Editor's BlogGillnet Ban Dies In Olympia, But Some Fish-Wildlife Bills Still KickingMarch 18, 2019The Olympia Outsider™ has been taking his name very literally, soaking up some serious ray-age the past few days, but back indoors Washington lawmakers have been busy girls and boys in the halls of power, amending, debating and voting on all sorts of bills.... NSIA On The Attack After Columbia Reforms Vote As WDFW’s Susewind Defends ItMarch 8, 2019As a major organization in the Northwest fishing world now openly urges its members to oppose WDFW’s fee increase proposal because of the Fish and Wildlife Commission’s Columbia reforms vote last weekend, the head of Washington’s agency has issued an extraordinary statement about why it was passed.... WDFW Fish Commission Adopts Columbia Subpanel Reform Recommendation; NSIA: ‘No Words’March 2, 2019The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission late this morning voted in favor of a joint-state subpanel’s recommendation to decrease recreational salmon fishing allocations on the Columbia and keep gillnetters on the big river.... Columbia Salmon Reforms Subpanel Recommends 2016 Allocations To OR, WA Fish CommissionsMarch 1, 2019Supporters of Columbia River salmon reforms are urging anglers to get in touch with fishery overseers and one state’s lawmakers after a subpanel of the Oregon and Washington Fish and Wildlife Commissions this week voted to revert to 2016 benchmarks.... 2019 Puget Sound, Coast Salmon Forecasts Out As North Of Falcon Live-streamed For First TimeFebruary 27, 2019The big North of Falcon salmon forecast reveal is being live-streamed today on WDFW’s webpage, where the predictions for Washington Chinook, coho, sockeye, pink and chum runs are also posted, as are comparisons to past years.... What Washington Fish, Wildlife Bills Did, Didn’t Escape Olympia Deadline?February 22, 2019Today, Feb. 22, is cutoff day for many bills to get out of their initial legislative committees in Olympia, and the rush has been on to move as many as possible.... WDFW Fee Hike Bills Get Support During Public Hearings, But Concerns Raised TooFebruary 15, 2019Washington lawmakers heard arguments for and not-quite-fully-against on a pair of bills that would increase fishing and hunting license fees by 15 percent during public hearings held late this week.... Washington Gillnet, Fee Hike Bills Set For Public Hearings In OlyFebruary 7, 2019Here’s more on those and other bills that are showing signs of life.... HeadlinesSpringer Limits Reduced On 2 Columbia Gorge Tribs, But Not At DranoMarch 22, 2019Even as springer limits are being reduced on a pair of nearby waters, anglers will still be able to keep two hatchery Chinook a day at Drano Lake.... Washington Lawmakers Called On To Fully Fund WDFW In Op-EdMarch 22, 2019Three members of a group that took a deep dive into WDFW’s budget woes say that state legislators need to fully fund the agency so it can better perform its mission as Washington’s population balloons and critters and their habitats struggle.... ‘Winter Weakens, Spring Kills’ – ODFW, Shed Hunters Group Urge Antler Seekers To Hold OffMarch 21, 2019In January, deer and elk in Oregon were in good body condition, and it looked like another mild winter for the state. Then came February.... National Fishing Trade Group Calls On Inslee To Reject Fish Commission’s Columbia Reforms VoteMarch 21, 2019A major national trade organization is calling Washington’s recent vote to freeze planned Columbia salmon fishery reforms a “significant threat to numerous fish stocks” and is calling on Governor Jay Inslee to reject it.... Turkey Hunting Workshop For Adults Scheduled Near Corvallis Just Before Spring OpenerMarch 21, 2019The workshop will cover choosing the right gear, setting decoys and blinds, spring vs fall hunting tactics, turkey behavior and biology, calling techniques and field dressing and cooking. ODFW will provide shotguns and ammunition for participants to practice shooting and patterning a shotgun.... Industry NewsFirst Aid At Sea For Fishermen, Boaters Courses Coming To Seattle; Registration OpenJanuary 11, 2019Captain Thomas Bliss of Northwest Response has teamed up with The Center For Wooden Boats in Seattle, Washington to bring three levels of First Aid, CPR/AED classes to the Wagner Education Center in 2019.... Canine Cargo Carrier: The Next Generation in Dog TransportationDecember 7, 2018After years of experience in building, buying and transporting with just about every type of dog trailer out there, Get My Point, LLC has developed a break-through in dog transportation. Whether you have show dogs, rescue dogs, hunting dogs, sled dogs, police/military dogs or you are a dog transportation company, we have a trailer for […]... Mack’s Lure Adds Scent-dispersing Inline ‘ScentFlash’ Flasher To LineupDecember 3, 2018This one-of-a-kind 8” in-line spinning flasher features a patented scent release system that is sure to be a game changer in the salmon, trout and kokanee fishing markets.... Considering Adding An E-Bike To Your Hunting, Fishing Arsenal?November 21, 2018While much of the use of electric bicycles is geared towards changing the game in urban transportation, we’ve found that there are plenty of uses for those among us looking to get off the beaten path.... 2019 Northwest Sportsmen’s And Boat Show ScheduleNovember 7, 2018Get your phone calendar out, Northwest hunters, anglers, fishing guides, jet sled dealers, backcountry outfitters, lodges, and scone merchants, the 2019 sportsmen’s and boat show season is just around the corner.... Wolf NewsODFW Reports Group Of Wolves In Indigo WMUMarch 21, 2019Oregon wildlife managers are reporting a new group of wolves in the upper North Umpqua and Middle Fork Willamette drainages, and say three turned up on a trail camera last month. ODFW is calling them the Indigo wolves after the name of the wildlife management unit for this part of Lane and Douglas Counties. The announcement follows public reports of wolf activity in the area in recent years, with biologists finding tracks last fall. “At this time, wildlife managers have little data regarding the specifics of this new group (i.e., sex, breeding status, and specific use area) and additional surveys are needed to find out more information,” ODFW stated on its gray wolf page. Wolves in this part of Oregon are still federally listed, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s state office touted it as further proof the species’ recovery is “going strong.” “This follows robust recovery of gray wolves across the U.S. While the wolf had all but disappeared from the lower 48 by the early 20th century, it now roams free in 9 states and is stable and healthy at over 5000 wolves. This remarkable recovery led the Service to propose removing gray wolves from protection under ESA last week,” the agency posted on Facebook. Robust, certainly, along with robust conflicts in some cases. Yesterday ODFW said that a wolf or wolves had killed the pup of a livestock producer further south in Oregon’s Cascades. Its carcass was found 400 yards from his house in the Boundary Butte area, where there have been two wolf attacks on calves so far this year. “He had last seen the dog alive at midnight that morning when he had gone outside to turn on Air Dancer wolf deterrent devices after being awakened by his dogs barking incessantly,” the state investigation report says. The Rogue Pack and OR-7 roam in that area. The Capital Press reported that the 16-week-old mastiff was the 11th farm animal to be killed or injured by the wolves since last September. If the proposed delisting goes through, it would mean state managers would have more flexibility in dealing with chronic wolf depredations. There’s also another group of wolves, the White Rivers, in Oregon’s northern Cascades. ... Lower 48 Gray Wolf Delisting Proposal Going Out For CommentMarch 14, 2019A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposal to delist gray wolves in the rest of the Lower 48 will go out for comment tomorrow when it is officially posted on the Federal Register. “While wolves in the gray wolf entity currently occupy only a portion of wolf historical range, the best available information indicates that the gray wolf entity is recovered and is not now, nor likely in the foreseeable future, to be negatively affected by past, current, and potential future threats such that the entity is in danger of extinction,” reads a portion of the 158-page document now available for previewing. USFWS says that species don’t have to be recovered throughout their former range — essentially impossible with all the development since their large-scale extirpation — to be delisted from the Endangered Species Act, but that it would continue to monitor populations for five years, like it did with the Northern Rockies wolves and which have continued to thrive under state management. The agency says that delisting will let it focus on species that still need help. “Every species kept on the Endangered Species List beyond its point of recovery takes valuable resources away from those species still in need of the act’s protections,” USFWS said in a press release officially announcing the proposal. Word first came out last week from Department of Interior Acting Secretary David Bernhardt that it was pending. There are now more than 6,000 wolves in the Lower 48, primarily in the Northern Rockies and Western Great Lakes, but those populations are spreading out. Just last week it became clear that there was likely a wolf or wolves within miles of the Pacific in Southern Oregon after state managers there reported one was probably to blame for a large-scale sheep depredation near Cape Blanco. Gray wolves were delisted in Idaho, Montana and the eastern thirds of Oregon and Washington in 2011. This new proposal would extend that the western two-thirds of both states and elsewhere, if it is approved. A similar bid in 2013 was challenged in court and the effort was derailed, but quietly began again last June. “Our deepest gratitude goes to all our conservation partners in this victory, particularly the states and tribes who are committed to wolf conservation and will continue this legacy forward,” said USFWS Principal Deputy Director Margaret Everson in the press release. ODFW and WDFW last week reiterated that they’re ready to take over management of gray wolves across their respective states. It would level the playing field, per se, in dealing with depredations, but would not mean an immediate free-fire zone as the species would remain under state protections for the time being. Publication on the Federal Register starts a 60-day comment period.... Kretz Washington Wolf Status Review Bill Passes House, Now In SenateMarch 13, 2019Even as WDFW begins a status checkup of gray wolves in Washington, state lawmakers are giving hard deadlines for the agency to complete it and for the Fish and Wildlife Commission to decide whether to update the species’ listing. “We need the department to take this step to officially document how the wolves are faring,” said prime sponsor Rep. Joel Kretz (R-Wauconda) in a press release yesterday. “I know how my ranchers and communities are faring, and it’s not good. Despite honest efforts on both sides of this issue, folks back in my district are desperate. The state needs to show that it’s listening, it hears them, and is going to start taking their concerns to heart.” HB 2097, which passed out of the House on Monday, requires the review to be based on statewide wolf numbers and scientific data to determine if the “population is no longer in danger of failing, declining, or no longer vulnerable to limited numbers, disease, predation, habitat loss or change, or exploitation.” The bill must still pass the Senate, where this morning it was introduced and referred to the natural resources committee, and be signed by Governor Inslee, but under it WDFW’s work would have to be finalized by the end of next February and its citizen oversight panel need to reconsider the state endangered status of wolves by August 31, 2020. A status review is one of two ways under the Washington Administrative Codes’ “delisting criteria” that a species can be taken off state ESA lists. WAC 220-610-110 Endangered, threatened, and sensitive wildlife species classification. Delisting criteria 4.1 The commission shall delist a wildlife species from endangered, threatened, or sensitive solely on the basis of the biological status of the species being considered, based on the preponderance of scientific data available. 4.2 A species may be delisted from endangered, threatened, or sensitive only when populations are no longer in danger of failing, declining, are no longer vulnerable, pursuant to section 3.3, or meet recovery plan goals, and when it no longer meets the definitions in sections 2.4, 2.5, or 2.6. The other is by meeting benchmarks set by the Fish and Wildlife Commission. With wolves, that 2011’s management plan, approved before recovery really got going. Under it, there needs to be either 15 or 18 successful breeding pairs in various parts of the state for certain periods of time. WDFW has been estimating that that would occur somewhere around 2021, give or take. Where the latter criteria is essentially a “measuring stick” for how close wolves are to reaching the wolf plan’s predetermined numerical figures, the former considers the “robustness” of the actual population. The most recent annual count did find nearly 15 breeding pairs, though almost all were in one single recovery region. Indeed, there can be no doubt that pack goals have been reached in Kretz’s district — Pend Oreille, Stevens and Ferry Counties and northeast Okanogan County — but his initial bill’s possible regional delisting wording was stripped out as it moved through the legislature’s lower chamber after its Feb. 19 introduction. Still, the unanimous 98-0 vote was a good sign for ranchers, hunters and others concerned about growing wolf numbers. The bill also includes provisions for WDFW to study how wolf recovery in the state’s federally delisted eastern third is affecting recolonization elsewhere. While a fringe out-of-state pro-wolf blog is already claiming the goal posts are being moved, page 68 of the wolf plan also states that if 2011’s population models turn out to be wrong, “Incorporating wolf demographic data specific to Washington will allow WDFW to update predictions of population persistence during wolf recovery phases and to revise the recovery objectives, if needed.” And the bill would continue efforts in Ferry and Stevens Counties to deal with wolf-livestock conflicts, and create a grant program for using nonlethal deterrents in all of Eastern Washington. “In many ways, the state has drug its feet in addressing my constituents’ concerns regarding the wolf issue,” said Kretz in the press release. “The state needs to step up financially and assist with the problems it has created, or at the very least, neglected.” Paula Swedeen of Conservation Northwest said she appreciated lawmakers commitments to recovering wolves and providing enough funding for wolf-livestock conflict avoidance work, what she called “a significant positive step for both wolves and ranchers.” “This allows for more social tolerance to be fostered across the state, including in the rural areas where wolves are already abundant. There is robust discussion about increasing the effort to promote coexistence in areas where livelihoods are affected by wolf recovery,” she said in a statement. It all comes as US Interior Department Acting Secretary David Bernhardt last week said that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would soon propose removing gray wolves from ESA protections in the western two-thirds of Washington and elsewhere in the Lower 48. WDFW has long maintained it is ready take over managing wolves across the state. Kretz has introduced numerous wolf bills in the state legislature, some more serious than others. It appears this latest one has a good head of steam and could pass.... ODFW Reports ‘Probable’ Wolf Attack On Sheep Not Far From PacificMarch 6, 2019Oregon wolf managers are reporting a “probable depredation” within miles of the Pacific Ocean. They say that over a two week period between late February and earlier this week, the carcasses of 23 sheep — nearly all lambs — were found by a producer and USDA Wildlife Services in a “partially fenced” private pasture in Curry County’s White Mountain area, which by the gazetteer is just east of Denmark and Langlois along a lonely stretch of Highway 101 by Cape Blanco. Examinations of several carcasses “were consistent with a wolf attack, but lack diagnostic evidence to clearly differentiate between wolf and domestic dog,” leading to the probable determination. If a wolf, it is likely to be a disperser. Concerned about closures in your area? Book the world’s best salmon and halibut fishing in Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands), Canada. Click HERE to learn more. The incident occurred in that part of Oregon where wolves still are federally listed and thus where the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the lead agency. Neither federal nor state managers are currently monitoring any known wolves in Curry County, though tracks on the Pistol River, to the south between Gold Beach and Brookings, were investigated last year and were determined to be “consistent with a wolf” by an ODFW biologist. A trail cam photo from last fall taken near a “possible/unknown” sheep depredation nearby in Coos County, to the north, captured a “blurry” picture of an animal “that could have been a wolf or dog.” Cameras have been set up near the site of the attack on the White Mountain flock to see if anything returns. The public can report wolves in Oregon on this ODFW webpage. The news comes as today USFWS announced it proposed to delist gray wolves in the western two-thirds of Oregon and Washington as well as elsewhere in the Lower 48.... Feds To Propose Delisting Gray Wolves In Rest Of WA, OR, Lower 48March 6, 2019Editor’s note: Updated 12:15 p.m. March 7, 2019, with comments from WDFW. Federal wildlife overseers are proposing to delist gray wolves in the western two-thirds of Washington and Oregon and elsewhere across the Lower 48. The news was reported by the Associated Press this morning. “Today, Acting Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt announced that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will soon propose a rule to delist the gray wolf in the Lower 48 states and return management of the species back to the states and tribes,” confirmed a USFWS spokesperson. Bernhardt is in Denver for the 84th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference. The official termed the recovery of gray wolves — which began with the formation of packs in Northwest Montana in the 1980s and then federal reintroductions in Central Idaho and Yellowstone in the 1990s — “one of our nation’s great conservation successes, with the wolf joining other cherished species, such as the bald eagle, that have been brought back from the brink with the help of the (Endangered Species Act).” Yes, a success, but also a flashpoint, and surely this latest attempt will lead to more court challenges, like those that derailed 2013’s proposal. That one followed on 2011’s successful delisting in the eastern two-thirds of Washington and Oregon, as well as all of Idaho and Montana. Concerned about closures in your area? Book the world’s best salmon and halibut fishing in Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands), Canada. Click HERE to learn more. Last June, federal officials again began reviewing the status of wolves outside the Northern Rockies recovery zone, with the goal of putting it out for public comment by the end of 2018. That didn’t quite happen, but now it appears that it has. “Once the proposed rule has published in the Federal Register, the public will have an opportunity to comment,” the USFWS spokesperson said via email. If it goes through, among the notable impacts would be that WDFW and ODFW would have a more level playing field for dealing with wolf depredations. They can lethally remove members of livestock-attacking packs in far Eastern Washington and Oregon, but west of a line that snakes across both regions they can’t. Still, it wouldn’t be an immediate free-fire zone, as both states stress nonlethal conflict avoidance tactics in trying to prevent depredations in the first place. “We haven’t gotten any official confirmation, and it’s likely this would be a drawn-out process, but if protections were lifted all of Oregon’s wolves would fall under the state management plan,” ODFW spokeswoman Michelle Dennehy told Salem Statesman-Journal outdoor reporter Zach Urness. “We’re ready to handle this if the federal rules are lifted.” WDFW’s wolf policy lead Donny Martorello echoed that sentiment. “We have adequate protections for wolves in this state,” he said. The agency has felt that way for several years, in fact, encouraging USFWS to delist wolves in the rest of Washington and asking a state US House lawmaker to spur the feds as well. “The best available science shows that the gray wolf has successfully recovered from the danger of extinction and no longer requires federal protection,” said that Congressman, Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Yakima Valley) in a press release. “We can see in Washington state that the wolf population is growing quickly while being effectively managed by the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife in the eastern third of the state. I applaud the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s for moving forward with a proposal to delist the wolf in the lower 48 states in order to return management to the states.” Despite the fears of wolf advocates and highly litigious organizations, wolf populations have grown best largely in the state-managed areas. “We’re reviewing the delisting proposal from USFWS and we empathize with concerns from colleagues in states such as California and Colorado where wolves have not yet recovered,” said Chase Gunnell, spokesman for Seattle’s Conservation Northwest. “However, given the quality of Washington’s Wolf Plan and investments in collaborative wolf management work here, we do not expect federal delisting to have a significant impact on wolves in our state. Wolf recovery is progressing well in Washington and our wolves will remain a state endangered species until state recovery goals are met.” Martorello said that the speed at which a federal delisting proposal would likely move would “synch” with WDFW’s own look at how well the species is doing. Today’s news comes as the state has also begun its own status review of gray wolves, which are state-listed as endangered. “The department will review all relevant data pertaining to the population status and factors affecting existence of wolves in Washington. Based on the information collected and reviewed, the department will make recommendations to maintain the species current listing status as endangered or reclassify species to sensitive or threatened or other status,” an agency statement says. A bill in the state legislature also prompts WDFW to wrap up the review by the end of December, though it was amended to remove the possibility of considering delisting in the eastern third of the state as well as made “null and void” if funding for the work wasn’t included in the budget....
