Editor,

With respect to your recent article regarding some disagreement on fish and wildlife protections currently being discussed by the Island County commissioners: what Commissioners Helen Price-Johnson and Jill Johnson apparently do agree upon is a plan to designate as a “salmon stream” Bos/Swan Stream, which typically contains water only during the winter months when it rains profusely, and then it runs into Bos/Swan Lake on the west side of Whidbey Island.

Relevant are these scientific facts: salmon have never existed in the past in that stream, there aren’t any salmon there now, and there never will be. State experts on the subject confirmed this to be true when specifically queried on this point by a community member at an Island County commissioners hearing on the proposed designation.

So, why do the commissioners want this stream designated a “salmon stream?” By doing so they can use this phony baloney designation as a weapon against the City of Oak Harbor to prevent the city from ever expanding its urban growth area, or UGA, westward on Whidbey Island. Interestingly, behind the scenes, actively working to achieve this Machiavellian designation is former Island County commissioner Angie Homola, who additionally desires Bos/Swan Lake to have a permanent open channel connecting it to Puget Sound.

Yes, when we elected Commissioner Jill Johnson we really did have no idea who we had elected. Just think what it would be like to have a third Democrat join Johnson & Johnson in Coupeville.

WILLIAM BURNETT

Oak Harbor