The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) is a mess and its commission is worse.
WDFW is being sued by the hunting and fishing organization Sportsmans Advocacy who alleges several things.
First, that the commission held secret meetings with anti-hunting organizations contrary to the state law requiring public meetings that formulate laws and regulations, and also that the commission conspired to hide the communications (email, etc.) from the public and the administration of WDFW.
Secondly, that WDFW failed to provide a timely response (more than a year) to requests for public disclosure documents to support the organization’s claims about the unethical actions of the commission. WDFW eventually responded with a data dump of thousands of documents, apparently in retribution, insiders at WDFW say.
Consequently, upon learning of some of the alleged unethical actions of some of the members of the commission, the Director of WDFW, through the governor’s office, requested an investigation of the activities of the commission to determine what should be the correct course of action to the allegations.
Many months after being promised by the governor’s office the results of the investigation still have not been released. Meanwhile, several members of the commission who are under investigation have sued the WDFW director!
There are many more controversial issues at WDFW.
It needs a total house cleaning. Many say that it should be under the Department of Natural Resources so that the fish and wildlife resources of our state could be under elected leadership along with our other natural resources.
Jim Tuggle
Thurston County
