Campaign To Pass Referendum 45 Kicks Off Politics Endangering Fish, Wildlife, Backers Of Independent Agency Say

Politics encumber the current system of managing the state’s fish and wildlife, say backers of a measure that would let a citizens commission appoint the director of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Supporters of Referendum 45 kicked off their campaign with a news conference Wednesday at a Seattle hotel. They said fish and wildlife will lose out in the long run if the directorship of the Fish and Wildlife agency continues to be controlled by the governor.

“If we continue to allow the appointment of the director to be political, then the determining factor in his or her selection will be what’s politically best for the resource and not what is really best for the resource,” said Trish Bottcher of the Washington State Federation of Fly Fishers.

Fish and Wildlife Director Bob Turner declined comment through an assistant and referred inquiries to Gov. Mike Lowry’s office, which did not immediately return a call for comment.

Lowry has previously condemned the measure as “a terrible mistake” that would endanger natural-resource pacts worked out between the state and Indian tribes.

Some backers of the referendum contend Turner and his predecessor, Curt Smitch, have favored tribal and environmental interests over those of fishers and hunters.

Referendum 45 cleared the Legislature and will appear on the November general election ballot. It would give the Fish and Wildlife Commission, rather than the governor, the power to appoint the Fish and Wildlife director. The governor would continue to appoint the commission members.

The measure would require the governor to “seek” to maintain a balance of interests on the nine-member board, including representation for commercial and sport fishers and others. Currently, people with a financial stake in game fish or wildlife aren’t eligible to serve on the commission.

The referendum would give regulatory authority of all species to the commission. Currently, the Fish and Wildlife director, who answers only to the governor, sets salmon and other “food fish” and shellfish regulations and the commissioners set game fish and wildlife policies.

Backers of Referendum 45 said the current setup leads to closed-door politics, the inability to carry out long-term programs because of changes in directors and bickering among various user groups.

“The only hope for fish and wildlife in this state is that every man, woman and child becomes a steward,” said John McGlenn of Bellevue, a member of the Fish and Wildlife Commission. “Without the opportunity for them to have a stake in being heard … I don’t think it’s going to happen.”

The commission had the authority to appoint the department director from 1933 until 1987, when the Legislature agreed to turn it over to the governor - then Booth Gardner - in return for a promise of more state funding for fish and wildlife programs.

State Rep. Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle, was among the legislators who voted for the 1987 bill. He said that while state funding increased in the two years after the bill passed, it has since trailed off.

“I occasionally make mistakes in my political career, and one of those mistakes was I voted to put the wildlife director under the governor,” Jacobsen said at Wednesday’s press conference.

Opponents said the measure would roll back cooperative management between Indian tribes and the state and grant too much power to special-interest commissioners without public oversight.

“We see most of the same forces that opposed the tribes in the 1970s and 1980s supporting this referendum, because they feel they will gain more control over current state policy,” the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission said in a statement.