Fish and Wildlife director resigns

Controversy over salmon management in Washington has prompted the state Fish and Wildlife Department director to resign.

Jeff Koenings, 61, announced his resignation Monday. Koenings came from Alaska 10 years ago to fill the director’s slot and has served longer than any other director, department officials say.

Koenings will leave the job Dec. 11.

According to Jim Tuggle, president of Olympia-based Puget Sound Anglers, many fishermen consider Koenings weak on salmon conservation and say he too often favored commercial fishers at the expense of sport anglers.

George Orr, of Spokane, was the only person on the nine-member state Fish and Wildlife Commission to oppose accepting the resignation Monday night.

“In this period of budget crunching we can’t afford a search for a new director,” Orr said Tuesday. “This will create instability in the agency when the state is facing a $6 billion deficit and the Fish and Wildlife Department is going to take a hit of about $5 million.”

Koenings said the job didn’t come with a magic wand for pleasing all parties.

“It’s not entirely fair to say I’m being forced out by fishing interests,” he said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “There’s been a philosophical difference between me and the commission,” he said, noting that the commission has the authority to hire and fire the director.

“We’ve had our differences in terms of balancing allocations and fishing interests. Think about the variety – coast versus interior, tribal and non-tribal, recreational and commercial – trying to balance all that along with (endangered species) listings for salmon and steelhead and more listings coming for ground fish.

“We have declining resources and more people who want access to them. These are the broader issues beyond me being forced out by the commission.”

Orr contends there’s a problem with “the commission trying to micromanage the agency.”

Tony Floor, of Olympia, spokesman for the Northwest Marine Trade Association and a former Fish and Wildlife employee, favored Koenings’ ouster, but he agreed the agency’s director position is “one of the toughest jobs anywhere.”

“As soon as you make your first decision, you will have people after you,” he said.

Floor said recreational fishing interests in particular have been clamoring for change.

“What frustrates me and the sport-fishing industry that employs me is that as time marches on, we continue to be stuck in the back of the bus,” he said.

“It starts with fishing economics and changing times and what we bring to the state in tourism and recreation,” he said, noting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that sport-fishing anglers spent more than $1 billion in Washington in 2006.

Said Koenings: “Given the financial constraints, fish abundance, court orders and other constraints, there isn’t any room for rapid expansion of recreational fishing interests in Puget Sound.”

Koenings said he’s been looking into other jobs, including possibilities in the new Obama administration, “but nothing is nailed down.”

He said the biggest issues for the next Fish and Wildlife director will involve dealing with the budget. “That’s the No. 1 issue for the next six months,” he said.

No. 2 will be dealing with declining fish and wildlife resources. “Conservation needs to be the rule, especially with salmon,” he said.