Commissions Provide Huge Study In Contrast

This is a tale of two fish and wildlife commissions. One is getting a new lease on life. The other soon may be packed with members who are more interested in protecting the interests of miners, loggers and the livestock industry than enhancing and protecting fish and wildlife.

Washington’s Fish and Wildlife Commission will become the most powerful commission in the state’s history Monday. As the result of passage of Referendum 45 last fall, it will have full authority over management of fish and wildlife.

On the other hand, Idaho’s commission, once independent of politicians, soon will be dominated with members who will be expected to do the bidding of the state’s governor, Phil Batt. The governor’s critics say he wants to control the commission because he doesn’t want the Fish and Game Department to create problems for loggers, miners and other business interests.

Until recently, Idaho’s commission was so independent of politicians that it could protect department officials from harassment by politicians. Example: Biologists haven’t felt comfortable when they criticized excessive logging along streams, but they knew they wouldn’t lose their jobs.

If the governor gets his way, and it looks like he will, department employees may look over their shoulders every time they say something that the governor or business interests don’t like.

It’s possible, however, that Washington’s commission, now well-balanced with intelligent, thoughtful members whose priorities are protection and enhancement of the state’s fish and wildlife, next year will be packed with members who will be beholden to Washington’s new governor.

The next governor will be able to appoint five of the nine members.

Meanwhile, Washington’s commission is back in the saddle again. It not only regained its authority to appoint the Fish and Wildlife director when voters passed Referendum 45, but it will have new powers, including the management of salmon, shellfish and other food fish. It also will assume new powers to negotiate with treaty tribes to co-manage hunting and fishing within the state.

Furthermore, the commission once again has the authority to appoint the director of the Fish and Wildlife Department. It recently named Bernard Shanks of Portland, a hunter, fisherman and outdoor survival expert with impeccable credentials, to the $93,659-a-year job. He’ll take over from Bob Turner as director Monday.

Shanks arrives without the kind of baggage that Turner had when he became director of the merged fisheries and fish and wildlife departments. Because Turner had been director of the fisheries department before the merger, sportsmen, environmentalists and others distrusted him. He hurt matters by not attending meetings of the then-weak commission and by making some decisions without input from the public.

Gov. Mike Lowry succeeded in enlarging the commission to nine members. To his credit, he has appointed to the board people who are respected by most of those interested in preserving and enhancing the state’s fish and wildlife.

Nearly everyone interviewed for this article praised the commissioners, both those appointed by Lowry and those named by previous administrations. Regardless of their business or political interests, they’re perceived as people who want to do what’s right for the state’s fish and wildlife.

All commissioners either fish, hunt or do both, or are interested in wildlife conservation.

It’s obvious that the commission, as it gets ready to assume full control of fish and wildlife management, has the support of most people interested in wise and scientific management of fish and wildlife programs.

Unfortunately for Idaho’s sportsmen, the politicians seem determined to control the Idaho Fish and Wildlife Commission. One of Governor Batt’s first actions after he was elected was to demand the resignations of all present commissioners.

His demand set off a firestorm of protest and he backed off. Now he’s packing the commission with people, who, many concerned sportsmen assume, will have political axes to grind.

It took several years before Washington’s sportsmen realized that politicians do more harm than good when they become involved in fish and wildlife management. That’s why they went all-out for the passage of Referendum 45. Now they hope that the next governor will appoint to the commission men and women as dedicated to wise fish and wildlife management as are the present commissioners.

, DataTimes MEMO: You can contact Fenton Roskelley by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 3814.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Fenton Roskelley The Spokesman-Review