Home – Puiget Sound Anglers State Board

State Board Presidents Message for March.
I hope everyone is getting ready for the upcoming fishing seasons. North of Falcon is getting
ready to start. We will see what we have coming up for seasons. The ocean is cold so I would
predict that the salmon returns will be about the same as last year.
As of right now, our WDFW is still up in the air. A big thank you to Governor Ferguson with his
office and Senator Mike Chapman and his Natural Resources Committee as well as the Senate.
Special thanks to our tribes. Our Hatchery Tribal Coalition was a big driver to remove
Commission Tim Ragen and Lynn O’Conner. The Lummis were the first letter out the door then
our tribal Coalition letter and then the NWIFC to remove them. I know most of you don’t know
how much the tribes work with us and fight alongside of us for all of us. Kadi Bizyayeva of the
Stillaguamish tribe, Lisa Wilson of the Lummi tribe, and Peggen Frank of the Nisqually tribe, put
in a ton of personal work behind the scenes to get us here. Many others helped but these were
the real drivers.
We ended up getting a 47-0 vote of the entire senate to remove them. This was huge. We are
still against the removal of the Commission per Washington Wildlife First drove the legislation to
do the Ruckelshaus report of finding the WDFW Commission “Dysfunctional” which it is. They
were also behind the bill to make the commission advisory only, and director to go under the
Governor. The last administration derailed the commission by putting in people that will not
abide by their mandate/RCW and have an agenda to stop fishing and hunting in this great state.
This was done on purples to control the commission and keep stopping hunting and killing of
wolves.
The commission process is not broken, just not being followed because some of the people
appointed do not fit nor want to follow their mandate/RCW. They want to change it which is
wrong. They should be removed. We will continue to work this behind the scenes. We do not
want the commission to fall directly under the governor as we voted in Referendum 48 in 1995
for the public to have access to a say in our natural resources.
Join your local PSA Chapter.

· Ron Garner President PSA