What You Need to Know and Do This Week: February 20, 2024

The Action Roundup contains what you most need to know about actions to take to support wildlife management reform, as well as upcoming events, a legislative update, and the Fish & Wildlife Commission’s latest actions.

Top Notices and Actions

Actions

    • WDFW has issued its revised Gray Wolf Periodic Status Review, CR-102 containing a proposed rule to downlist wolves from endangered to sensitive, and a State Environmental Policy Act Determination of Nonsignificance and related checklist. Comments on both the proposed rule and the SEPA determination are due at midnight on May 6, but we encourage people to enter comments on the SEPA webpage as soon as they can so it shows a balanced discussion to people viewing the site. You can also send comments on the SEPA determination by emailing SEPA_GrayWolf@publicinput.com You can comment on the CR-102 by entering text in the box on this page, emailing graywolf2024@publicinput.com, or leaving a voicemail message at 855-925-2801 (project code 6505).

More Action Items

  • WDFW has opened the three-year hunting season-setting for 2024-2026 for public comment. See this page to read the rule changes and comment. You can also submit input by email, by calling 1-855-925-2802 and entering project code 1378, or by mailing Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife ATTN: Wildlife Program, P.O. Box 43200, Olympia, WA 98504. March 25, 2024 is the deadline to submit comments through any of these methods. There will also be a virtual public hearing on season-setting on March 26; please pre-register here by 8 a.m. that day to give comment. (WDFW has not provided a time for the hearing yet.)
  • WDFW will start the North-of-Falcon salmon season-setting process, beginning with a presentation of initial salmon forecasts developed by WDFW and tribal co-manager fisheries biologists from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. on Friday, March 1 at the Office Building 2 Auditorium, 1115 Washington Street S.E. in Olympia. The main session of the March 1 meeting will be available to watch via Zoom webinar. Participants must register in advance. The public can provide input on potential fisheries here and can see the full North-of-Falcon schedule here.

Recap: Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission Meeting of February 16, 2024

On February 12, 2024, the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission’s Wildlife Committee met to discuss and decide on proposed recommendations to be submitted to the full Commission regarding the content of proposed rules for bear and cougar hunting seasons. (See the agenda here, and watch the meeting here.) The Commission is considering content for new rules after it voted by a margin of 7 to 2 to grant the rulemaking petition brought by eight conservation organizations.

Joined by other commissioners sitting in on the meeting, Committee Chair Lorna Smith and committee members Jim Anderson, Woody Myers, and Melanie Rowland discussed a matrix of potential rule changes, taking a vote on whether to approve each. Management largely opposed these changes, as indicated by the comments it issued prior to the meeting.

The committee discussed potential changes to cougar hunting rules for more than three hours, then tabled the discussion of potential changes to the bear hunting rules due to lack of time. It voted to recommend that the following changes to the cougar hunting rules, with Commissioner Anderson dissenting on each:

Reinstate three-year sunset date for cougar seasons. The committee recommended that dates be inserted back into the cougar rules to align them with the three-year season-setting process. These dates were removed in 2020, allowing the cougar hunting rule to continue in perpetuity unless opened by management or through a rulemaking petition.

Count sub-adults toward hunting limits. The committee voted to recommend a reversal of the 2020 decision to stop counting subadult cougars (cougars between 18 and 24 months old) toward the hunting guidelines that trigger closures of individual population management units (PMUs). The 2020 rule removed subadult cougars from both the density estimates and the hunting guidelines, for the sole and explicit purpose of allowing hunters to kill more cougars.

Return to science-based hunting guidelines. Although there was some confusion on this point, Chair Smith clarified at the end of the meeting that the committee had recommended the reinstatement of the science-based cougar densities that had been used prior to 2020 to establish hunting guidelines for each PMU. The 2020 rule artificially inflated the density estimates in 19 PMUs to allow hunters in those areas to kill more cougars.

Count all human-caused mortality toward hunting limits. The committee voted to recommend that all human-caused mortality be counted toward cougar hunting limits to account for the steep rise in the number of cougars killed due to livestock predations and “public safety” concerns since 2017.

Combine split season into one season. The committee recommended that the split cougar season be merged into one, with the hunting guidelines applied throughout the season. The current structure includes an “early” season from Sept. 1 to Dec. 31 and a “late” season from Jan. 1 through Apr. 30. The hunting guidelines only apply to the late season—such that many of the PMUs go over the maximum guideline levels because staff is unable to shut them down before Jan. 1.

End cougar season on March 31 instead of on April 30. The committee recommended closing the cougar hunting season on March 31 rather than April 30. Since WDFW’s “hunting year” extends from April 1 to March 31, this additional month has caused confusion by crossing over into the next year and requiring a different hunting license. Hunting during April is also more likely to orphan cougar kittens and the presence in the woods increases stress for ungulate populations.

Proposals not recommended. The committee unanimously voted not to recommend turning the hunting guidelines into a hard cap, such that PMUs would be automatically closed when mortality reached 16% of the estimated independent-aged cougar population. In addition, it deadlocked and thus did not recommend changes that would have required hunters to immediately report cougars killed so PMUs could be closed within 24 hours of hitting maximum guideline levels.

Recap: Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission Meeting of February 16, 2024

The full Commission met over Zoom on Friday (agenda here; watch the meeting here). It voted to accept rule changes to allow year-round fishing on Deer Lake, which WDFW proposed in response to rulemaking petition the Commission accepted in December 2023.

Originally, the Commission had also planned to vote on the February 12 recommendations from the Wildlife Committee regarding proposed changes to cougar hunting rules. However, at the suggestion of Wildlife Committee Chair Smith, the Commission elected to delay the vote so it could hear from WDFW cougar scientists in March about any updates to the management framework. WDFW managers told the Commission that they also plan to have more information by May about potential changes to bear hunting rules that would place caps on the numbers of bears killed in different management units based on density estimates. The Commission did not indicate when it planned to vote on the proposed content of a new bear hunting rule.

Legislative Updates

We are narrowing down the bills on our watch list, since February 13 was the last day for bills to pass in their house of origin, and February 19 was the last meeting of the Senate agriculture committee. Here is an update on the bills we are still following.

Bills That Are Still Alive This Session

SB 5931, which would designate salmon-killing 6PPD-quinone as a priority chemical and require the Washington Department of Ecology to identify significant sources of consumer products every five years, passed the Senate and out of the House Environment & Energy Committee with a striking amendment clarifying some of the language. Now it is in the Rules Committee, which will need to approve it to go to the House floor for a vote.

HB 1153, prohibiting octopus farming, passed the out of the Senate agriculture committee and is currently in the Senate Rules Committee. Animal Rights Initiative has more information on the legislation, and Pasado’s Safe Haven and Northwest Animal Rights Network have also issued action alerts to support the bill.

The Senate agriculture committee passed a radically altered version of House Bill 2424 on February 19. The striking amendment replaces all the language of the bill. The Substitute Bill instructs WDFW to engage in government-to-government communication with the Colville Tribes on wolf management, but only after approval of a plan of engagement from the Commission. It then provides that WDFW will provide recommendations for updates or modifications to the 1988 cooperative agreement. However, these changes must be submitted to the Commission for approval. This bill is in the Rules Committee awaiting approval to go to a floor vote.

HB 2293, which would establish a study on avian predators of salmon, has moved to the Senate Rules Committee, after the Senate agriculture committee voted to issue a “do pass” recommendation on February 21. The substitute bill that passed the House has taken out all mention of “harvesting” supposedly “overpopulated” avian predators and has added a bird conservationist to the study’s working group. However, the Senate agriculture committee passed on making additional amendments that would have would have ensured that the working group considers science, added an orca conservation group to the committee, and required the consideration of nonlethal deterrents and mitigation measures.

The bill had received a public hearing in the Senate agriculture committee on February 15. Bill Sharp, a research scientist with the Yakama Nation, and David Trout, National Resources Director for Nisqually Indian Tribe, spoke in favor of the bill, with Trout asking for the ability to consider “all options” regarding the avian predators if they are a “problem.” David Moskowitz of The Conservation Angler urged the committee to amend the bill to direct the committee consider the effects of human-altered landscapes and hatchery releases on avian behavior, and to task the study group with finding nonlethal deterrents for avian predators. He also urged the bill to be amended to require consideration of unintended consequences, citing a recent story in the Seattle Times detailing how the Army Corp’s killing of thousands of cormorants on the Columbia River backfired and made the problem worse.

Bills Defeated This Session

HB 2434 did not advance out of the House agriculture committee before the Feb. 13 cutoff. The bill levels unfair and inflammatory accusations at the Fish and Wildlife Commission, such as claiming commissioners “have ignored the science and their own staff, letting special interests dictate the department of fish and wildlife’s direction and ignoring legislated mandates.”  It would eliminate the Commission to vest complete power over state fish and wildlife in WDFW’s director, who would be appointed by the governor with the consent of both the House and the Senate and would not be answerable to anyone once in office.

Although the bill cannot advance this session, the House agriculture committee granted the sponsor a courtesy hearing on February 21. Nearly 400 people registered their opposition to the bill, and several wildlife advocates testified to defend the commissioners and rebut the falsehoods in the bill and during testimony.

Unfortunately, SB 5846, the beaver ecosystem management bill, stalled in the Senate Ways & Means Committee and did not receive a vote on the Senate floor. This moderate legislation would have represented the first step toward a sensible statewide beaver policy.

In better news, SJR 8208, the so-called “right-to-hunt” amendment, did not pass out of the Senate Rules Committee, and was placed in the committee’s “X” file (meaning the bill is dead this session). Thank you for fighting this dangerous effort to give the “right” to hunt, fish, and trap constitutional protections, which would block any future citizens’ initiatives to change hunting policy, hinder ability of the legislature and the Commission to place limits on hunting and fishing to serve conservation goals, and ensure that cruel trapping methods would continue indefinitely.

Two anti-wolf bills did not receive a floor vote. HB 2423, which would have instructed WDFW to draft a separate “regional management plan” for wolves in the northeast part of the state, did not make it out of the House agriculture committee. SB 5939, which would have allowed livestock producers to kill the “first wolf” returning to a predation site, did not make it out of the Senate agriculture committee.