What You Need to Know and Do This Week: January 17, 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 and the Fish & Wildlife Commission’s latest actions.

Urgent Notices and Actions

Actions

  • Please register your opposition to the wolf baiting bill, Senate Bill (SB) 5939, by noon on Thursday, January 18, so it will be counted in time for the hearing scheduled for 1:30 p.m. that day before the Senate Agriculture Committee. Click here to register as “con” before the hearing, and here to submit written testimony opposing the bill.
  • If your senator is on the Senate Agriculture Committee, please ask them vote in favor of SB 5846, which would require the Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) to develop a plan to protect and promote beaver populations. Please click here to find your state senator and send them a message.  Read more about this bill in “Legislative Updates.”
  • Please sign up as soon as possible to testify at the January 25-27 Washington Fish & Wildlife Commission meeting in Olympia, in person if possible or over Zoom. If you want to speak on the conservation policy, please sign in for Agenda Item #2, the only public comment period before the vote. See more in “Upcoming Events,” below.
  • Please send comments to the Washington Fish Wildlife Commission urging them to pass a meaningful  Conservation Policy that reinstates language requiring WDFW to exercise caution when taking action that could harm wildlife species. Please see our talking points for more detail. Use this action page to easily compose a letter to the Commission, or email  your thoughts to commission@dfw.wa.gov by January 23, 2024 to make sure the Commissioners have time to read your messages before the measure goes to a vote on January 26, 2024.

Upcoming Events

Fish and Wildlife Commission Meetings

  • The Commission will meet January 25-27, 2024 in Olympia (agenda here). Please sign up here to testify, as state and national groups are once again attempting to overwhelm the Commission with negative feedback, particularly on the draft conservation policy, which is finally scheduled for a vote this meeting. Choose Agenda Item 2 for public comment from 8:30-10 a.m. on January 26 or Agenda Item 12 for public comment from 8-9:30 a.m. on January 27. Please note that if you wish to comment on the conservation policy, you should comment on Agenda Item 12 on January 26, as the vote on the policy will take place that day.
  • January 26: In addition to voting on the draft conservation policy, the Commission will vote on a new North of Falcon policy, a Columbia River Salmon Fishery Management Policy, the Mardon Skipper and Spotted Owl Periodic Status Reviews, a rulemaking petition filed by The Conservation Angler to amend or repeal coastal steelhead regulations to prohibit winter steelhead fishing, yet another petition to bring back spring black bear hunting, and a rulemaking petition filed by a crabber to amend rules related to Puget Sound recreational crabbing.
  • January 27: The Commission will vote on whether to approve forest management projects that involve harvesting more than one million board feet of timber, and plan future meetings.
  • Commission committee meetings will take place on January 25:
    • From 8 to 10 a.m., the Big Tent Committee will incorporate and review edits to the draft conservation policy and receive an update on the Best Available Science Policy.
    • From 10 a.m. to noon, the Wildlife Committee will discuss how to move forward with rulemaking following approval of the bear/cougar rulemaking petition and receive an update on the Game Management Plan. Although it is not on the agenda yet, it is likely the committee will also discuss Governor Inslee’s order requiring the Commission to begin rulemaking on a wolf management rule.
    • From 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., the Fish Committee will discuss the North of Falcon Policy and the Columbia River Salmon Management Policy.
    • From 3 to 5 p.m., the Habitat Committee will receive a briefing on the development of new rules to regulate the use of plastic for dock floats, receive a briefing on the Washington Shrubsteppe Restoration and Resiliency Initiative, and discuss the approach To the acquisition of Springwood Ranch.

Legislative Hearings

The Senate Agriculture Committee will hold a hearing on SB 5939, which would allow livestock owners to shoot the first wolf returning to a predation site, at 1:30 on January 18, 2024. Please see action item above in “Urgent Notices and Actions.”

More Action Items

  • The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is soliciting commercial and scientific input on the potential listing of Washington coast spring Chinook under the Endangered Species Act. Submit all electronic public comments via the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal. Enter NOAA–NMFS–2023–0148 in the Search box, click on the “Comment” icon, complete the required fields, and enter or attach your comments. You can also mail comments to: Protected Resources Division, West Coast Region, NMFS, 1201 NE Lloyd Blvd., Suite #1100, Portland, OR 97232. Attn: Shivonne Nesbit. The deadline to comment is February 5, 2024. More information on the petition to list Washington coast spring Chinook here.
  • 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

SB 5846, which would require WDFW to develop a statewide beaver plan, received a hearing before the Senate Agriculture, Water, Natural Resources, and Parks Committee on January 15, 2024, during which a panel composed of representatives from the Methow Beaver Project, South Sound Beaver Recovery, Conservation Northwest, and the Tulalip Tribes testified in favor of the bill. WDFW Director of Conservation Policy Margen Carlson, Fish & Wildlife Commissioner Lorna Smith, and members of the public also spoke in support of the bill, while a few hunters and a Washington Farm Bureau representative weighed in against the bill or asked for changes. SB 5846 is not yet scheduled for an executive session, during which the members would vote whether to move it out of the Agriculture Committee this session.

SB 5931, which would require the Washington Department of Ecology to identify significant sources of 6PPD in consumer products every five years, is scheduled for executive session at 8 a.m. on January 19. 6PPD is the compound in tires that has gotten into nearshore areas from tire wear in Seattle and elsewhere and caused a high mortality rate in salmon.

Some humane nonprofits are hoping to revive HB 1153, which bans octopus farming and was reintroduced this year; click here to see how you can get involved.

Bills We Oppose

SB 5939, which would allow livestock producers to kill the first wolf returning to an alleged predation site, will have a hearing in the Senate Agriculture Committee at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, January 18. On January 16, Sen. T’wina Nobles (D-28th), removed her sponsorship from this proposal. As noted in the “More Action Items” section, we are urging people to register their opposition and send in comments before noon on that day.

According to an email from Rep. Mike Chapman (D-24th) to a constituent, HB 1698 “will not move out of committee this session and the bill is effectively dead.” HB 1698 was introduced during the last session and would have removed protections from wolves in the northeastern corner of the state. It stalled in the appropriations committee after the fiscal note indicated it would cost about $1.6 million a year to implement.

No hearings have been scheduled yet for SJR 8208, which would introduce an amendment to the state constitution to guarantee the right to hunt and fish or HB 2293, which would establish a study on avian predators of salmon and explore possibilities of predator control via “harvest.”