Friday's Commission vote on WOlves and Cougar

[Frank The Tank]

This shows how critical it is to remain engaged with the Commission meetings and process, as well as staying engaged with various groups like the Conservation Coalition (who very much want to support us).  EVERY ONE OF YOUR VOICES is important!  The days of just getting your license and going to the field and letting others do the work are over.  If you have time to scroll on your phone, you have time to read and send a letter.  FYI there are WDFW Biologists with hard scientific data that directly contradicts the Commission's vote, and totally disagree with the Commission decisions. 

 UPDATE from the July 19th WDFW Commission meeting:
The meeting has concluded, and here are the key outcomes. The Cougar vote was made (6-3) and went over better than expected. Although the commission is adopting rule changes that are not based in science and department recommendation, some amendments were made by those on the commission who put value to not ostracizing the hunting community.
- We will have a 13% cap on cougars that includes all human caused mortality, from hunting, recorded tribal hunting, conflict removals, etc. Units will close once the 13% threshold is reached.
- Units that surpass the 13% mortality before September 1st will be allowed to go up to 20% instead of closing. We already have two units that surpass that area in the Chewelah and Spokane areas.
- We will lose the month of April from our cougar season.
- The amendments remove the sunset clause on the 20% so units with high conflict removal will have more protection from commissioners who would likely prefer that unit with high conflict do not open at all indefinitely.
- The amendments also direct the department to open a CR 101 for the 2025-2026 season. This will be revisited next year and the staff will be able to provide their recommendations following the new GMP and whatever science they have in the works.
The wolf downlisting vote was played out as a disturbing political game by several commissioners. Unfortunately, in the end, there was a vote of 5-4 rejecting the downlisting of wolves to both sensitive and threatened. Wolves will remain listed as state endangered for the next five years until our next periodic status review, despite the tremendous recovery our wolf populations have made and the recommendations strongly supported by science by our WDFW staff.
Thank you to everyone who has spent time and effort engaging in the public process over the last year for wolves and to everyone who has pushed back against the cougar rulemaking over the past nine months since the petition was initially introduced by anti-hunting groups. More to come from the Coalition explaining todays votes.

[JakeLand]

This is why there is NO trust in our dept

[dwils233]

This is why there is NO trust in our dept commission

Fixed it for you. This isn't a department issue, they opposed cougar changes and supported wolf downlisting. Place blame in the right direction.

Plenty to critique the department on, but this ain't it

[actionshooter]

 Thanks for keeping everyone updated... the folks who have been voicing their opinions to the commission... Thank you! It is helping!

[Tbar]

Thanks for keeping everyone updated... the folks who have been voicing their opinions to the commission... Thank you! It is helping!

I wish I was optimistic as you guys.  I see it as still in a bad place.  You can script the discussion to a tee and the votes are going to always be a negative for consumptive users. Very frustrating to watch woody have a Biden moment,  only to be set straight by HA. 

[Hectocotylus]

This is why there is NO trust in our dept commission

Fixed it for you. This isn't a department issue, they opposed cougar changes and supported wolf downlisting. Place blame in the right direction.

Plenty to critique the department on, but this ain't it

Agree, lots of stuff to complain about but we should focus the effort on the commission, the strongest advocate against them we have is the WDFW right now so let’s remember that now


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[Rainier10]

Just insane. The more you restrict regulated hunting the higher the human/wildlife conflicts go. It boggles my mind.

[bearpaw]

It's time for me to say this again, the only thing that will save hunting in WA is a republican governor who will appoint different commissioners! 

[NWWA Hunter]

It's time for me to say this again, the only thing that will save hunting in WA is a republican governor who will appoint different commissioners! 

This is the truth. The way the commission is appointed as sportsmen we all need to donate time and money to the governors race. In 4 more years there may not be any harvest quota left if we do not.


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[Tbar]

It's time for me to say this again, the only thing that will save hunting in WA is a republican governor who will appoint different commissioners! 

This is the truth. The way the commission is appointed as sportsmen we all need to donate time and money to the governors race. In 4 more years there may not be any harvest quota left if we do not.


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Kind of hard when you run off your best candidate to carry a state wide and hand the election over to Fergeson.  Reichert is too centered for some but may have had a real chance. 

[NWWA Hunter]

It's time for me to say this again, the only thing that will save hunting in WA is a republican governor who will appoint different commissioners! 

This is the truth. The way the commission is appointed as sportsmen we all need to donate time and money to the governors race. In 4 more years there may not be any harvest quota left if we do not.


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Kind of hard when you run off your best candidate to carry a state wide and hand the election over to Fergeson.  Reichert is too centered for some but may have had a real chance.

Sad but true. The Republicans completely dropped the ball in 2020 also so what should we expect. Unfortunately in this state we have a Republican Party that is a mess and a clown show. Additionally in general our sportsmen do not donate time or money to the sporting groups that try to keep us going. This is why many like us have left or have given up.


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[hughjorgan]

It's time for me to say this again, the only thing that will save hunting in WA is a republican governor who will appoint different commissioners! 

This is the truth. The way the commission is appointed as sportsmen we all need to donate time and money to the governors race. In 4 more years there may not be any harvest quota left if we do not.


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Kind of hard when you run off your best candidate to carry a state wide and hand the election over to Fergeson.  Reichert is too centered for some but may have had a real chance.

He didn’t get the republican nomination, no big deal, as much of a mess the party is it’s probably best to not have their endorsement. It’s time to vote for Reichert in the primary; ballots went out Friday.

[dwils233]

It's time for me to say this again, the only thing that will save hunting in WA is a republican governor who will appoint different commissioners! 

This is the truth. The way the commission is appointed as sportsmen we all need to donate time and money to the governors race. In 4 more years there may not be any harvest quota left if we do not.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Kind of hard when you run off your best candidate to carry a state wide and hand the election over to Fergeson.  Reichert is too centered for some but may have had a real chance.

He didn’t get the republican nomination, no big deal, as much of a mess the party is it’s probably best to not have their endorsement. It’s time to vote for Reichert in the primary; ballots went out Friday.

Conservatives in this state make perfect the enemy of the good all the time. Easiest example is Jaime Herrera Butler- pissed off MAGA, got primaried from the right....seat flipped to blue. Same will happen with Reichert of people can't hold their noses and vote for him. Semi bird doesn't have the votes and can't ever get them. Reichert could and might with everyone toeing the line.

You might sleep better voting your conscious, but you'll be sleeping in Ferguson's washington

[Frank The Tank]

It's time for me to say this again, the only thing that will save hunting in WA is a republican governor who will appoint different commissioners! 

This is the truth. The way the commission is appointed as sportsmen we all need to donate time and money to the governors race. In 4 more years there may not be any harvest quota left if we do not.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Kind of hard when you run off your best candidate to carry a state wide and hand the election over to Fergeson.  Reichert is too centered for some but may have had a real chance.

He didn’t get the republican nomination, no big deal, as much of a mess the party is it’s probably best to not have their endorsement. It’s time to vote for Reichert in the primary; ballots went out Friday.

Conservatives in this state make perfect the enemy of the good all the time. Easiest example is Jaime Herrera Butler- pissed off MAGA, got primaried from the right....seat flipped to blue. Same will happen with Reichert of people can't hold their noses and vote for him. Semi bird doesn't have the votes and can't ever get them. Reichert could and might with everyone toeing the line.

You might sleep better voting your conscious, but you'll be sleeping in Ferguson's washington

Very good point. A Republican must be moderate enough to pull votes from the West side.  It's politics.  This means concessions.  It was moronic at best to put Culp up, and look where we are.  Sometimes our wounds are self-inflicted to be sure.

[Frank The Tank]

This is why there is NO trust in our dept commission

Fixed it for you. This isn't a department issue, they opposed cougar changes and supported wolf downlisting. Place blame in the right direction.

Plenty to critique the department on, but this ain't it

Agree, lots of stuff to complain about but we should focus the effort on the commission, the strongest advocate against them we have is the WDFW right now so let’s remember that now


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Very good point.  And as an Association, we can't just pout, go sit in a corner and not participate.  Sometimes, by dialogue, we find out individual mindsets, rationale behind things etc.  Like the upcoming decision on live beaver trapping for relocation being a state certification that they will grant this certification to other groups.  Why are we not in on this? The "training" is nothing but live beaver trapping, something we as trappers/WSTA are the Subject Matter Experts on. Why shouldn't we be a certifying agency as well?  Now, others will go "AHHH beaver relocation!  Stay away!"  Again, this is a training certification.  And furthermore, it gives us standing as Stakeholders and we may influence further topics.  But if we don't get engaged on a trapping issue/formal certification, then we've again isolated ourselves and definitely won't influence.