Yellow Pages
GUEMES ISLAND — With sheer cliffs on three sides and a steep hike from its lone beach to a U.S. Coast Guard marker, the solitary views of the San Juans from the state-owned Huckleberry Island are difficult to reach.
The Samish Indian Nation would like to make Huckleberry Island into a nature park for boaters and other outdoor recreationists. The tribe wants to improve access and visitors’ experiences by adding trails, picnic tables and interpretative signs written in English and the Samish dialect, Samish Tribal Chairman Tom Wooten said.
If the Samish plans were to go forward, the island would still be accessible only to the most hardy kayakers or boaters with beachable vessels.
The Samish want to offer something like the amenities on Saddlebag Island, east of Huckleberry, Wooten said. Saddlebag State Park offers primitive campgrounds with no drinking water or toilets.
But the Samish isn’t the only tribe interested in Huckleberry Island, less than 2 miles north of Anacortes and just a quarter mile east of Guemes Island. The Swinomish Indian Tribe wants it, too.
Both tribes have asked the state Parks and Recreation Commission to consider transferring ownership of the small island to them.
The potential transfer will be discussed at the parks commission’s meeting Thursday in Centralia. The process could take several years.
The state parks commission decided in 2004 that continuing to own the island wouldn’t be consistent with the agency’s Centennial 2013 Vision, part of its standards for how it manages public lands.
In December 2004, state officials determined that the island is best suited as wildlife habitat. Bald eagles use the island, and the nearby kelp beds provide a marine habitat that scuba divers enjoy, according to the state parks staff recommendation that year.
State parks officials recommended that the commission transfer the island to another government agency that would manage the land as wildlife habitat.
If the state were to deed the island to either tribe, it could not be put in trust with the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs and must be used only for public recreation, said Bill Koss, state parks planning and research manager.
“They would have to waive their sovereign immunity,” Koss said. “If they violated terms of the restriction, they’d have to agree that they would go to court on that.”
The Swinomish are interested in the land because it was part of the tribe’s “historic homelands,” Swinomish Tribal Chairman Brian Cladoosby said.
“Any time the state wants to dispose of property in our historic homelands, we would just love to have the opportunity be considered for it,” Cladoosby said.
But the Samish tribe also sees the island as within its historic range and in a direct line with Samish villages, Wooten said.
“Our last known village was on Guemes Island, which is right next to it, and one of largest Samish villages was on Samish Island,” Wooten said.
Huckleberry is not the first state-owned island that the Samish tribe has been interested in. The tribe began working with parks 3 1/2 years ago because they were interested in Skull, Victim and Iceberg islands, also in the San Juans, Wooten said. When parks learned that Iceberg Island, near Lopez, was home to the threatened golden Indian paintbrush plant and needed protection from people, the Samish began to consider Huckleberry, he said.
The Samish also see acquiring the island as an opportunity to build on its reputation as environmental stewards, Wooten said.
“It’s my hope that we can work through any issues that may or may not come up on this,” Wooten said. “We tend to persevere on things we really want to see happen.”
Marta Murvosh can be reached at 360-416-2149 or .
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