Proposed Legislation: WDFW Commissioners To Receive Salary

_WW_ said:
Feb. 14, 2023
Contact: Commission office, 360-902-2267

Commission to decide on guide logbook and commercial smelt rules at February meeting

Wildlife Committee also holding special meeting on game management plan

OLYMPIA – The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission expects to make decisions to update rules for fishing guide logbooks and commercial smelt fisheries during a virtual meeting on Friday, Feb. 17.

Beginning at 8 a.m., commissioners will hear from Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) staff and decide whether to adopt updated rules regarding reporting requirements for freshwater game fish guides, food fish guides and combination game fish and food fish guides. Then, commissioners will decide whether to adopt rule revisions for commercial eulachon (popularly known as smelt) fisheries to align permanent rules with current management strategies.

The Commission will also discuss and may decide on a performance agreement for WDFW Director Kelly Susewind.

Also on Friday, the Commission's Wildlife Committee will hold a special meeting to discuss the continued development and new format for WDFW's statewide Game Management Plan. That meeting is scheduled to begin at 12 p.m.

These meetings will be held virtually via Zoom; for more information on how to watch and participate in these and other upcoming meetings, visit the Commission's webpage.
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Participating in a Commission zoom meeting, what with the signing up to comment and then actually paying attention and learning about the issues seems much more difficult and time consuming than bitching on the internet.
Why can't I just get what I want without a bunch of effort ?
:)
 
mcswny said:
In the end, how much did we decide on that smalma and salmo are getting paid? Maybe we can throw Chromers as wild card.
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If they are willing, then give them whatever they want!
 
mcswny said:
In the end, how much did we decide on that smalma and salmo are getting paid? Maybe we can throw Chromers as wild card.
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Break the salary cap!
SF
 
Mossback said:
Participating in a Commission zoom meeting, what with the signing up to comment and then actually paying attention and learning about the issues seems much more difficult and time consuming than bitching on the internet.
Why can't I just get what I want without a bunch of effort ?
:)
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Hmmm. How many commission meetings did you attend for proposed rules where the commission completely ignored the will of the people instead supporting wild steelhead harvest? Dozens of meetings 20 years of ignoring conservation minded sport anglers.

They finally caved to biological reality not public input. But not until 2015.. 20 years late..
This is why I have a fully justified pessimism towards the commission.

Forget the commission and turn steelhead management to your top steelhead biologist.

If I hold a grudge... it's this..
 
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My experience with WDFW was to spend 2+ years to impliment a mandatory hatchery retion rule, while moving the limit from 2 to 3 fish. The goal was to minimize wild fish encounters while giving the retention group a bonus fish. Several public hearings and tons of comments and this rule went through. Guide logbooks was dropped, but for a season this was the regs.

Then in the offseason they didn't renew the new regs. No hearings, no notice, just gone.

My takeaway: You can work your ass off to make change and they can undo it for no reason at all. Pretty sure it was 2 large fly shops who bobber dog beads all day that made it happen so this isn't a gear/fly issue.
 
Yard Sale said:
My experience with WDFW was to spend 2+ years to impliment a mandatory hatchery retion rule, while moving the limit from 2 to 3 fish. The goal was to minimize wild fish encounters while giving the retention group a bonus fish. Several public hearings and tons of comments and this rule went through. Guide logbooks was dropped, but for a season this was the regs.

Then in the offseason they didn't renew the new regs. No hearings, no notice, just gone.

My takeaway: You can work your ass off to make change and they can undo it for no reason at all. Pretty sure it was 2 large fly shops who bobber dog beads all day that made it happen so this isn't a gear/fly issue.
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You obviously didn't participate in enough zoom meetings...
 
Billy said:
You obviously didn't participate in enough zoom meetings...
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Look at what happened with the Pebble mine. One administration shut it down, and things were looking good. The next one came in and reversed that. The people working on fighting the Pebble mine had to fight again after their initial victory. These things are not generally won in a single round of effort.

Another example is the Land and Water Conservation Fund. We worked hard on this for over a decade with essentially partisan division. The organizations that kept fighting to re-authorize the program kept working on it, and the partisan divide went away. We got the permanent re-authorization passed into law. That was a great victory, but then there's the trouble of getting the funding through appropriations - which had typically put only about half the money into conservation that was supposed to go there. So our coalition kept working on it for another year and a half, and that work paid off with full dedicated funding of $900 million every year outside appropriations. That's $450 million extra per year going to conservation projects around the country. Guess what? The coalition is still working with Congress to make sure the money is actually going to conservation projects.

These things take effort, and a lot of it. That is frustrating to a lot of people when they want to get something done. I'd also point out that the great thing about our country is that anyone can make a difference if they choose to put the effort in. What @Yard Sale described is certainly a situation that happens, but it's not something that can't be fixed. Also, participation in zoom meetings is not what anyone was saying would change policy. It's merely something that is necessary to develop a strategy to advocate for what you want.
 
I would just like to thank @Matt Paluch for his efforts and for keeping his responses civil in the face of "it doesn't work" "no one listens" type responses. Just because you don't get the outcome you wanted, doesn't mean no one was listening and doesn't mean you give up and just yell at the sky. These are hugely complex issues with many competing interests. Bravo to those who work so hard to make change!!
 
Yard Sale said:
My experience with WDFW was to spend 2+ years to impliment a mandatory hatchery retion rule, while moving the limit from 2 to 3 fish. The goal was to minimize wild fish encounters while giving the retention group a bonus fish. Several public hearings and tons of comments and this rule went through. Guide logbooks was dropped, but for a season this was the regs.

Then in the offseason they didn't renew the new regs. No hearings, no notice, just gone.

My takeaway: You can work your ass off to make change and they can undo it for no reason at all. Pretty sure it was 2 large fly shops who bobber dog beads all day that made it happen so this isn't a gear/fly issue.
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Maybe if more of this stuff was up for vote by folks that have licences? It would at least give the commission direction. I really don't think they care though. And yeah, that's frustrating for many.
 
Matt Paluch said:
Natural resources don't exist solely for the people who purchase licenses to use those resources for sport.
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Agreed. I stated the same earlier in this thread. Just spit balling as to encourage more participation in the process or feeling that one truly is a stakeholder.
 
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