Hunters, anglers and tribes see win in Ferguson's Fish and Wildlife Commission picks

Yahoo

10-04-2025

(Photo by Jonny Armstrong, courtesy of Oregon State University)
Hunters, anglers, and a bloc of 20 tribes in western Washington are among those pleased with three nominees Gov. Bob Ferguson announced this week for the state's Fish and Wildlife Commission.
In January, shortly after he took office, Ferguson halted two nominations former Gov. Jay Inslee made to the commission, including the reappointment of Tim Ragen, a retired marine mammal expert who had served as the panel's vice chair since last year and had strong support from wildlife protection groups.
Though Ferguson removed him from the nine-member commission, Ragen remained in the running for the job alongside 13 other eligible candidates, but the governor ultimately cut him loose. And he nixed Inslee's other nominee — Lynn O'Connor, who operated a sign company in northeast Washington for two decades and was a former park aide and ranger.
Instead, he reappointed two commissioners — Jim Anderson and Molly Linville, who O'Connor would have replaced. Both Anderson and Linville are backed by hunting and fishing groups and a coalition of tribes that support hatchery fish production. Some environmental groups in Washington oppose fish hatcheries, pointing to evidence that they are a threat to wild fish populations.
Ferguson also appointed Victor Garcia, who is less known to key groups lobbying the governor's office on the nominations. Garcia, a retired teacher, is a longtime hunter and fisherman who worked earlier in his career as a commercial fisherman in the Bering Sea region.
'We're going to have people that we can work with again,' Ron Garner, state board president for Puget Sound Anglers, said by phone on Tuesday. 'I'm excited.'
Lisa Wilson, vice chair of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission and a member of the Lummi Indian Business Council, said she was, 'Just really happy with feeling heard by the new governor.'
'We did have concerns about the appointments that Inslee left us with,' she added. 'It took a lot of footwork to reverse that.'
But for wildlife advocates and those who want to see the commission expand its focus beyond species that are hunted and fished, to look more at broader issues around the ecological value of wildlife and strengthening biodiversity, Ferguson's picks were a deep disappointment.
'Governor Ferguson, by aligning himself with special interests of hunting and angling … has taken a step backward from a more forward-thinking agency that will protect the wildlife trust for current and future generations,' said Fred Koontz, a former commissioner who resigned in 2021 after clashing with hunting interests.
The group Washington Wildlife First, which had pressed for Ragen's reappointment, issued a statement saying that they felt 'betrayed' by Ferguson's actions.
'Governor Ferguson insisted that he wanted to create a more 'balanced' Fish and Wildlife Commission, but instead, he has tilted it away from the values of Washingtonians, and toward the powerful special interests that have long controlled state fish and wildlife policy,' the group said in a statement shared on Wednesday.
The Fish and Wildlife Commission establishes policy and provides oversight for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. The commissioners are appointed by the governor and serve six-year terms.
While for many state residents the commission is a lesser-known government entity, it's a frequent venue for thorny debates. For example, last year, the commission took sharply divided votes to maintain state-level endangered species protections for gray wolves. At a meeting last week, commissioners were dealing with hunting rules for cougars and black bears.
Ferguson said he opted to pull back Inslee's nominees because of a December report from the nonpartisan William D. Ruckelshaus Center that highlighted criticism of the commission, and after 'outreach from multiple individuals, entities, and tribes.'
The Ruckelshaus Center report included findings from more than 100 interviews with people familiar with the agency. It said interviewees described the commission as 'dysfunctional, politically polarized, and caught up in conflict,' and specifically raised concerns about a lack of transparency and selection criteria for commissioners.
'Molly, Jim and Victor offer deep and varied experience, as well as unique perspectives,' Ferguson said in a statement. 'The Ruckelshaus report raised serious concerns about the commission, and we believe these individuals will help to address those issues.'
The governor's office has emphasized that the Senate granted unanimous approval for the governor's request to cancel Inslee's nominations of Ragen and O'Connor.
One group to pressure Ferguson on the nominations is known as the Hatchery Coalition. It consists of four tribes — the Lummi, Tulalip, Upper Skagit and Squaxin — as well as Puget Sound Anglers, and a sport fishing charter company based in Ilwaco. Garner and Wilson were both involved in the coalition's outreach to the governor's office.
The coalition backed the reappointment of Anderson and Linville. They also wanted to see former state lawmaker Brian Blake appointed. Here, Ferguson didn't go along. The Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission pushed for the same three candidates.
In another camp were advocates like those with Washington Wildlife First, which describes itself as wanting to 'transform Washington's relationship with its fish and wildlife from an approach centered around consumptive use to a more democratic paradigm that values science, recognizes the intrinsic value of individual animals, and prioritizes protecting, preserving and perpetuating wild lives.'
Advocates on this side pressed for the reappointment of Ragen, who was previously the executive director and scientific program director of the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission.
In mid-March, 74 scientists, conservationists, and environmental advocates wrote to Ferguson urging him to reverse his removal of Ragen from the commission.
'Now more than ever, Washington's Fish and Wildlife Commission needs leaders with a strong record of decision-making grounded in science,' they wrote.
Ragen's 'unparalleled experience and deep understanding of marine ecosystems — particularly those critical to the survival of Southern Resident killer whales and wild salmon — make him uniquely qualified to guide complex fisheries and wildlife management decisions,' they added.
Koontz was one of the people who signed onto the letter and suggested Ragen, with his credentials as a Ph.D. conservation scientist, had become a symbol of efforts to move the commission in a new direction. 'The status quo is not moving us forward,' he added.
But during his time on the commission, Ragen had frictions with those involved with the Hatchery Coalition, particularly Wilson, who flagged concerns she had with Ragen in a letter last year to Inslee. That letter was later forwarded to Ferguson's office.
Dane Czarnecki, a hunting rights activist, was among those unhappy with recent shifts at the commission. 'They moved away from hearing their traditional stakeholders,' he said.
'We can hopefully start bridging these divides,' Czarnecki added.
Anderson, one of the two commissioners Ferguson reappointed, has been on the commission since 2019. He served as executive director of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission from 1985 to 2005 and has hunted and fished since childhood.
Linville has also been on the commission since 2019. In the early 2000s, she worked as a wildlife biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and now runs a 6,000-acre cattle ranch near Wenatchee that she and her husband took over after her father-in-law passed away.
Garcia, Ferguson's new appointee, taught biology and other science courses in Washington public schools, most recently in Anacortes. He's originally from Gray's Harbor County and has a bachelor's degree in marine zoology from the University of Washington and a master's in science education from Vanderbilt University.
'I grew up digging razor clams, dipping smelt up at Kalaloch, crabbing, hunting deer and elk, hiking, kayaking, everything that one does around here when you really love being outdoors,' he told the Standard in a phone interview on Tuesday.
Garcia said he left behind commercial fishing in the 1990s when he started a family. He also worked over the years as a biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service.
He suggested his background and interests give him a unique perspective to bring to the commission. 'I do citizen science, I work on eelgrass assessment, salmon spawning surveys. I'm a hunter, but I'm also in Audubon,' he said. 'I've gone all over the world to view specific birds. But, every now and then, I do hunt some of them.'
'I think my job is to really listen and look at the science,' he added, 'and not go into it with any one polarized, preconceived notion.'