Smith is a problem solver | Letter to the editor

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I have known Lorna Smith for 45 years and strongly endorse her candidacy for County Commissioner, District 2.  

My initial work with Lorna was through Seattle Audubon, but Lorna soon focused on the Olympic Peninsula where her grandparents had kept both the Destruction Island and the Dungeness Lighthouses. Lorna was Eleanor Stopps’ campaign partner in the grassroots campaign establishing Protection Island as part of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s national refuge system. Lorna and Eleanor traveled to Washington, D.C. multiple times, where they both lobbied Congress successfully on behalf of Protection Island’s 20,000-plus pair of rhinoceros auklets — a burrow nesting bird that would have been severely depleted had development occurred on the island. In 1982, Protection Island became the first addition to the USFWS’ national wildlife system during the Reagan years.

The Protection Island preserve was only Lorna’s first effort on behalf of Jefferson County residents. Lorna has gone on to work diligently on Jefferson County’s Planning Commission.  Most recently she headed up crafting a solution for future gun ranges. The current board of commissioners voted to make all future shooting ranges indoor facilities, which considerably dampens the noise for surrounding land owners. It still allows for the construction of new practice facilities, however. 

Lorna is a problem solver and a doer; a perfect fit for the county she calls home. When I cruise around Protection Island, I am proud to say that I know two of the true “protectors” of the island: Eleanor Stopps and Lorna Smith.

Fayette F. Krause
PORT TOWNSEND