Urgent! Call Your Legislators NOW!!

[Don Wittenberger]

WDFW merger with DNR. Sportsmen/women should immediately ask their representatives to OPPOSE this proposal, which is advancing as the House works on the budget. The present organizational structure of WDFW and the Fish & Wildlife Commission was created by a citizen initiative. Our state's voters wanted the management of our fish and wildlife to be free of politics. Now, budget pressures and the lure of cost savings threaten to undo that accomplishment. There's no denying the state has short-term financial problems caused by the recession, but those are temporary, whereas this restructuring would permanently alter fish and game management in our state.

DNR is the agency that manages state-owned lands. Their job is to make money for the state by selling timber, collecting grazing fees, etc. They also have a major role in fighting forest fires. DNR is run by an elected official, the Commissioner of Public Lands. If WDFW is merged into this agency, there's no doubt the WDFW director, who is appointed, will be subordinate to the elected Commissioner, and that WDFW will come out as the inferior agency within the new organization, which in turn means fish and wildlife will have lower priority for funding -- and may have to compete directly for funds against the demands of DNR's firefighting and other activities. In addition, we may see fish and wildlife policy being dictated by a politician without scientific expertise in this field. The cost savings aren't worth the harm this could do to our recreational pursuits. The only positive thing about the current bill is that game wardens apparently will stay with WDFW instead of being moved to State Patrol, but that's not enough to earn our support.

In other news:

No new warmwater manager appointed yet. As you may already know, warmwater manager Brian Edie retired this month, and this position is currently vacant. WDFW is rewriting the job description and restructuring the position duties (I have no details), and likely will assign someone to this area of responsibility within a few weeks. I've been assured by WDFW management this position will be filled by early spring.

Changing the official tiger musky record is on indefinite hold. The staff member in charge of the sportfishing records was laid off last June, and was not replaced because of budget cuts. Although new records can still be certified, there are no staff resources available to address our proposal to replace the weight record with a length record, so that will remain on hold until the economy improves and sufficient funding is available to assign staff to a sportfishing records review.

Sportfishing rule adoptions. Because I missed last Saturday's IFPAG meeting, I haven't yet seen the list of rule changes adopted by the Commission. The biggest controversy involved the anti-snagging rules WDFW proposed for the lower Columbia. My understanding is this issue was resolved to the satisfaction of the bass and walleye anglers.

[KUP]

Good idea, Don, thank you for the important post.
In case any of you don't know who your Legislative Representatives are,
click here http://apps.leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder/Default.aspx

and EMAIL THEM.

[Don Wittenberger]

Here is some additional information about the WDFW - DNR merger.

I don't have a bill number yet. This might be in the main appropriations bill. You can see a detailed 42-page explanation (pdf format) of the Senate's budget proposal here: http://leap.leg.wa.gov/leap/Budget/Deta ... ew0223.pdf

The big picture looks something like this. The Legislature is required to balance the budget; unlike the federal government, our state government can't run a deficit. The Legislature is faced with a revenue shortfall for the next two years of about $2.8 billion. Here's how they plan to deal with it:

Tax increases: $918,000,000
Spending cuts: $838,000,000
Federal assistance: $583,000,000
State emergency reserves: $498,000,000

This is what the Senate document says about the merger:

"CONSOLIDATION, RESTRUCTURING AND GENERAL EFFICIENCIES - $11.1 MILLION
GENERAL FUND-STATE SAVINGS; $1.6 MILLION OTHER FUND SAVINGS

"Savings are achieved via the following: consolidating the Department of Natural
Resources, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the State Parks and Recreation
Commission; consolidating the back-office functions of the Puget Sound Partnership and
the Recreation and Conservation Office; modifying the structure of the Growth
Management Hearings Board (Board) and consolidating the Board and the Environmental
Hearings Office into the Environmental and Land Use Hearings Office; reducing the
general fund subsidization of fee-based programs; requiring small agencies to consolidate
their back-office functions within Small Agency Client Services; and other administrative
reductions."

This explanation doesn't tell us exactly how much combining WDFW, DNR, and State Parks and Recreation would save. It's probably most of the $12.7 million. But even using that figure, $12,700,000 is only 1.5% of the total of $838,000,000 in spending cuts and an even smaller percentage -- 44/100ths of one percent -- of the total shortfall. Given the potential impact on fish and wildlife management, that seems like giving up a lot for a paltry financial gain. But one of the Senate's stated principles is that all agencies and programs must bear some of the sacrifices, so it's difficult to argue that any agency should be exempt. This looks like a juggernaut, and it's probably impossible to persuade the Legislature to spend several million dollars to keep WDFW independent -- unless we show them how to replace that money from somewhere else. Therefore, I suggest asking your elected representatives to take an equal amount out of WDFW's General Fund allocation and make it up with fee increases for fishing and hunting licenses. In other words, give sportsmen and sportswomen the opportunity to reach into their own pockets to keep WDFW independent as the voters envisioned when they passed the initiative creating WDFW's present organizational structure. I think it's the only chance. We're talking roughly $10 million, and we license buyers can absorb that -- it amounts to a few bucks per license. An annual fishing license will still cost less than a tank of gas to and from the lake.

[Anonymous]

The Bill number is SB6813.
Please feel free to edit/copy/paste any/all of the below into a message to your Representative.
Or paraphrase it into your own words. Personalized statements usually get their attention rather than a copied statement, but anything is better than not saying anything!
Also use Don's great recommendation about increasing license fees to supplement the shortfall. Giving them a solution is a sure sign you are a progressive thinker and taxpayer, not just a whiner.

"As a person interested in protecting our State's strong fish and wildlife heritage, I am concerned with the proposed merger of the Department of Fish and Wildlife into one large catch-all Natural Resources Department. These are unique agencies with completely different missions. DNR is responsible for the management of our State Public Trust Lands, while the Department of Fish and Wildlife's focus is to conserve and protect our fish and wildlife resources.

In 1994 Referendum 45 merged the Departments of Fisheries and Game into the Department of Fish and Wildlife. This merger has taken years to complete...We are just now beginning to reap the benefits of a fully functional Department. Experience tells us that moving WDFW and Parks into DNR could take at least a decade for us to realize any significant benefit. Meanwhile, I am concerned that our fish and wildlife resources will suffer as a result of the growing pains and conflicting missions this new super agency will experience.

Referendum 45 also created a citizen commission to establish our State's fish and wildlife policies. Under this proposal, the Fish and Wildlife Commission and the citizens could loose their voice as they get placed on the back burner of a much larger agency that is primarily focused on land management issues. I fear that the Fish and Wildlife Commission -- and our fish and wildlife resources -- will be left to flounder with little or no support from an elected, partisan Commissioner of Public Lands

While I support fiscal responsibility, preserving and protecting our State's limited fish and wildlife resources should be our primary focus. If we are going to streamline state government, we should not be creating larger state agencies. Moreover, it is important to note that general fund revenues only comprise 30% of WDFW's budget. I respectfully recommend that you use a more surgical approach to finding administrative efficiencies within these agencies.

Thank you for your consideration of this issue.

Please oppose SB 6813!!

[Lucius]

Don thanks for you hard work and dedication on such matters. You are the eyes, ears, and flashlight for us anglers who are not as savvy on these matters. Thanks Don

[Lucius]

I just found out that they changed the amendment and will NOT be merging the WDFW and DNR together. Congrats to everyone who called and emailed the legislators. Although I did hear that more budget cuts are on the way.

[Don Wittenberger]

The Coastal Conservation Association did the heavy lifting on this one. Numerous of calls and emails from their members turned the tide! We owe that group a big "thank you." This is a HUGE win!