By John Kruse
EDITOR’S NOTE: Please note that the commissioners who are not buying fishing and hunting licenses (to finance our wildlife, regardless if they use the tags) are the same commissioners who believe those of us who do buy licenses, (which support wildlife, fish and the agency) should pay an additional 15% in license fees next year.
One would reason most of the volunteers appointed to Washington State’s Fish and Wildlife Commission by Governor Jay Inslee would be interested in hunting and fishing and enjoy those pursuits in their free time. That’s not the case though.
John Kruse, host and producer of Northwestern Outdoors Radio and America Outdoors Radio, filed a public disclosure request with the State of Washington and obtained records relating to who purchased fishing and hunting licenses in Washington State in 2017. Kruse then checked to see if the eight members of the Fish and Wildlife Commission purchased either a fishing or hunting license that year and he followed up by confirming the results with the commissioners.
Of the eight commissioners, only one, Don McIsaac, purchased a hunting license in 2017. McIsaac was also only one of three commissioners who purchased a fishing license last year (the other two purchasing angling licenses were the Commission Chair, Brad Smith and Commissioner Dave Graybill).
Larry Carpenter, a commissioner known to advocate for the interests of sports anglers, did comment that he has been a hunter and fisherman for 70 years but he has not purchased licenses the last two years because of medical issues that have prevented him from enjoying these activities. Four other commissioners, Robert Kehoe, Barbara Baker, Jay Holzmiller and Kim Thorburn, do not appear to be hunters or recreational anglers based on this license purchasing review and the biographies published about them on the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Commission Web Page.
In summary, only two of the eight serving commissioners are hunters and only half are anglers. The rest are not. The Commission establishes policy and provides direction to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife; the agency responsible for managing sustainable fishing and hunting opportunities in the Evergreen State where the numbers of those who hunt and fish have been declining in recent years.
John Kruse
Host and Producer of
NorthwesternOutdoors Radio
www.northwesternoutdoors.com
&
AmericaOutdoors Radio
www.americaoutdoorsradio.com
PO Box 4269
Wenatchee, WA 9880