Put these commission meetings on your calendar.

[Firstgenhunter]

Hey everyone, for those who don't know me my name is Dane from The Conservation Coalition of Washington. I wanted to come on here and share some important information with everyone. First, the momentum for involvement from hunters has grown so much. HOWL has been a major help and more and more people are getting involved. The August meeting was a good step in the right direction. We beat antis during public comment with 28 to 21. But, that still was just the beginning. Too many people signed up overnight and public comment got cut off. If that didn't happen, we would have gotten about 10 to 15 other hunters at the meeting. Commissioners during that meeting declared war against hunters. I wanted to come on here and make folks aware of upcoming commission meetings. If you want to get caught up on what's going on or want to learn more, I would recommend listening to The Broadside podcast (on any platform) as we've done meeting recaps, and weekly bulletins and had 3 commissioners on the podcast. Another massive episode with a former commissioner is coming soon. Randy Newberg recorded a big podcast on Washington with our friends from BearCountryOutdoors and CantrellOutdoors.

Check out the links below for more information. Now, here are some important dates to put on your calendar.

On September 12th, BearCountryOudoors is hosting a fundraiser at Skookum Brewery to raise money for the Sportsmen Alliance to sue the commission. Come meet great people involved in the fight, great food and beer, and LOTS of giveaways and Raffles. Not an event you're going to want to miss, its from 5:30 to 8:30.

September 28th-30th is the next commission meeting. This one will be held in Yakima at The Yakima Convention Center 10 N 8th Street. September 28th WILL MOST LIKELY be committee meetings as that's on a Thursday. But on Friday and MAYBE Saturday, that's when open pubic comment is. The Black Bear CR-102 will have a public hearing most likely on Friday. You can speak in person or online. If you go in person and don't speak, that's fine because your presence means a ton. The reason why I say maybe for Saturday is because I believe the commission retreat is happening on that day. If you are in person that day, you will not want to miss the retreat. Commissioners can discuss very important information and I would recommend watching it. You can typically start signing up to speak a week or two before the meeting. If you know you wont be able to speak at the October meeting, I would highly recommend speaking at this meeting. But, speak at as many of these meetings as you can.

October 26th, 27th and 28th. You will not want to miss this meeting. You will be hearing this meeting be talked about on podcasts, social media and other hunters. This is where we're making a stand. People from all over the state will be attending this meeting. Right now, it's looking like the minimum amount of hunters in person is going to be around 50. This is during prime blacktail season. The commission is expecting people to be gone for Blacktail as this is in prime blacktail season. October 26th is when committee meetings are taking place. You can watch this from zoom so you will not want to miss this committee meeting. They will talk about the preservation policy before its voted on. You can speak on both Friday AND Saturday but the big day will be on Friday. If you can speak on both days please do! On Friday, they will vote on the CR-102, The Preservation Policy, Coastal Dungeness Crab fishery rulemaking, fish passage and screening rulemaking, and Gray Squariell PSR. All of this on a Friday.

The meeting will be held in the Natural Resources building in Olympia. Show up in hunter orange or wear a hunting hat. This is going to be a major meeting and if the Preservation Policy is passed then it will fundamentally change hunting in Washington. Please speak up at this meeting, tell as many people as you can. Like I said, speak on both days if you can. We're going to pack this meeting with hunters and show the commission that hunters can show up, are educated, informed, and ready to fight for what they believe in. They won't dare cut people off if they speak in person, especially if tons of us are in person. If you sign up to speak online and can't speak, sign up for Saturday. Think about it this way, we all speak in person on Friday they have to hear all of us. If they decide to do online comments then they have to continue getting the heat. If you have any questions, reach out to me or check out the Conservation Coalition of Washington page on Instagram. Its time for everyone to get involved. Lets stand united.


*censored* podcast with two of the Coaliton's founding members. https://open.spotify.com/episode/1SbYqv43KrPFBG7ThsihtB?si=5Nono4U9Qx6H77B_urlCIQ
Hunter Farmer Aritisan Podcast with Ryan Garret, one of the coalition's members dives very deep into whats happening in Washington. https://open.spotify.com/show/5kIU8Ms1McmS79RXQmdS0x
Randy Newberg podcast on Washington. https://open.spotify.com/episode/5Zd9PlV7bpRw8NeBITlQLF?si=O2FG_pj5TI2hr8O9jKZ5eA
The Broadside podcast. https://open.spotify.com/show/3ehl0ijD0qca3a4wFYk7C5
GOHUNT article recapping the situation in Washington. https://www.gohunt.com/content/news/washington-state-hunting-is-under-attack-and-why-you-should-pay-attention
Tips on how to speak during public comment and templates created by Washington chapter of BHA. https://www.backcountryhunters.org/get_engaged_wa
Go comment now on the CR-102 proposal on Black Bear. https://publicinput.com/black-bear-timber-damage?fbclid=PAAaZ2NfrAKP5z33QF277WQemt2t-uR8AgJ8bp3eHCTWziiVF5ctSbBh35wHY_aem_AbbUN4jjDBukSCRyT7yrY0BedrI7eBNq3BJeJlp8ERVNirMfVVJy7oKzUAzhGo97xC4
Good post from my buddy Joel.
https://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,281230.0.html

[RB]

If someone were to be able to speak is there a time limit they can speak? Also, if someone were to make the list where could they get solid information to speak? The anti's will have all kinds of emotional data, but how can we get the right information presented in an educated way?

[Firstgenhunter]

So you have three minutes to speak. They will cut you off after 3 minutes if you aren't some sort of official. If you want information to present, HOWL has made some good stuff and so has WA BHA in the link I put in. The podcasts do have good information and they have links to good resources. The coalition will be coming out with more information in the coming weeks to help folks get prepared for these meetings. Also, if you want to speak on a specific agenda item, the WDFW website has information on that particular item. Like the CR-102 for example. I would also listen to public comments from previous meetings, which really helped me out when I first started speaking. let me know if you gave any other questions!

[UplandSetter]

Dane,

Thanks for such a long post. A lot of us appreciate it. I have a few requests, if you don't mind. Please don't confuse these requests with being lazy or apathetic; I think a lot of people like me want to get involved, but we're still so new to advocacy we don't know where to start. Because of this, people like me need to unfortunately be spoon fed sometimes!

- I'm a little bit confused on which day would be best to sign up to speak. If you have one day, which day would have the most impact? Maybe you could provide an answer for those wishing to speak online and those wishing to speak in person?

- Absolutely love the links. The BHA one was super helpful. Joel mentioned in another post to submit an email to the commission that you can draft from HOWL. Do you have a link to that? I haven't been able to find it on their website. A turnkey "click here, click here, say this, send it to this email" approach is very helpful for those of us who don't know where to start, but are trying to do it all. I know it might seem like you're holding our hand through it...because you are...

Thanks in advance.

[hughjorgan]

Link to howl…

https://www.howlforwildlife.org/wabeartimberdamage

[Firstgenhunter]

Link to howl…

https://www.howlforwildlife.org/wabeartimberdamage

Hey thanks for putting that in! That was a link I forgot to put in and go back to do. Thanks again! The CR-102 does have a good chance of passing in my opinion.

[UplandSetter]

Thanks gents, makes it super accessible. Comments made 

[Firstgenhunter]

Dane,

Thanks for such a long post. A lot of us appreciate it. I have a few requests, if you don't mind. Please don't confuse these requests with being lazy or apathetic; I think a lot of people like me want to get involved, but we're still so new to advocacy we don't know where to start. Because of this, people like me need to unfortunately be spoon fed sometimes!

- I'm a little bit confused on which day would be best to sign up to speak. If you have one day, which day would have the most impact? Maybe you could provide an answer for those wishing to speak online and those wishing to speak in person?

- Absolutely love the links. The BHA one was super helpful. Joel mentioned in another post to submit an email to the commission that you can draft from HOWL. Do you have a link to that? I haven't been able to find it on their website. A turnkey "click here, click here, say this, send it to this email" approach is very helpful for those of us who don't know where to start, but are trying to do it all. I know it might seem like you're holding our hand through it...because you are...

Thanks in advance.

Dude your totally good man. Thanks for reaching out. A lot of folks are waking up to what's happening and realizing how essential it is to get involved. Someone just put in the HOWL stuff. HOWL  you can use to talk about specific policies that go to the commission. If you have one day to speak, I would do Fridays. That's when they typically have the packed agenda on and Saturday is typical for guys who can't speak on Friday and Saturday is when they talk about leftover agendas and plan for the next meeting. For October, Friday will by far have the most impact. I know that when the coalition's members are planning to go down. Friday is good to comment on the conservation policy and what's been going on. Saturday is good because you can grill the commission on anything they said or did on Thursday and Friday as its your last chance before the December meeting. In-person for Olympia if you want to talk to everyone and whatnot I would say go Friday. I imagine guys who can't go on Friday will try and go Saturday but MOST people are planning to head in-person on Friday. Yakima I can't give a good prediction on, we may use that meeting to rally any eastside folks who cant speak in Olympia but we encourage people to speak at any meeting they can.

[Joyce]

I saw this and thought some might be interested in knowing about it.

It's a "Meet WDFW Commissioner Lorna Smith" presentation put on by the Sierra club.

Described as follows:
"Lorna will talk about the role of the Commission in managing and setting policy for the Department of Fish and Wildlife. She will discuss current issues before the Commission, including establishing rules for when the Department can kill endangered wolves and whether or not Washington’s wolves should retain their endangered status."

It's next Thursday 9/21 at 7pm via Zoom. RSVP is evidently required.

https://act.sierraclub.org/events/details?formcampaignid=7013q000001rc4VAAQ&mapLinkHref=

[Firstgenhunter]

I saw this and thought some might be interested in knowing about it.

It's a "Meet WDFW Commissioner Lorna Smith" presentation put on by the Sierra club.

Described as follows:
"Lorna will talk about the role of the Commission in managing and setting policy for the Department of Fish and Wildlife. She will discuss current issues before the Commission, including establishing rules for when the Department can kill endangered wolves and whether or not Washington’s wolves should retain their endangered status."

It's next Thursday 9/21 at 7pm via Zoom. RSVP is evidently required.

https://act.sierraclub.org/events/details?formcampaignid=7013q000001rc4VAAQ&mapLinkHref=

So I would not be surprised if shes violating ethics doing it. We need people in their who can record and take notes. From what I know, she has not talked with sportsmen and when we tried to talk with her she said it was "Too litigious." We're thinking of having Hunters RSVP to it and ask a ton of stuff as she won't talk to hunters. People could put in fake stuff in the thing.