President Message
State Board President message for May
What times we are living in. Our North of Falcon really didn’t leave us much fishing opportunity for the Puget Sound. We have three rivers that are giving us havoc. Also, we have a WDFW Commissioner Lorna Smith teaming up with Clair Loebs Davis, of Washington Wildlife First, also lawyer for Wild Fish Conservancy and Conservation Angler. In a lawsuit against our WDFW director, Kelly Susewind and deputy director Amy Windrope. Saying they were saying things about them on the Commission and info was sent to the Governors office to see if Lorna and Melanie Rowland could be removed due to circumstances that they have done as commissioners. I have seen a lot of the PRR paperwork and they were trying to control the commission and change it out to non-consumptive. The big point to remember is that if Lorna Smith and Melanie Rowland are removed, they are the last two commissioners that are the inner road link to the commission for her organizations, that they helped get installed. This will make them start all over. They lose their seat at the table so it makes sense to do whatever possible to keep those two in as commissioners.
The Governor hired an investigation company to bring out the issues, was supposed to be due April 17. At this time, the governor’s office staff was out of office and hoping that on Monday (April 20) he makes a ruling on it.
This lawsuit was to deflect the removal of the two commissioners or possible even 4 commissioners. It was Hail Mary pass to try to offset what they have done. The antis are saying they are not getting a say in our fish and game or basically wanting to overturn our mandate that is to maximize hunting and fishing after conservation is met. They do not want this and want to eliminate hunting and fishing.
There is a new spin off of Wild Fish Conservancy, called “Let our Salmon Come Home.” They did a campaign at the PFMC level flooding the comment section to stop ocean fishing to let salmon get home to the rivers to spawn. This at the bottom of their website is this little phras: “The website is facilitated by Wild Fish Conservancy Northwest.” So, we found the connection.
Time for people to understand why we are losing fisheries. Claire gets money from Jody Allen, owner of the Seahawks, that gives pass through funding to other anti-groups. Don’t think for a moment they are not working legislature to push us out the door. Legislature really hit WDFW this year with funding cuts. Its time people start pay attention and do a little work if we want fishing to last and start educating our legislators.
Not to mention that the Conservation Policy was finally terminated due to our tribes helping us push that out the door. Now some of the commissioners want to restart a new Conservation Policy. Really? We spend a lot of our time working for all of you to fight these issues and people don’t seem to care until they are not fishing. Time to wake up and join a local PSA Chapter. We could use your support.
· Ron Garner President PSA