Action Roundup

What You Need to Know and Do This Week: February 6, 2024

Posted on by Julia Zelman
06
Feb

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

Urgent Notices and Actions

Actions

    • Please use our action page to oppose SJR 8208, currently in the Rules Committee. Read more about this bill in “Legislative Updates.”

More Action Items

  • Please support WDFW’s recommendation in its draft Periodic Status Review of the killer whale to maintain the species’ endangered status on the state endangered species list. WDFW is accepting comments until February 19, 2024. You can comment via email or write to: Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife ATTN: Taylor cotton, P.O. Box 43141, Olympia, WA 98504.
  • WDFW is asking the public for input on the following species to inform its periodic status reviews: wolverine, Mount Rainier white-tailed ptarmigan, burrowing owl, yellow-billed cuckoo, tufted puffin, Columbian sharp-tailed grouse, Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit, fisher, sea otter, grizzly bear, Oregon silver-spot butterfly, island marble butterfly, Mazama pocket gopher; green, loggerhead, and leatherback sea turtles; and blue, fin, right, sei, and sperm whale. Submit comments by emailing TandEpubliccom@dfw.wa.gov or by sending mail addressed to Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife ATTN: T. Cotten, P.O. Box 43141, Olympia, WA 98504. (WDFW has not provided deadlines for input.)

Legislative Updates

Here is an update on the bills Washington Wildlife First is following during the state legislative session that began on January 8, 2024.

Bills We Support

Yesterday, February 5, 2024, was the last day for bills in the Senate Ways & Means and Transportation committees and the House fiscal committees. Here is an update on the bills we are supporting this legislature. SB 5846, the beaver ecosystem management bill, has unfortunately stalled out in the Senate Ways & Means Committee. SB 5931, which would require the Washington Department of Ecology to identify significant sources of 6PPD in consumer products every five years, has been placed on second reading in the Rules Committee, so it still has a chance of passing this session.

HB 2456 and SB 6237, concerning wildlife crossings, did not reach the full House or Senate floor, with the House bill stuck in Appropriations and the Senate bill in Ways & Means. SB 6294, which would have banned the sale of imports of fur, did not receive a vote in the Senate agriculture committee.

Bills We Oppose

We also have updates on several bills we oppose. The Senate Agriculture Committee passed SJR 8208, the so-called “right-to-hunt” amendment, on January 29. (The companion bill in the House, HJR 4212, did not receive a hearing.) Please continue to oppose this legislation, which has until 5 p.m. on Tuesday, February 13 to pass out of the Rules Committee. See these calling and emailing action alerts.

The anti-wolf bills, HB 2423 and HB 2424, no longer pose an urgent threat to wolves. HB 2424 now requires WDFW to “coordinate” (rather than “align”) its management of wolves in the ceded lands north of the Colville Reservation with the management of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation (CTCR). We support this change, as the language now does not require WDFW to adopt the CTCR’s policy of year-round, no-limit wolf hunting and trapping. HB 2424 is now in the Rules Committee and has not yet been scheduled for a floor vote. HB 2423 did not receive a vote in committee.

HB 2293, which would establish a study on avian predators of salmon and explore possibilities of control via “harvest,” passed out of the House agriculture committee on Tuesday, January 30. Currently, it is still “alive” in the Rules Committee. However, the substitute bill that passed the committee has taken out all mention of “harvesting” supposedly “overpopulated” avian predators and has added a bird conservationist to the study’s working group. The bill has until 5 p.m. on Tuesday, February 13 to pass out of the Rules Committee.

SB 5517, which would allow cities to get new water permits for growth despite impacts to instream flows required for salmon, had a hearing in the Senate Ways and Means Committee on January 22, but no further action was taken.

Julia Zelman