Washingtonians for Wildlife Conservation

[WWC]

The WWC is a coalition of individuals and groups and serves as the focal point of public involvement, grassroots activism and fundraising to the benefit of all Washington State conservationists, sportsmen and sportswomen. Our group members and supporters include Washington State Archery Association, the Washington Waterfowl Association, Bremerton Sportsmen Club, Working Dogs for Resolution Conflict, Washington State Trappers Association, 5 chapters of Safari Club International, Seattle Sportsman's Conservation Foundation, Hunter's Heritage Council, Northwest Sportsman's club,  Paul Bunyan Rifle Club, Twin City Sportsmen and the Borderline Bassin Contenders, just to name a few. The WWC - A place for every group and individual in the state to rally in support and in the defense of our outdoor future!

The WWC was formed in 1995 in an effort to fight the ban on hounds and bait (I-655) promoted by state and national animal rights extremists.  A few years later, a group of hunters tried without success to get an elk bill heard, until a lobbyist helped them.  This group of hunters realized there is no power in Olympia without a lobbyist and the Hunters Heritage Council was born.  The WWC was an original member of HHC and remains an active, voting member to this day.  The HHC consists of nine, select, outdoor and natural resource organizations dedicated to political action on behalf of the hunting and related communities, with a full-time lobbyist in Olympia.   In it's 23 years of existence it has killed every piece of anti-hunting legislation introduced, a record second to none.  It produces bill reports for its member organizations during session.  The Hunters Heritage Council is the only organization that does electioneering on behalf of the hunting community, it endorses candidates at all levels of government and has the only pro-hunting Political Action Committee (PAC), the Hunters Heritage Council PAC, HHC PAC.  WWC spreads action alerts on behalf of HHC, and to coordinate phone trees and letter writing campaigns when political issues demand it.

But a movement can only be as strong as the individuals willing to be actively involved. That is why we had our keisters handed to us in the I655 fight in 1996, and it's why we lost trapping in 2000. Our enemies were more committed to ending these activities than we were to saving them. It takes time and money to pass or successfully defeat citizen initiatives, mount legal challenges and lobby our legislature. And though we lost to these well-funded national animal rights groups, we made progress between the hound ban in 1996 and the trapping ban in 2000. Our increased organizational structure, membership, and effort are clearly evident when you compare the numbers: In 1996 we lost I655 by a margin of 2:1. Four years later we lost I713 needing less than 5% more of the vote. We came close but not close enough. And that is why we are asking that every individual and outdoor group in the state join and support this glorious unity effort by joining the WWC.

If you care about the future of our outdoor lifestyle and responsible wildlife management, please lend a hand and support the efforts of the WWC, and HHC. The effort inspires me everyday and I hope it inspires you as well. Together we can preserve and defend our honorable outdoor heritage. The WWC is a 501 (C) (4) non-profit corporation. We are all volunteers. No one gets paid. Virtually every penny donated and raised goes directly towards preserving our outdoor future and the promotion of responsible wildlife management. If you belong to a Club ask them to Join, if they have been a member make sure they have renewed and are current.

http://www.w4wc.org/index.html

https://huntersheritagecouncil.org/index.html

[JeepWrangler]

I'm joining up.

Hope everyone who see's the original post can do the same.

[WWC]

I'm joining up.

Hope everyone who see's the original post can do the same.

This is great and we hope many other sportsmen will add their voice and contribute money.

WWC has many members here on Hunt-WA. Some represent organizations, some are past WDFW bios and game wardens. Most want to remain vaguely anonymous for a variety of reasons. With this Spring Bear fiasco we recognized that many on here are motivated to do something, but lack authoritative leadership. Sportsmen on here have moved forward with great ideas, but half correct facts, or calls for action directed in ineffective directions.  It is not our goal to engage in debate around the campfire, but to inform sportsmen for timely, informed calls to action and education. We have reached out to sportsmen via Facebook for the past couple of years, but realized we are not reaching many forum members here.

[huntnnw]

need to do better with getting the word out on this. I didnt even know this existed. More involvement in social media, sports shows etc. You are not reaching enough people or the potential in members.

[Skyvalhunter]

You posted this on the right forum in look for support. Hopefully this will increase the membership of these groups

[Elkaholic daWg]

  Joined and shared

[trophyhunt]

Web site didn't work for me, I'll try again at home.

[Karl Blanchard]

First off, thank you WWC for posting and welcome to huntwa

With that said, why now? And by that I mean where was this post rallying the troops before the bear vote in the council?  I want my money going to organizations that are proactive not reactive. As huntnw mentioned, I've never even heard of WWC or HHC.  Its very easy to reach people via social media these days. Maybe another volunteer dedicated to SM and PR is in order. Ive been saying this entire time post spring bear loss, where are  and where were our hunting rights organizations? Folks that were paying attention knew this was coming but besides a thread on this forum there was no call to arms 

Please don't don't take my comments as a personal attack as its not intended that way as I'm sure WWC has done some great things that we don't know about but if WWC and HHC want folks to part with their hard earned money they need to see what its going towards    anyone on this forum thats been around will attest that I'm the first guy to put up or shut up so give me a reason. What is WWC and HHC going to do to help get our spring season back?

[JeepWrangler]

I am going to stick my neck out here... Hunters need to be supporting each other more:

I'm as guilty as some others for not being super aware of W4WC.

That's my fault.

I'm fixing that by joining their organization with a Membership.

W4WC has been active since 1995.

Just because they didn't post a lot on your favorite social media platform does not mean they were not leaving a digital foot print of all the good positive work they have been doing.

It's just as easy to reverse search an organization on the internet as it is to complain that you don't know someone exists.

W4WC has been busy. It shows all over the internet the good works they have been involved in.

Before complaining about those who are busy being an asset to Conservation, please take a moment and do a little easy research.

~ end of rant ~

[Karl Blanchard]

As I stated before, that wasn't a complaint, it was meant to be constructive criticism. If its taken as complaining and a defensive position is the go to then it becomes telling that maybe there is in fact an issue with promotion.

You're new here and don't know me but as I stated, I'm the first guy to put my money where my mouth is and I do in fact do my homework but when the fast majority of hunters have never heard of you, thats an issue.

I pose my question again, does WWC and HHC have a game plan to get spring bear back?

[Karl Blanchard]

And fyi, when I Google "washington state hunting rights organization" WWC doesn't come up.

[Tbar]

First off, thank you WWC for posting and welcome to huntwa

With that said, why now? And by that I mean where was this post rallying the troops before the bear vote in the council?  I want my money going to organizations that are proactive not reactive. As huntnw mentioned, I've never even heard of WWC or HHC.  Its very easy to reach people via social media these days. Maybe another volunteer dedicated to SM and PR is in order. Ive been saying this entire time post spring bear loss, where are  and where were our hunting rights organizations? Folks that were paying attention knew this was coming but besides a thread on this forum there was no call to arms 

Please don't don't take my comments as a personal attack as its not intended that way as I'm sure WWC has done some great things that we don't know about but if WWC and HHC want folks to part with their hard earned money they need to see what its going towards    anyone on this forum thats been around will attest that I'm the first guy to put up or shut up so give me a reason. What is WWC and HHC going to do to help get our spring season back?

There were several posts by @SpecialT and I believe @bushcraft spelling out the threats. It's spring bear, it sucks, but it's probably a good wake up call to all consumptive users. I mean all consumptive users, the fish are in their cross hairs as well.

[Karl Blanchard]

Yep and I saw those and emails were sent. Hence my comment about the posts. I was unaware they were representing WWC though

[bearpaw]

I want to thank WWC for becoming officially active on the H-W forum, there were already numerous WWC members here but not in an official capacity. 

As has been mentioned there were posts asking members to send messages regarding the spring bear issue, I don't think many people really thought it would be taken away. Now that we lost spring bear it's easy to point fingers and say someone else should have done more, but in reality if we all look in a mirror many of us will see who should have been more involved.

I think we all should look forward in a positive manner, try to be more involved, and hopefully the WWC can recommend actions we can all take in the future to be more effective.

[Rainier10]

Just joined at the $100 associate level.

Click here to learn more and join if you can.

http://www.w4wc.org/membership.html