Thank you HOWL for the alert.
Be there! Washington’s Fish and Wildlife Commission meets next week on Friday, June 27, and Saturday, June 28, in Olympia, for the first in-person meeting since the Sportsmen’s Alliance and the Conservation Coalition of Washington released documents revealing bad governance, backdoor deals, corruption, tribal alienation, and collusion with anti-hunting organizations by several members of this body of policymakers.
We are asking sportsmen to show up to ask questions about what has been uncovered and demand accountability for those acting in bad faith, directly against their legal mandates to mistreat our hunting and fishing communities to further extremist preservationist agendas. After years of abuse, stolen hunts, and public gaslighting from these commissioners, we deserve to have answers from those responsible.
For a commission that has been under such scrutiny from the legislature for being “dysfunctional” following an independent review from the Ruckelshaus Center, it is essential that sportsmen show up to highlight these matters and ask for change following the public release of such damning internal communications.
Open public input is scheduled for 8:30 a.m.-10:00 a.m. on Friday and 8:00 a.m.-9:30 a.m. on Saturday at the Natural Resources Building in Olympia. In-person testimony has priority over virtual attendance. A large crowd from both the sportsmen and anti-hunting communities is expected to be in attendance, so please sign up in advance.
If you are able to attend in person or virtually, please show up as a positive representation of our community. In the past, when sportsmen have shown up in large numbers, anti-hunting organizations have created harmful lies about the intentions and behavior of our community to paint a picture of “intimidation” and a threatening environment, and allied commissioners have even leaked emails detailing fictional events to these same groups to chill the involvement of our community. Remain respectful and tactful in the defense of your community, passions, and lifestyle. The antis love to lie about us, let’s not give them a reason to start telling the truth!