OPERATION CODY- An undercover investigation into WA's commercial poaching

[WSU]

Maybe it is time we use the initiative process and request that WDFW gets rolled into the Washington  State  Patrol similar to what  Alaska  has. This would cut out the top, get rid of Wecker, and give these officers the support they need.

Oregon has it merged with State Patrol.  They would rather do SP stuff than mess with wildlife.  They can keep plenty busy and not have to leave the car to run around in the woods.  I think there are three counties that don't have much of a sheriff's dept, so they were kind of letting SP pick up the slack.  Basically no game warden type activity--super easy to poach from what I've heard.

That was the opposite of my experience in Oregon during school.  I got checked everywhere I went.  I got checked by one of the local troopers floating down the river in another drift boat, in the middle of no where during elk season, duck hunting, at the boat launch, and randomly on the river in the middle of BLM land.  All that was over the course of only 3 years.  I certainly wouldn't say they didn't work hard and get out in the field.

[Knocker of rocks]

Once more with feeling, who was the director of Wildlife pre merger and what is his role today?

I believe it was Curt Smitch, until 1998 when Jeff Koenings took over

And I looked up Smitch and it appears he is some kind of consultant.

Didn't Smitch have very close ties to Weyerhauser? Cant believe he is still associated with WDFW. Didn't seem to be vey popular when he was in office. I believe he was one of the originals that wanted to sell tags and licenses to Weyco, for them to sell.

Curt Smitch has served in a variety of roles with the state and federal government throughout his thirty year public service career.  After leaving his position as an assistant professor at Michigan State University, Curt began his Washington State government career under Governor Dixie Lee Ray in 1979 as the Capital Budget Coordinator for the Office of Financial Management.  Thereafter, Curt held management positions in the Washington State Department of Fisheries and later became Director of the Washington State Department of Wildlife under Governor Booth Gardner. 

In 1994, Curt served in the Clinton Administration as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Program Supervisor for the Pacific Northwest Habitat Conservation Plan Program and became the U.S. Fish and Wildlife's Assistant Regional Director in 1995.  In 1997, he returned to Washington State government as a Special Assistant to Governor Locke for Natural Resources Policy and chaired the Governor's Natural Resource Cabinet.

Curt holds a Doctorate of Philosophy in Education from Michigan State University, a Masters in Environmental Sciences and a BS and BA in Biology from Western Washington University.  He also successfully completed the Program for Senior Executives at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. 

It looks like he was out of state government prior to 1993, before the departmental merger.

http://www.thompsoncg.com/Page.aspx?cid=15

[Knocker of rocks]

yes and now we have identified the man behind the curtain. A consultant, now I wonder he consults for? 

Curt Smitch primarily consults for timber companies
http://www.thompsoncg.com/Page.aspx?nid=5
http://www.thompsoncg.com/Page.aspx?nid=4

[blackdog]

The last three Governors have all allowed Smitch special consideration over who serves as a F&W Commissioner. We will rarely see the puppeteer at the puppet show. Now think wolves....

[blackdog]

Chair at the ONRC that employs Miranda Wecker? hmmmm

[blackdog]

Gee I wonder what Tim Thompson's history is?

[Hunter4Life]

Merging WDFW into WSP would be a disaster.  The ideal situation would be what we had in the old days, a Department of Game and a Department of Fisheries.   Politically separating WDFW has no chance and there would be major opposition in both parties.  An answer I think would be to have two Commissions, a Wildlife commission and a Fishing Commission.  The Wildlife Commission would handle hunting/wildlife issues and the Fishing Commission would handle fishing/shellfish issues.  The problem with the Fish and Wildlife commission is we have people like Miranda Wecker who has no clue on hunting issues and will follow the lead of people like Rob Wielgus and certain members of WDFW no matter how good or bad the science or advice is.  She doesn't care about the hunting side and won't learn.  The commission now is heavily slanted with experts on the fishing side.  Commission Holzmiller has been outspoken on hunters rights, but other than that there is no one passionate on hunting issues.

[ucwarden]

Merging WDFW into WSP would be a disaster.  The ideal situation would be what we had in the old days, a Department of Game and a Department of Fisheries.   Politically separating WDFW has no chance and there would be major opposition in both parties.  An answer I think would be to have two Commissions, a Wildlife commission and a Fishing Commission.  The Wildlife Commission would handle hunting/wildlife issues and the Fishing Commission would handle fishing/shellfish issues.  The problem with the Fish and Wildlife commission is we have people like Miranda Wecker who has no clue on hunting issues and will follow the lead of people like Rob Wielgus and certain members of WDFW no matter how good or bad the science or advice is.  She doesn't care about the hunting side and won't learn.  The commission now is heavily slanted with experts on the fishing side.  Commission Holzmiller has been outspoken on hunters rights, but other than that there is no one passionate on hunting issues.

I think you are right on the money.  The problem is that virtually nobody in power (other than Senator Pearson) cares enough to even look into this mess.  I have contacted the governor's office three times (actually today makes four) and haven't even received a reply.  We can all come up with solutions to the problems, but the people who have the power to change things don't care.

The real irony is that I care greatly about the WDFW agency, the employees (most of them), and resources, and I hate to keep attacking WDFW.  The changes we are all asking for aren't that difficult, and would be far better than watching an agency come apart at the seams like we are seeing now.

[DOUBLELUNG]

Thought I'd share my comment on the article on the Yakima paper's website.  For context, another commenter had stated Anderson inherited many of the problems from his predecessor.

I agree that many of the problems stem from prior leadership and the merger of the Departments of Fisheries and Wildlife. When the agencies merged, Bern Shanks was director and resource-oriented; he implemented a decades-overdue Wild Salmon Policy that was perceived as a threat by the hatcheries juggernaut in WDFW, who orchestrated a spending scandal to cause his ouster. He was replaced by Koenings, a hatchery production outsider from Alaska who came in knowing that his predecessor had essentially been assassinated from within; he had no reason to trust anyone, and also no real concern for the resource - his first priority was JP Koenings. To protect the "throne", he stripped the field of resources and authority, centralizing everything in Olympia. As a result, WDFW has 900 employees in Olympia and 600 in the rest of the state (the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies once recommended the most efficient allocation of limited resources is 30% state office and 70% field); small wonder that morale sucks - the 50% of recommended field staffing levels extends to all areas of WDFW, while Olympia sits at 200%.

 Anderson inherited this situation but did not address it. WDFW needs a director who recognizes that most agency resources need to be directly deployed to managing the resource, not surrounding the throne with an exorbitant level of limited resources at the expense of the agency's responsibilities. WDFW has a prioritization problem, far more so than a funding problem. Signed, a non-disgruntled former employee.

[Knocker of rocks]

Thought I'd share my comment on the article on the Yakima paper's website.  For context, another commenter had stated Anderson inherited many of the problems from his predecessor.

I agree that many of the problems stem from prior leadership and the merger of the Departments of Fisheries and Wildlife. When the agencies merged, Bern Shanks was director and resource-oriented; he implemented a decades-overdue Wild Salmon Policy that was perceived as a threat by the hatcheries juggernaut in WDFW, who orchestrated a spending scandal to cause his ouster. He was replaced by Koenings, a hatchery production outsider from Alaska who came in knowing that his predecessor had essentially been assassinated from within; he had no reason to trust anyone, and also no real concern for the resource - his first priority was JP Koenings. To protect the "throne", he stripped the field of resources and authority, centralizing everything in Olympia. As a result, WDFW has 900 employees in Olympia and 600 in the rest of the state (the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies once recommended the most efficient allocation of limited resources is 30% state office and 70% field); small wonder that morale sucks - the 50% of recommended field staffing levels extends to all areas of WDFW, while Olympia sits at 200%.

 Anderson inherited this situation but did not address it. WDFW needs a director who recognizes that most agency resources need to be directly deployed to managing the resource, not surrounding the throne with an exorbitant level of limited resources at the expense of the agency's responsibilities. WDFW has a prioritization problem, far more so than a funding problem. Signed, a non-disgruntled former employee.

Very interesting, thank you for this synopsis

[blackdog]

The Director works for the Commission who are appointed by the Governor.

[blackdog]

The Senate has not confirmed Miranda Wecker since she was appointed by Gregoire in her first term in 2005. Will Senator Pearson confirm her this session?

[Hunter4Life]

What will make blocking the Wecker confirmation difficult is that the recreational fishing community is all in for her.

[Hunter4Life]

I believe Senator Pearson will bring up all the commission appointees for a vote.  He did that last session for all the members of the Commission that sat unconfirmed (Jennings, Carpenter, Mahnken, and Kehne).  Schmitten and Smith had already been confirmed.  Because of this we were able to get rid of a anti-sportsmen Commissioner in Jennings.  Wecker, Kehoe, and Holzmiller were all appointed late in the session so no action was taken on them.  I think another helpful piece of legislation would be that all appointees to the Fish and Wildlife Commission have to be confirmed between a certain period of time, and if they don't get confirmed they lose their Commission spot.  Prior to being re-appointed by Governor Inslee, Miranda Wecker sat all six years of her term on the Commission unconfirmed.

[ucwarden]

Thought I'd share my comment on the article on the Yakima paper's website.  For context, another commenter had stated Anderson inherited many of the problems from his predecessor.

I agree that many of the problems stem from prior leadership and the merger of the Departments of Fisheries and Wildlife. When the agencies merged, Bern Shanks was director and resource-oriented; he implemented a decades-overdue Wild Salmon Policy that was perceived as a threat by the hatcheries juggernaut in WDFW, who orchestrated a spending scandal to cause his ouster. He was replaced by Koenings, a hatchery production outsider from Alaska who came in knowing that his predecessor had essentially been assassinated from within; he had no reason to trust anyone, and also no real concern for the resource - his first priority was JP Koenings. To protect the "throne", he stripped the field of resources and authority, centralizing everything in Olympia. As a result, WDFW has 900 employees in Olympia and 600 in the rest of the state (the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies once recommended the most efficient allocation of limited resources is 30% state office and 70% field); small wonder that morale sucks - the 50% of recommended field staffing levels extends to all areas of WDFW, while Olympia sits at 200%.

 Anderson inherited this situation but did not address it. WDFW needs a director who recognizes that most agency resources need to be directly deployed to managing the resource, not surrounding the throne with an exorbitant level of limited resources at the expense of the agency's responsibilities. WDFW has a prioritization problem, far more so than a funding problem. Signed, a non-disgruntled former employee.

You are spot on.  I once said that the director should be able to randomly pull any WDFW employee and ask them "In the last year, what have you done to benefit the fish and wildlife resources" and get a straight answer.  Olympia is so full of employees who direct, but don't do, that the agency is very inefficient.