TO THE HEARING EXAMINER

Please, protect the water                                        
at the heart of our community—
The Spanaway Marsh may mean little to some, 
but not to us. It is our arterial blood,
our breath, our home.

We are done with the hundred-year destruction
of filled-in wetlands, re-routed streams,
toxic human pollution and buildings too close
to these arteries of life. 

We are done with our input meaning nothing
to elected officials who are supposed
to represent us and our concerns.
They need to learn democracy is not top-down.

We are done with back-room deals 
meaning more than aquifers, drinking water,
acres of marsh teaming with life that filter
water to Spanaway Lake, our many creeks,  
and into Chambers Bay and the Salish Sea.

We are done with special interests meaning more 
than eagle and osprey, heron and duck,
Rare species of squirrel, bat and frog . . . 
More than the Garry Oaks that create our sky scapes, 
More than orca and octopus.

Don’t you see? This is why we live here,
At the cross-section of urban and wild.
For to look upon water as the sun sets,
To hear a heron cry their Jurassic cry,
To watch a loopy river otter at play,
To hear a chorus of frogs in the evening:

these are restoratives, healing balms
that crack open our hearts to feel again,
and inspire us to be our better selves
and better stewards for Pierce County.
They ARE our quality of life.

Please, protect our water,
work with us as we work to restore it,
help us as we work to help it.
Don’t push salmon or other species 
any further toward extinction. 
We cannot keep taking from nature
and have anything left in the end.

There is other land for this project
that doesn’t endanger our water and wildlife.
There is other land more appropriate to the purpose.
There. Is. Other. Land.

We speak, one voice, all who care
for all creatures, all trees, all nature, all water.
Please, protect the Marsh.

Claudia Finseth, April 2024