Wild Days In Olympia While Department Mergers Studied
By Ron Judd
It's not easy to get a wildlife official on the phone today.
There's a good reason for this. Most of them are flailing around like spawned-out coho, trying to figure out who they work for, where they work, who works for them and who's working who in Olympia and Washington, D.C.
Patience, at least a small amount, is a must here while democracy does its magic thing. The agencies that control our outdoors have all been thrown in the Amazing Colossal Reorganization Blender, and people who work for Gov. Mike Lowry and President Clinton are eagerly pushing the buttons.
Somebody hit "liquify" last week in Olympia, where Lowry asked the state Senate to return a list of 250 state commission members who had been appointed by Gov. Booth Gardner, but never confirmed or reconfirmed. The Senate did so, in essence giving Lowry the ability to replace some or all members of many state governing bodies.
In the case of the Department of Wildlife, the process is further complicated by Lowry's push to merge that department, which governs freshwater game fishing and hunting, with the Fisheries Department, charged with management of saltwater fishes. If that merger occurs - and indications are that it will - citizens on the Wildlife Commission likely will be legislated right out of existence.
That's a major concern in some corners of the outdoors community. While merging the two departments would zap ineffectual mid-management clones and other costly redundancies, it also would meld departments with different governing styles.
The average Washingtonian has little influence over either body, but there is a noticeable difference in how far each reaches out for your two cents (not to be confused with your $17, which you paid for a fishing license).
Fisheries is highly centralized and run by a boss appointed by the governor. Historically, its direction has been dominated more by politics and fisheries interest groups than by public will - or reason, for that matter.
Wildlife is run by a six-member citizen board appointed by the governor. (Just how much real difference that makes is arguable. Many would argue the Wildlife Commission was stripped of its true muscle when it lost its right to hire and fire the wildlife director.) But the department, at least in recent years, has gone out of its way to reach a public consensus before acting.
These merger waters are uncharted, and constituents of each body are nervous. Does the steelhead angler, who has seen at least some progress in restoring native runs, really want to add to the mix Fisheries, whose record with migratory salmon is dubious at best? And does the commercial fisherman already angered by restrictions want his livelihood to be governed by an agency headed by the likes of Wildlife Director Curt Smitch, a confessed (gasp!) environmentalist?
All that will be hashed out between now and the summer of 1994, when the merger is set to occur. Meanwhile, wildlife business goes on. Steelhead continue to migrate, wolves continue to infiltrate, and biologists continue to unsuccessfully search for an actual, verifiable North Cascades grizzly bear. And at this writing, only three things about state wildlife management are clear:
-- Smitch will continue to run the Department of Wildlife, at least until the proposed merger. Whether you're a Smitch fan or foe, that at least means stability in the interim.
-- Lowry, if he wishes, can replace all six Wildlife commissioners immediately.
-- One sitting member, Mitch Johnson of Puyallup, never was confirmed by the Senate and as of last week no longer is a voting commissioner. Unless Lowry reappoints him, he's out.
Rumors continue to float from sportsmen's groups that Lowry intends to strip the commission of "hook and bullet" members who support the rights of fishermen and hunters. But until Lowry announces his intentions, it's unclear what changes will occur. If any.
As a result, our state Wildlife Commission now has only two members able to legally act. They are Chairman Dean Lydig of Spokane and John McGlenn of Bellevue. A quorum is four. All Wildlife business, such as pending emergency steelhead regulations for the Nisqually and Skokomish rivers, is on hold.
For how long? Lowry had 250 names of various citizen bodies returned from the Senate. "He's about halfway through those," a spokeswoman said.
Let's hope the steelhead have enough sense to avoid extinction while all this is sorted out.
Snowmobilers rev up
Thanks to all who wrote and called after a recent column about renegade snowmobilers in Yellowstone National Park. Nice to know you are out there working for preservation causes - even if it is from the seat of a motorized vehicle.
Special thanks to the one Seattle reader who sent a 1985 news clipping with an assertion by a Yellowstone official that "snowmobiles disturb the wildlife less than cross-country skiers do."
Park officials would neither confirm nor deny that this was the same Yellowstone official who three years later would advise, "Let it go, it'll burn out on its own in a couple days."
Copyright (c) 1993 Seattle Times Company, All Rights Reserved.
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19930218&slug=1686042
