Fish and Wildlife Commission to meet June 3-4

[bobcat]

Well if it is the same one I went to then all you will be hearing about is how broke they are and how they want to raise all recreational licences ....

No, this meeting is not about that.

Here is the agenda:  http://wdfw.wa.gov/commission/meetings/2011/06/agenda_jun0411.html

[dscubame]

Make sure and tell them what a good job they are doing.

[BOWHUNTER45]

Well if it is the same one I went to then all you will be hearing about is how broke they are and how they want to raise all recreational licences ....

No, this meeting is not about that.

Here is the agenda:  http://wdfw.wa.gov/commission/meetings/2011/06/agenda_jun0411.html

O.K thats better if you go tell them I said hi ....

[bobcat]

So who's going to the meeting tomorrow?  I am, but I'm thinking about not showing up until around 10 or 10:30. "Cougar Conservation and Management" is what I want to be there for, to start with. I don't know what time that topic will start, but the meeting starts at 8:30 and it's the fourth thing on the agenda.

[bearpaw]

Hope someone can ask for return to longer seasons since there is no hound hunting. 

[pianoman9701]

I have to apologize to you guys. I'm unable to go to Olympia today because of pressing issues at home. I hope you understand. To those who go, thanks for taking your time to go be there for the rest of us.

[danderson]

Cant make it , but would go if theres ever another one in eastern wash, could someone post the date and places again of the meetings.

[billythekidrock]

I am posting my wolf notes from todays meeting in this thread.
http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,77285.105.html

[billythekidrock]

Some of my notes from today’s meeting.

Bobcat
I was able to ask the commission to consider aligning the end dates of Small Game Bobcat season and Trapping Bobcat season. Below are my notes that I took with me.

I am asking that the commission consider making changes to the closing date of Small Game Bobcat season to match the closing date of Bobcat Trapping season. This would simplify the regulations by giving both bobcat seasons the same end date of March 31st.

Currently the Small Game Bobcat season ends on March 15th and the Bobcat Trapping season ends on March 31st. By extending the Small Game Bobcat season two weeks to March 31st the seasons will have the same end date. This would simplify the regulations for both hunting and reporting.

Bobcat
Trapping season
Nov 1st – March 31st

Small Game season
Sept 1st – March 15th

Commission Chair Wecker deferred to Anderson who said he would like to look at this and “move forward on an abbreviated/full cycle rather than a special rules session. He stated that the “abbreviated” was based on a “moratorium on rules by the governor”. He also stated that he “will take it to Wildlife”.

Cougar
Cougar “densities are not changing, just the age”. “Hit them are or soft – they are still the same”.
But they want to “distribute harvest in winter range”. Killing cats in the winter range “can cause an area to be overrun with sub-adults” and “harvest distribution is a factor”.

They “can’t say cause and effect with hunting” but they did say “though complaints went down drastically in areas of hound hunting”.

I also learned that cougar complaints are not all treated the same for statistical data reporting. It is “the discretion of the staff if a cougar print is a report or a complaint” and it may not create an action or data point.”

One of the Commission members stated that the complaint reporting “system in Eastern Wa does not work”.  He cited numerous known cougar issues that were reported to F&W but NOT added as a data point or action in any complaint documentation.
Some of those issues he spoke of include.
A kid that was attacked that showed up as “not a confirmed complaint”.
A cow & calf killed with a cougar track found was “not confirmed”.
Cow killed with the cat treed and killed, but “not confirmed”.

He said that this was “distorting the data” and that there was a “flaw in the complaint process” with “serious issues with following up” and that the data was “not real good that last few years”.
He also stated that there was a “calf recruitment problem in the Blues” due to cougars.

Some odds & ends.
Bears are mostly stable though some areas are still experiencing high mortality of younger sows.

“Professional contractors (hunters) could be used to manipulate predator numbers.”

Blacktail doe are getting “vaginal implants” so F&W can go to birth sites and track fawn mortality.

They will “evaluate coyote management in the NE” for whitetail predation.

The Commission wants to send a letter to the Governor seeking “help on the Pacific Salmon Treaty”.

Of the seven public speakers:
1 spoke about bobcat seasons.
1 spoke about steelhead recovery efforts.
5 spoke in favor of a stronger wolf recovery plan.

During a sidebar conversation with the Bear/Cougar specialist I was told that if the bear densities in the CF are similar to the Snoqualmie tree farm, than ½ of the harvestable bears were taken during the CF spring bear seasons.

The Commission will be reviewing the night hunting topic. When Wecker stated “spotlighting and night hunting”, Anderson was quick to state that they are two separate issues. One of “what species can be hunted after hours” and the other was spotlighting. He wants t open this “topic for public input” as part of the rule making process instead of “a separate process”.

This is primarily due to a tribe asking for an exception to spotlighting in order to hunt bears and cougars at night with lights.

[Kain]

Thanks for going and filling us in. 

[bearpaw]

Thanks for going and for the report.....

[Humptulips]

There was another speaker that spoke out against the wolf management plan on Friday, Jack Field from The Washington Cattlemens Association.

Also was a good presentaion on State Endangered Species process. Apparently the WDFW has no authority to enforce any habitat provisions associated with land use. They ran through the hoops that have to be jumped through to delist a species.

[pianoman9701]

Thanks for going and filling us in.