The Sportsmen’s Alliance, a national organization headquartered in Ohio, has filed a motion for summary judgment in its ongoing legal battle over public records with the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife.
The Alliance says it waited more than a year for the agency to provide documents related to several policy decisions made by the Fish & Wildlife Commission including the cancellation of Washington’s traditional spring black bear hunt. According to a news release, the organization “issued a records request in September of 2023, asking WDFW for communication records between commissioners and others on spring bear hunting and a host of other policy issues the commission was considering.”
The lawsuit was filed in January of this year.
Todd Adkins, senior vice president for the Alliance, asserted the records obtained by the group show “corruption on steroids.”
The Alliance has obtained more than 40,000 records as a result of its lawsuit. A hearing is scheduled Aug. 1 in Thurston County court.
Back on May 16, the Alliance petitioned Gov. Bob Ferguson, asking that he remove four members of the Fish & Wildlife Commission: Barbara Baker, Lorna Smith, Melanie Rowland, and John Lehmkuhl. All were appointed by former Gov. Jay Inslee.
Among the records produced by the WDFW were copies of email exchanges in which the authors asked that text messages be deleted, which allegedly violates the law.
“Not only are these actions unfitting of a commissioner – they are illegal This supplement to our original petition was necessary to fully inform Gov. Ferguson of the depth of this wrongdoing,” Adm Not only are these actions unfitting of a commissioner – they are illegal This supplement to our original petition was necessary to fully inform Gov. Ferguson of the depth of this wrongdoing,” Adkins asserted in a press release.
The Alliance has been releasing much of the information it obtained through the Public Records Act request, resulting in what Northwest Sportsman magazine called a “fiery” meeting of the Commission, attended by angry hunters and anglers.
Washington sportsmen have been at odds with the wildlife agency for decades over fish and game management. In the early 1980s, a group called the Sportsmen’s Rights Coalition staged protests on the Capitol steps, drawing more than 2,000 sportsmen and women, many who brought hunting dogs. This was before efforts were mounted to reintroduce gray wolves and grizzly bears to the Evergreen State.
Over the years, what was originally the Department of Game has taken a greater interest in non-game species. The agency seemed to change its mission in the mid-1980s when it was transformed into the Department of Fish and Wildlife, combining the Game Department with the former Department of Fisheries, which focused on salmon and other saltwater species, and commercial fishing.
Sportsmen often complained about what appeared to be shrinking focus on managing game for consumptive use, including big and small game, upland birds and waterfowl.
