Just wanted to know what the situation is relating to clam digging on private property. Thursaday night I was at a friends on Hood Canal a mile away from Tahwano State Park. Upon arrival around midnight we saw a few folks digging clams with buckets and flashlights in hand. Not thinking to much about it, until approx 2 hours later, the flaslights and bucket brigade were still hard at work. My friend and I were wondering whether this activity was legal due to the fact that it was on private property, or were these folks doing a littl poaching insteard. I would think if the clam season was open then there would be more people on the beach. Whats your thoughts on this matter...

Who owned the beach where you saw this? I own the tidelands that we live on, so if that was on my property we would kick them off. Most tidelands are owned by the state.
I don't agree with it, but the tribe has a right to dig on my property even though I own the tidelands. We are thinking about planting and starting a business on our tidelands, and if we did then I heard the tribe would get to take half of the natural harvest one time before we planted. I still need to look into it.

Hopefully it was the property owners harvesting a few for breakfast in the morning... If not they are chancing a little rock salt justice!


One more thing, on private property the state imposed limits do not apply... see the regs for the specifics...

Just dont get caught with a 5 gallon bucket full at a public boat launch... private property or not you'll have a court date to explain yourself!

probably not,see regs

You also need to remember that the tribes have rights to 50% of the private lands shelfish also.It would not surprise me in the least bit if what you saw was a tribal harvest going on.

That is a tough break for the land owners on the canal.A tribal bio comes on your proprty digs some test holes and decides a # that represents what half of your clams etc. are and they harvest it.

It is probably a good thing that I do not own any tidal land then, cause I don't care if it were the Pope or Pocahontas herself, my property would be my property and NO one would come and take what they pleased off of my land...... That is so extremely ludicris it is almost laughable....

MC

Welcome to the Rafeedie Decision MC....Half the shellfish....That includes the geoduck that the tribes pay ZERO to harvest while the rest of the harvesters pay somewhere from $3-$6 PER # to the State for the privelage to harvest. Oh by the way they harvest those geoduck pretty much the same as they did in the 1800s.....Dry suits, compressed air to breath and compressed air to blast away the sand on the bottom so they can bag up the big bi-valves. What a great country!!!

SHELLFISH CASE
Background
In May of 1989, Puget Sound area Indian Tribes filed suit in federal District Court claiming treaty rights to take shellfish from all public and privately owned beaches in Western Washington State. The State of Washington Attorney General's office was defending only public beaches and United Property Owners intervened in the case to defend our private property against tribal claims to permanent, paramount easements across our lands to reach private beaches.

As we stand on the brink of a new millennium, United Property Owners is starting a new chapter in the history of our organization. In the decade since our founding in 1989, we have achieved the majority of our goals and objectives relating to defeating the Tribes' claims to 24-hour per day, 365 day per year unrestricted access to our tidelands and to come down our driveways and cross through our yards to get to our beaches.

As it stands now, tribal members do not have the right to cross private property to reach the tidelands when ever and where ever they wish. Instead the court ruled that they must reach the beach only by water, public road, or public right-of-way during daylight hours with 30-day advance notification. Only if it can be proved that there is no reasonable water or public access can the tribes go to the Federal Court to obtain advance permission to cross private upland property. Our lawyers remain confident that permission will not be granted since, to our knowledge, there are no tidelands in the Case Area to which there is no reasonable boat or public right of way access. Further, the "Time, Place, and Manner" restrictions we were successful in obtaining from the Court are so burdensome (according to the Tribes) as to make it not worth their while to pursue digging shellfish on most private residential beaches that do not contain easily harvestable commercial volumes of shellfish. We believe that the majority of Washington tideland owners will never see tribal digging on our beaches.

Washington State
Tribal Trespass Issues

WHAT TO DO IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH TRIBAL TRESPASS

When and if you have tribal members show up on your beach to dig shellfish they must comply with all of the "Time, Place, and Manner" limitations set out by order in the federal court ruling for the typical, non cultivated, residential property. Here are the rules laid down by the court:

(1)Tribes must give 30 days prior written notice to you of their intention to do a survey of your beach (by personal mail, fax, or publication in local newspaper); (2) A biological survey must be completed to determine shellfish abundance on your beach; (3) Water quality tests must be completed to ensure shellfish on your beach are safe for human consumption; (4) Then Tribes must give another 30 days written notice before coming back to actually harvest no more than 50% of the harvestable abundance of shellfish on your beach; (5) Generally they should come only during daylight hours, not during night time low tides, except with court permission; (6) Tribal access to private beaches should be only by boat, public road, or public right-of-way, not down your driveway or through your side yards; (7) No more than total of 5 days per year.

CALL 911 and then also call your County Sheriffs Office to report it if tribal trespass occurs which is not in compliance with rules outlined above from the federal court order. Ask local law enforcement officers to please come at once to assess the situation and inform tribal members that they are in contempt of court and trespassing illegally on private property. Here are telephone numbers to call in the event you experience problems with illegal digging on your beach:

CLALLAM COUNTY - Sheriff Joe Hawe in Port Angeles
(360) 417-2000

ISLAND COUNTY - Sheriff Mike Hawley in Coupeville
(360) 6784422

JEFFERSON COUNTY - Sheriff Pete Piccini in Port Hadlock - (360) 385-3831

KING COUNTY - Sheriff David Reichert in Seattle - (206)296-3311

KITSAP COUNTY Sheriff Stave Boyer in Port Orchard - (360)337-7101

MASON COUNTY Sheriff Steve Whybark in Shelton - (360)427-9670,Ext.313

PIERCE COUNTY Sheriff Mark French in Tacoma - (253)798-7540

SAN JUAN COUNTY - Sheriff Bill Cumming in Friday Harbor - (360)378-4151

SKAGIT COUNTY - Sheriff Ed Goodman in Mount Vernon - (360)336-9450

SNOHOMISH COUNTY Sheriff Rick Bart in Everett - (425)388-3393

THURSTON COUNTY Sheriff Gary Edwards in Olympia - (360)786-5500

WHATCOM COUNTY Sheriff Dale Brandland in Bellingham - (360)676-6650

Also call the Washington State Dept. of Fish & Wildlife, Enforcement Division - (360)902-2927 or (360)902-2225

"To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men." Abraham Lincoln


The best thing you can do to prevent recurring problems on your beach with illegal trespass is to use your video camera to take moving pictures of the activities which occur as they happen. Request identification from anyone digging on your beach. If identification is refused, you cannot determine whether or not these individuals are actually tribal members exercising their treaty rights. Be sure to get video pictures of the individuals, their faces, and the approximate quantity, species, and maturity of shellfish they are removing. Also record the numbers and identification markings, if any, on their boat(s) or vehicle(s) so that you can give a copy of your video to law enforcement for identification purposes. The next best thing to do is take still photographs of the trespass activities to show the Sheriff. Notify United Property Owners of problems (206)660-3085.

there are several pieces of land/tidelands that are listed as DNR lands in that area and they are open to claming year round. an other area is near the cushman power plant. so u to can go get them.

it really burns me that this kinda racism is aloud to go on in a "quote" civilized society.. im not sure if any of you have heard of the "tero" laws concering tribal rights.. but its basically , if you have a construction business and get a contract on tribal land, you MUST use native americans over your own employee's they call it "indian preferance" to me thats racism in the work environment, and its a law... like over on the clearwater river, the hatchery received a good amount of fall chinook to have a season for them, but no, the nez perce tribe, has not allowed a season for them on the river, and even idaho fish and game are powerless to stop them, who says that a freakin tribe has the power to stop people from fishing for the very fish there taxes are paying for? it would bring money into the local economy, but no..greedy ass *******s in the tribe have to ruin it for all..

All of this happens because no one does anything about it. It is definitely getting way beyond the intent of the treaties and the compacts in my opinion.

Yep, I Ilike how they got special rights to shelfish that were not even here back then or shelfish they did not have access too. Such as 80% of the steamers (originally from japan). 100% of the spot shrimp,oh and of course the ussaul and accostomed pacific oyster from japan .

Blaten in our face racism! how do we let the government get away with it?

political correctness is killing America

I know you would probably get sued for it, but a couple of very well trained dogs could keep them off of your beach for a few nights.

If they want to come and dig let em ,CAUSE I ATE THEM ALREADY.

Yeah, I worked as a Freelance Photog for an Oregon newspaper in the early 90's and they ran help wanted ads for the nearby reservation. The ad would read at the bottom "Native American preference given"....

I went in to the editors office and asked her "I want to run an ad for some help, can I put "White preference given" in the ad?".
She got a really disgusted look on her face and stated "Of course you cant, that would probably be illegal, and wrong at the very least".

I then smiled and laid HER classified section down in front of her with the Tribal ad circled and said "I thought so" and walked out....
Boy you should have heard the buzz going around the office for a few days.....

Sad to say G'Pa, but you are sooooo right. The minority rules in this country nowadays....

Does not matter how many folks want something, a small group will file a lawsuit and the next thing you know the "Law" that everyone voted for will be reversed.....


MC

Fin addict rn,
That is getting to be veryy common on the canal right now.

We Fish and We Vote is an RFA slogan
We Fish, We Crab , We Vote is the new crabbing protest slogan

How about this new one:

WE HAVE SLOT MACHINES AND WE VOTE

I have a dumb question: If the tribes consider themselves sovereign nations why do they get to lobby our politicians with their gaming money and vote in the elections of our sovereign nation?

Grandpa, That is why dual citizenship is such a cool thing to try and get. You see it in action all of the time with the tribes. They are in essence dual citizens. Once again, an unintended consequence of our past actions.