Latest news with #Ragen
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Hunters, anglers and tribes see win in Ferguson's Fish and Wildlife Commission picks
(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.'
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
After fatal accidents, WA Fish and Wildlife workers press Ferguson on agency appointee
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife staff apply tags and record data while sampling Chinook salmon at the Washougal River weir in an undated photo. (Photo courtesy of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife) A labor union representing most employees at Washington's Department of Fish and Wildlife says it's troubled that a member of a commission that oversees the agency may not get reappointed after Gov. Bob Ferguson hit the brakes on his nomination. The roughly 1,000-member Washington Association of Fish and Wildlife Professionals sent a letter to the governor Thursday saying that Tim Ragen had helped to give them fresh hope that long-running concerns about a lack of workplace safety, gaps in training, and supervisor retaliation against employees might finally be addressed. 'He has shown genuine concern about our safety and welfare, devoted the time necessary to understanding our issues, and actively worked to find pathways to improve our working conditions,' says the letter, signed by Candace Hultberg (Bennett), president of the association. It adds that Ragen may not be reappointed 'precisely because his courage in confronting these sorts of difficult and controversial situations has led to political criticism.' Former Gov. Jay Inslee announced that he'd reappointed Ragen, along with appointing a new commissioner, Lynn O'Connor, on Jan. 13, two days before Ferguson took office. Ragen is retired from a career in marine mammal research. He was first appointed to the Fish and Wildlife Commission by Inslee in 2022 and became vice chair last year. The appointments require state Senate confirmation. In one of his first acts as governor, Ferguson asked the Senate to allow him to pull the appointments, a request that lawmakers unanimously granted. Since then, the governor launched a new process to fill the commission seats, with Ragen and O'Connor now under consideration along with 12 other applicants. Ferguson's decision removed Ragen from the commission. The union is raising its concerns after a series of incidents at the Department of Fish and Wildlife that resulted in deaths and injuries. Two department employees drowned in separate on-the-job accidents in the past 18 months — in September 2023 and January 2024. Also last year, a worker was hospitalized after sustaining a head injury when a boat they and another employee were in capsized on the Nisqually River. At the time, the employees were attempting to use a chainsaw to cut debris from a fish trap. In February, a Fish and Wildlife employee was hospitalized after being exposed to an unspecified disease spread by wildlife, according to Hultberg's letter. Department of Labor and Industries investigations into the first three incidents have led to citations and more than $231,000 in fines. 'WDFW management is failing its employees at the most fundamental level, and our members are literally paying for that failure with their lives,' the union's letter says. Hultberg said by phone on Friday that she's led the union since October 2023 and that she contacted commissioners after the two drowning accidents. 'Tim Ragen was one of a handful of commissioners that reached back out and wanted to hear what the issues were,' she said. Asked to comment on the concerns raised in the letter, the Department of Fish and Wildlife said in an emailed statement on Friday that over the past 18 months, it had 'implemented holistic safety improvements in reporting, training, and expertise' and is adding new safety staff. The statement went on to outline a list of specific measures, including distributing 'updated and work-specific individual first aid kits' to all field staff, updating agency policy to state that every employee conducting fieldwork has their own device for emergency communications, and requiring basic training for all motorboat operators. Hultberg acknowledged training and safety efforts by the department but said progress in key areas has been slow and uneven across the agency and that more needs to be done. The governor's office is reviewing the union's letter, Ferguson's communications director, Brionna Aho, said in an email on Friday. 'Governor Ferguson takes worker safety very seriously. We will pursue any actions that will ensure all employees have a safe workplace, and that complaints are taken seriously,' Aho added. She said the governor's office had interviewed all 14 applicants, including Ragen and O'Connor and that the new appointments are due April 7. Aho said that Ferguson decided to reevaluate Inslee's appointments in light of concerns raised in a highly critical report the William D. Ruckelshaus Center released in December. In his request to the Senate, the governor cited 'multiple letters, emails and other correspondence from individuals, tribes and other entities expressing a desire for a more extensive process for these appointments.' The Ruckelshaus Center report included findings from more than 100 interviews with people familiar with the agency and its issues. 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. Nine members sit on the commission, each appointed by the governor to a six-year term. When Ragen was appointed in 2022 he replaced a commissioner who'd served a partial term. Hultberg said Friday she had not yet heard back from the governor's office.
