acre public parking area. In addition the road work, WDFW also bought 3 easement rights from the Wallace's. One easement was for vehicular traffic (4000 foot X 60 foot wide road easement). The second easement was for a ½ acre public parking area which was located next to the river bank, and the third easement was a 25 foot wide floting bank fishing easement that ran for almost a mile along the Cowlitz River banks.
The WDFW also had a written agreement with the seller that spelled out exactly what each party would do. The agreement states;
"The parties hereto agree to the development as follows:
(Parcel A)" (these are the parcels that we are talking about in these easements)
"1) Clear Four Thousand (4000) feet of road, 60 feet wide, containing in all in all 5.5 acres,
2) Ballast roadway a dept of Nine (9) inches,
3) Surface roadway with Four (4) inches of crushed rock,
4) Grade roadway suitable for public vehicle traffic, or County and State specifications,
(Parcel B) The Grantor will (this the parking area easement)
1) Clear One-Half (1/2) acre in area,
2) Ballast said parcel with nine (9) inches of ballast,
3) Surface said area with Four (4) inches of crushed rock,
4) Grade said roadway suitable for public vehicle traffic, or County and State specifications.
The agreement also notes that "It is further understood that payment for full acquisition of said easements will be made following the final inspection and acceptance of the development to be made by the Stat's engineers.
It is further understood that the State will:
1) Upon completion of the development, relieve the Grantor of further labiality for development or maintenance, and
2) Complete all other necessary development features as monies are programmed. This shall include the fencing on one side of the access road with sheep-type fencing.
In the spring of 1973, the seller installed his own sheep wire fence along the states easement road. Apparently monies for the fence had not yet been "Programmed" by the state and the seller wanted to run cattle on the adjoining land along the easement road.
In 1974, the seller of these easements applied for, and received a surface mining permit to mine gravel from the DNR. Between 1974 and 1988, the owner (seller of the easement) decided that he did not want the states easement road or parking area to limit the size of his gravel operations and expanded his excavations to engulf 90% the states legal access road easement that lead to its public parking lot. This is clearly shown by viewing the WDFW survey map below. I found this map when I did my public records request.
(WDFW survey map picture)
Obviously, all the gravel and base that the state had paid to seller to lay down has now been removed and reused or sold during these excavations of the gravel pit site
These pictures were taken in June of 1990 and you can clearly see that the entire area around the pit has been scalped and prepared for mining. You can also see that original easement road (marked in green dashes) was mined away and now is engulfed by a huge pond. The green box was the approximate location of the original parking area. The legal easement road no longer exists, and the pond has now been excavated even more! The blue line is the approximate current size of the mining pond today. The yellow square is the current area that is being used for parking. The yellow dashes represent the current road that the public is using now to get to the public parking area. The red box in the bottom of the picture is the area that the pit owner wants to put the new proposed public parking area.
After all this had been brought to the attention of the Director of WDFW, the Regional Director of region 5, and the WDFW Regional Lands Program Manager back in June of 2001, nothing has been done to correct the existing "taking" of our public fishing easement road or parking area!
We believe that WDFW has had ample time to bring this issue to closer, but for some unknown reason it has not occurred. CPR-fish (that's my group) has been complaining to WDFW for over two years now and there still has been no progress in resolving this issue. Why hasn't WDFW taken the legal steps to resolve this long standing issue?
We were told by WDFW Regional Lands Program Manager, Ray Croswell over 2 years ago on June 11, 2001 that the gates would remain open, and that signs were being made at that time for this area. We were told if the gates were not left open, that WDFW would be sending the "Strong Letter" that would reflect their legal position, and that actions would be taken to assure that our access would remain open 24/7 days a week and that it would be enforced.
We were also promised by Mr. Croswell, that WDFW would go "all the way this time in making it happen". Mr. Croswell had personally assured me, that he had made contact with WDFW's Enforcement Officer Foster. Mr. Croswell also assured me that he had explained the problems to Officer Foster, and that Officer Foster was now fully aware of what was going on, and that he (Foster) would be making sure that the gate to the public fishing site will not be locked again. I was told by Mr. Croswell; "to call Officer Foster whenever I found that the gate was locked and that Officer Foster would take immediate actions to correct the problem".
Again, we were promised that Officer Foster would see that the gate would remain open for the public to get to the public fishing and parking area. On August 18, 2003, I found that the gate was locked and that we were again being denied our right to drive in and park on property that we had paid $40,000 of states funds to use and develop. I did as I was instructed to do by Mr. Croswell, and I called Officer Foster. The results were as usual…nothing was done. In fact, the situation became even worse.
I got a hold of Officer Foster after several times of calling his dispatcher. He informed me that he was not going to do anything about the gate being locked because he said that it was his understanding that WDFW was probably going to let the Wallace's have the fishing easement road through the pit back. He also told me that WDFW was thinking about getting a new parking easement from the Wallace's and relocate it at the far end just below Don Wallace's house. This exact same proposal was made by WDFW back in 1997 and the owner of the pit did nothing because he claimed that no one would sell him a piece of land to relocate the parking area on! I told him (Foster) that that was not a very good area and that it flooded at times and that the public would not be very happy if they knew that WDFW was planning on putting it that far away from what they are now currently using.
For some unknown reason, Officer Foster asked me if I belonged to any big groups like the FOC. I told him that I belong to a group called CPR-Fish and that I was a past president of the FOC. He said that unless some big groups were to push the state that he didn't think that WDFW would be able to force the Wallace's into doing anything. He kind of sounded by the way he was talking that he felt "sorry" for the Wallace's. I told him that the state should make the new easement road to run right along the existing power line road that runs directly to the Cowlitz River bank and the old parking area and that the state has already did a survey showing this road and parking area as the new proposed easement trade.
I told Foster that Ray Croswell had instructed me to call him (Foster) whenever the Wallace's had locked the entrance gate and that Ray had told me that Foster was fully aware of the problems that the state was having at the Wallace gravel pit site. Foster did not say, nor did he agree that he had talked to Ray Croswell about this issue. He just said that nothing was going to get done now by him, because he was being temporary transferred to Willapa or Ilwaco for a week or so. He told me that Don Wallace was the owner of the pit. I told him that according to the records and documents that I have seen that Randy Wallace (Don's son) is now the legal owner of the site. He disagreed with that so I told him that I would show him the WDFW document that states that "Randy" is the owner of the pit. Obviously it appears that no one in WDFW knows anything about the Wallace pit or its easements. He said that he would look into it when he returned from there. I asked him to please call me when he returned so that we could discuss this issue in much more detail. He said that he would call me as soon as he returned.
Well it's now October 12, 2003 (3 months later) and Officer Foster has never returned that call! And some of you just can't understand why I am always jumping on WDFW and its enforcement! The parking area should remain where it is located for several different reasons.
First, WDFW picked this particular parking area site because it was centrally located in the "middle" of the 25 foot bank fishing easement. Secondly, it allowed people with limited handicaps or disabilities to use much of the bank fishing easements in either direction. Third, we paid damn good money for that area and it should be ours to use as originally agreed to!
Even as I am updating this board, WDFW is still putting sport fishers at jeopardy! It's been over 2 years now and yet WDFW has failed to post the appropriate signage to show sport fishers what legal access they may use to get to the WDFW public bank fishing and parking easements. To this day, when fishermen attempt to obey the fishing laws and rules, we are told and encouraged by the WDFW to go on line and to use their WDFW Website
http://www.wa.gov/wdfw/lands/reg5accs.htm#wall1 to find the exact areas in which we can be assured that we will have a legal place to park and have access to go fishing. When we go to the WDFW Website, we are given instructions how to reach the Location and access point in which WDFW has legal access to enter and use the "Wallace" Public Fishing Site location. These are the exact instructions that are given to public to use by WDFW:
Wallace - Lewis - Location:
"From I-5 take exit 57, go west through intersection (Rogers Road) 1.1 miles to Mandy Road, go 0.5 miles, turn left into access road, access road goes through gravel pit 0.5 miles to parking area. Bank fishing only."
When the public follows the WDFW instructions to the get to the public fishing access site that is called the "Wallace" site; one of 3 things will occur:
1) The public will be harassed by the pit operator or his employees because they (the pit people) have removed all the "states" public fishing signs, and the easement road remains unmarked.
2) The public is locked out and can not use the "public access road" because the gate is locked.
3) The Public gets locked inside the "public fishing area" because the Pit operator has chosen to lock the entrance gate, and has gone home for the day. If we attempt to use our public fishing site at the "Wallace" WDFW site on weekends or after 5 pm in the evenings this is what you can expect to find waiting for you when you attempt to use the WDFW public easement!
All 3 of these options are unacceptable, illegal and violate the public's right to use the "Wallace" public fishing site and easements!
Moreover, all of the cost and survey work to relocate the easement road that leads to the bank access easement along the existing power lines road has already been completed by WDFW (see picture #1). Now all WDFW needs to do is to make the exchange and post the road way with the appropriate signage.
Another Board member who's board names is "Dogfish", but every calls him by his real name which is Andy, personally handed WDFW's Director Jeff Koenings a written request to correct this access problem that exists at the WDFW " Wallace" public fishing site over 2 years ago. Andy also requested that the director reply to his letter within a week or so. Well that was over two years ago, and Andy has never received a single word back from either the Director or his staff!
And you people wonder why some of us continue to jump all over WDFW case! Last week I sent a certified 11 page complaint letter with a number of other WDFW documents and pictures off to the Regional 5 Director Mr. Lee Van Trussenbrook. He will be the person who will be making the final decision if WDFW should peruse any legal action to get back our public access easement rights. Lee Van Trussenbrook can be reached by email at VANTULV@dfw.wa.gov.
Never again will WDFW be able to afford to purchase any public fishing sites like this one again on the Cowlitz River, especially now since Tacoma is all done with its relicensing process and WDFW failed to ask for anymore public fishing access. If you care anything about your "public access rights" at any WDFW site, please don't allow them to give away or trade off your public rights to use this huge unknown public fishing site, or the states legal road and parking easement rights.
Since Mr. Croswell has now fully retired, and is complete out of the picture, please take the time now to send off an email to Mr. Van Trussenbrook, and "demand" that he takes what ever legal actions may be necessary to keep our "existing public parking area", and to make the exchange of of access "roads" that WDFW has proposed to do in their survey map (power line road) as shown in the first picture. Please ask him to immediately demand to open up the gate that is currently blocking your public access at the entrance to the states legal road easement.
Please ask him to immediately post WDFW public access signs along the "power line road" so that the public will not be put at anymore jeopardy by the gravel pits continued encroachment onto our public easements. You will not only be helping yourselves, you will also being helping out the disabled and handicapped fishermen too by do this.
Both I and my group (CPR-Fish) can only do so much for you. So if you really want more places to fish on the Cowlitz, please take the time and write that email to VANTULV@dfw.wa.gov and cc it to both director@dfw.wa.gov and commission@dfw.wa.gov and cpr-fish@toledotel.com
Together we have power! Individually we have nothing! Please send off those emails today!
That's my update, the rest is up to you to do
Cowlitzfisherman