About Hood Canal Environmental Council

What We Do

HCEC has no paid staff. A board of directors and concerned volunteers work to support its goals. HCEC was organized in 1969 by concerned citizens to oppose developments along the shoreline and in the watersheds of Hood Canal that could be harmful to the qualities that make the canal unique.

HCEC supports activities that protect the water quality and the quality of life in the Hood Canal basin. We encourage our members to support political candidates and environmental groups who favor our causes. The HCEC began the Hood Canal Salmon Sanctuary program which is now a cooperative effort of state, county, private and tribal components aimed at protecting this major salmon habitat.

HCEC opposes those activities that would be environmentally detrimental to the Hood Canal. We monitor, study, and make suggestions to improve laws and regulations regarding land and water uses, testify at hearings, write letters to elected officials and agencies, and attempt to educate officials and the public in environmental matters.

"Today, the ecosystem formed by Hood Canal and its watersheds may have reached a threshold. Small events—a 20-acre clear-cut here, a house being built there—take their toll, along with the everyday activities of residents. Hood Canal calls on us to fit our human lifestyles into the ecosystem. It is a challenge we cannot afford to ignore."
Hood Canal: Splendor at Risk by the staff of The Kitsap Sun

HCEC Board of Directors

HCEC members and Board of Directors have volunteered their time, energy and money to make sure that this watershed remains largely undeveloped compared to the highly urbanized greater Puget Sound.

Phil Best (President)
Bernadette Olson (Vice President)
Michael Beaulieu (Secretary)
Don Seavy (Treasurer)
Donna Simmons (Past President)
Barbara Moore-Lewis
Janet Wold
Terry Reeve
Karen Best
Bruce Morse
Paul McCollum

Our objectives:

• To maintain a high quality environment for the Hood canal area
• To accomplish this through willing and talented peoples' cooperative effort
• To interest citizens and governmental authorities in environmental planning for Hood Canal
• To support activities to accomplish the above objectives and to oppose activities harmful to them

Established as a watchdog organization in 1969, HCEC has worked tirelessly to prevent developments in the Hood Canal watershed that could harm the Canal’s environmental health and threaten the aesthetic qualities that make the canal so special to residents and visitors alike.

HCEC was created in July 1969 in response to a proposal to dredge Stavis Bay south of Seabeck to create a private marina. Neighbors met at the Seabeck fire hall to discuss how to address the Stavis Bay proposal and possible other future developments all along Hood Canal and formed HCEC as a Washington non-profit corporation. This was before most of the environmental protection laws were enacted, and zoning was the main method of land use control.

Upon finding that Hood Canal waterfront area in Kitsap County was then zoned for up to 5 dwelling units per acre, HCEC successfully lobbied the county to change the base zone to 5 acres per dwelling unit before any permits were applied for the proposed marina, and the project was dropped.