Republicans push to oust newly appointed Wildlife Commissioner

[jager]

By K.C. Mehaffey
World staff writer

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

OKANOGAN — A newly appointed member of the state Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission from Omak is under fire by Okanogan County Republicans, who say he’s a “wolf advocate” and does not reflect Eastern Washington views.

Jay Kehne was appointed by Gov. Chris Gregoire in December.

The Republicans have asked Okanogan County commissioners to object to Kehne’s appointment, and call for his resignation due to a conflict of interest.

On Tuesday, all three commissioners signed a letter to the governor and state senators seeking his removal.

Kehne said he sees no conflict in working for Conservation Northwest and serving on the Wildlife Commission, and said that he’ll join the commission for his first meeting this week.

“I’ve lived in Eastern Washington most of my life, and recognize rural county values,” he said.

Before becoming Okanogan County’s outreach associate for Conservation Northwest in 2009, Kehne worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service for 11 years, and its Soil Conservation Service for 20 years. He’s lived in Eastern Washington for 44 years.

He said his work with Conservation Northwest has included traveling around the state giving talks about wolves, and trying to get an underpass for mule deer on Highway 97 between Riverside and Tonasket.

“If you look at this issue with wolves, it was a mix of Eastern and Western Washington commissioners, and it passed unanimously. That says to me that this Commission did a good job looking at the facts and figures, and listening to comments. They passed the plan, which is what has to happen before we get on with living with wolves,” he said.

He added that his work for Conservation Northwest included work to put together a volunteer group to help state officials figure out what wolves are eating, and help document any livestock killed so ranchers can be compensated.

“I don’t work for a bunch of radical terrorists. I work for a group that believes strongly in wildlife conservation, and realizes that communities are a large part of where this all happens,” he said.

He’s the first Okanogan County resident to be named to the nine-member board since Terry Karro, a Winthrop lawyer who served from 1985 to 1997.

Jon Wyss, the Okanogan County Republican Party’s state committeeman, said the main issue is not with Kehne.

“Jay Kehne is a good guy. He really is. But you can’t sit on a Fish and Wildlife Commission and represent Eastern Washington when the organization that writes your paycheck espouses everything that is opposite” to the area represented.

Wyss said in addition to its support of wolves, Conservation Northwest has pushed for the purchase of private land for wildlife conservation.

He said both the Okanogan County Farm Bureau and Coalition for Property Rights met recently to support the effort to remove Kehne from the Wildlife Commission. Wyss is president of both organizations.

Joel Kretz, a Republican state representative from Okanogan County, called Conservation Northwest, “an extremist environmental group,” and pointed to its executive director, Mitch Friedman, who once belonged to the radical group Earth First!, and admitted in a speech to being arrested for civil disobedience.

“He locked up the Loomis Forest, and he’s got a 30-year history of litigation over timber sales,” Kretz said. And, it supported the state’s plans to recover wolves in Washington.

The county’s anti-wolf stance is well known. In August, Okanogan County commissioners passed a resolution asking the state to delist the gray wolf, and consider it instead a “deleterious exotic wildlife.”

“I would say if you put them up against the values of Eastern Washington, their values are pretty extreme,” Kretz said.

Kretz said Kehne also doesn’t represent Eastern Washington views. “Jay went around the state and spent the last year promoting wolves,” he said. “To me, it’s just insulting that he would be appointed to an Eastern Washington position.”

Friedman said he thinks Okanogan County Republicans are just upset that a wolf recovery plan is now in place, and the debate is over.

He said he weathered all of the same attacks in the mid-1990s, when Okanogan County Republicans were worked up over a proposed international park, and started, he said, seeing black helicopters.

“I don’t think this is about me. I think it’s about them. Every 15 years, the right wing of Okanogan County has to show just how out of touch it is, and I’m their whipping boy,” he said.

http://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/2012/jan/04/republicans-push-to-oust-newly-appointed-wildlife/

[denali]

Thanks for the link Jager, this whole wolf issue will decided by local politics despite what ever "wolf plan" suburbanites desire.



jager you are not allowed to change your avatar.... it's a forum rule 

[sebek556]

  hope they get his forth point of contact booted out!

[SnakeEyes]

I sent another message to my senator.

[Camp David]

"He added that his work for Conservation Northwest included work to put together a volunteer group to help state officials figure out what wolves are eating, and help document any livestock killed so ranchers can be compensated.

I'll help them narrow it down…...It's not carrots and broccoli 

[Curly]

It is good that the 3 commissioners are requesting the removal of this apparent wolf lover, but how can they sleep at night after approving the WDFW wolf mismanagement plan?

[bearpaw]

"He added that his work for Conservation Northwest included work to put together a volunteer group to help state officials figure out what wolves are eating, and help document any livestock killed so ranchers can be compensated.

I'll help them narrow it down…...It's not carrots and broccoli 

   

[buckfvr]

It is good that the 3 commissioners are requesting the removal of this apparent wolf lover, but how can they sleep at night after approving the WDFW wolf mismanagement plan?

With one eye open.......no doubt.........

[Wenatcheejay]

It is nice to have Commissioners who support the region in this. It may be that is where the battle is better fought.

[DoubleJ]

Bearpaw, bigtex, anyone with knowledge, is there any way the wolf plan can be overturned?  I've written my rep multiple times and have heard nothing back.

[wraithen]

State congress is planning on trumping the whole deal with state level legislation. No clue if it will work though.

[Elkaholic daWg]

It is good that the 3 commissioners are requesting the removal of this apparent wolf lover, but how can they sleep at night after approving the WDFW wolf mismanagement plan?

 COUNTY Commissioners, not DFW. In his home county,no less

[bearpaw]

Bearpaw, bigtex, anyone with knowledge, is there any way the wolf plan can be overturned?  I've written my rep multiple times and have heard nothing back.

If you were to listen to the recording of the Commission Meeting in Spokane where the Wolf Plan was adopted you could hear what they said, if I remember correctly, they said the plan is a starting point and can be adjusted in the future.  (or something like that)

[Curly]

It is good that the 3 commissioners are requesting the removal of this apparent wolf lover, but how can they sleep at night after approving the WDFW wolf mismanagement plan?

 COUNTY Commissioners, not DFW. In his home county,no less

Thanks for the clarification.  I should have known that    That is what I get for skimming an article really fast when I should really be working.

[buckfvr]

An obvious appointment with a special purpose in mind...........the Governor sure knows how to infiltrate, Ill give her that.....but I dont think she realizes how seriously all this is being watched and countered.  Typical of that type of people to just assume we are all too simple to understand whats really going on.

[Wenatcheejay]

Bearpaw, bigtex, anyone with knowledge, is there any way the wolf plan can be overturned?  I've written my rep multiple times and have heard nothing back.

If you were to listen to the recording of the Commission Meeting in Spokane where the Wolf Plan was adopted you could hear what they said, if I remember correctly, they said the plan is a starting point and can be adjusted in the future.  (or something like that)

Unfortunatly Dale if you think that through, (adjusting) it would not be beyond past actions from the Con-NW/ DFW to move the breeding pair/location of packs numbers farther out if 15 pairs are ever documented like they did over the number of wolves in ID/MT/WY when they met their quotas. At no time have these people ever kept their word. They move to goal posts. Like you point out, 1 trapper. Sure, WDFW takes verification seriously. 

They also say packs here, packs there, but we are not sure, they have no intentions of doing what they say. After this year the only answer may be to defund, don't cooperate, (private lands) No verification, No money for enforcement, no cooperation. no participation, I.E. no eyes in the woods. =  No tags, No opportunity, No ethics. We are all wolves,  native mentality, or do not play anymore.

I like the idea of Local Commissioners. They are more at the mercy of local people who pay taxes. You have given me an idea 

[bearpaw]

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Fish-and-Wildlife-appointee-draws-fire-2447868.php

Fish and Wildlife appointee draws fire
NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS, Associated Press   

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — The appointment of an Eastern Washington environmentalist to the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission has upset some rural officials, who say their small-town values are unfairly being pushed aside in favor of big-city views about what's best for nature.

Okanogan County commissioners this week sent a letter to Gov. Chris Gregoire complaining that Jay Kehne does not reflect their opinions, in part because he supports the continued protection of wolves in the region. Kehne works for Conservation Northwest, a Bellingham-based environmental group that also supports continued government protection of wolves.

"We believe a conflict of interest does exist," Okanogan County commissioners said in their letter, which was also sent to state Sen. Brian Hatfield D-Raymond, whose Agriculture, Water & Rural Economic Development Committee has the power to remove Kehne from his new position.

Kehne, a longtime resident of Eastern Washington, said there is no conflict of interest in being an environmentalist and a member of the Fish and Wildlife Commission.

"I was chosen for my credentials," said Kehne, a wildlife biologist. He said he will not resign from the commission, to which he was appointed in early December.

Kehne is one of three representatives from Eastern Washington on the nine-member commission.

"It is an Eastern Washington position, not an Okanogan County position," he said.

The job of a Fish and Wildlife commissioner is to look at the best science possible and make a good decision for wildlife, he said. Politics and one's place of employment should not be involved, he said.

"Everybody works for somebody," Kehne said. "I've got degrees in wildlife biology and soil science and have had jobs for 31 years across Eastern Washington and California."

But State Rep. Joel Kretz, R-Wauconda, said politics play a part. The commission has plenty of urban representation, as most of the commissioners hail from populous Western Washington, he said.

The three positions from Eastern Washington should better reflect the values of rural areas, Kretz said.

"Those three Eastern Washington positions should put some diversity in there, rather than the same thing people in Seattle and Olympia are thinking," Kretz said.

Kretz said rural residents have the most contact and assume many of the costs of dealing with wildlife.

"I've got deer in my haystack right now," Kretz said.

Conservation Northwest issued a statement last week saying Kehne was an outstanding choice for commissioner.

"The Governor appointed Jay to the commission to represent himself," the group said.

"Conservation Northwest is disappointed that some politicians have reacted to Jay's appointment in ways that generate only heat, not light, to public discussion," the group said. "Where people disagree on important issues, including tough ones like wolf recovery, the best approach is civil and informed dialogue, not personal attacks."

The letter from the commissioners to Hatfield accused Kehne of being disrespectful to people who want gray wolves removed from endangered species protection.

In fact, Kehne is dismissive of the county's push to delist wolves in the county, saying the attempt is pointless.

"It can't and won't happen," Kehne said.

Trying to get him removed from the commission in favor of someone who supports hunting of wolves is also a bad idea, he said.

He noted the state's recently released wolf management plan was unanimously adopted by the commission, indicating it was based on science.

"Politicians in Okanogan County want to get stuck in the past and not have wolves," Kehne said.

Kehne also rejected the notion that Conservation Northwest was a radical group, noting that they were working on ways to help ranchers co-exist with wolves, and trying to develop more wildlife corridors so there are fewer collisions between deer and motor vehicles.

"These aren't radical environmental things," he said.

Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Fish-and-Wildlife-appointee-draws-fire-2447868.php#ixzz1iq35hj7k

[dreamingbig]

Crissy is trying to make this a non-hunting state on her way out.  Can the next governor reverse her appointees?

[Heredoggydoggy]

Crissy is trying to make this a non-hunting state on her way out.  Can the next governor reverse her appointees?

Not if Jay Inslee is the next Governor.  He'll add more squishies to the commission!

[KillBilly]

He may have been appointed but he isn't confirmed. I sent my Senator an e-mail expressing my opinion and asking him to vote no on his confirmation..

I suggest you send an e-mail also. If you have time to waste here where it won't make any difference, then you have time to e-mail your senator. 

[wraithen]

If they don't think the appointment will stand up to the state congress, don't they just keep it off the voting floor? From what I've read they don't actually ever have to have them voted on, they can drag it out as long as they want.

[Dave Workman]

State congress is planning on trumping the whole deal with state level legislation. No clue if it will work though.

PUHLEEZE


It is the state LEGISLATURE.