Victory! Gov. Inslee Grants Appeal for Washington’s Wolves

Governor Inslee’s January 12, 2024 order reverses the Washington Fish & Wildlife Commission’s October vote denying our petition to bring accountability, transparency, and clarity to state wolf management. The Commission must now begin a rulemaking process to consider limitations on when the state can use taxpayer money to kill wolves.

Washington Black Bear

Victory! Commission Approves Bear/Cougar Petition

On December 15, 2023, the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission approved our petition to stop the overhunting of state bears and cougars, opening up the rulemaking process to revise the state’s bear and cougar hunting rules. 

View Our Legislative Action Alerts 

We are following several bills in the 2024 legislative session that began on Jan. 8, 2024, including one bill that offers a step forward for beaver management, multiple attacks on state wolves, and a Senate resolution proposing a constitutional amendment creating an “inalienable right” to hunt, fish, and trap. 

A Call for Agency Reform

Washington is home to diverse wildlife, spectacular waterways, and magnificent wild spaces, which the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife holds in trust for all current and future Washingtonians.

The duty to preserve and protect these resources has never been more important than it is now, as we watch the accelerating collapse of healthy ecosystems, experience unprecedented extinction events, and experience the effects of the coming climate catastrophe.

But the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife has betrayed its solemn trust responsibilities. All too often, they prioritize reckless consumption over responsible conservation, sacrifice long-term ecological needs for short-term economic gain, and ignore the will of Washington’s citizens to pander to powerful special interests.

We must demand better.

Why Reform?

Washington Wildlife First

Washington Wildlife First is the only nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife from a model of consumption to an ethic of conservation.

We hold the Department accountable to the law and to people they are bound to serve; reverse their attempts to ignore facts, devalue science, and sideline their scientists; and insist that they value the future of our wildlife over the whims of political expediency.

Washington’s wildlife belongs to us all.

Stand with us as we stand with wildlife, and demand that our state officials do the same.
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