It’s becoming very apparent that the “dirt” in the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife runs much deeper and darker than we first thought.  

When we first started this campaign, we thought having the Tribal/WDFW North of Falcon Meetings broadcast on live CCTV would be the right way to transparency.  Boy, were we naive.

We’ve always asked, “Why are they fighting so hard to keep these meetings secret?”  “What are they hiding?”

Well, as the years of dis-information, double speak and dog and pony shows have gone on, some very interesting information has started to come to light.

With the Twin Harbors Fish and Wildlife Advocacy’s intervention, and resulting lawsuit, the doors have started to be cracked open.  However, WDFW Leadership is doing everything they can to HOLD THEM SHUT!

The Advocacy just announced that they have filed yet another lawsuit against WDFW. This time for violations of the Public Records Act.

You see. In their smoke and mirrors game, WDFW has long held that the public has full access to the records that explain how and why they made the decisions for the List of Approved Fisheries. (LOAF). They make the deals, publish the list and then say: “The record of the rule making file is available for public review.” This tactic has allowed them to skirt the law, since they claim we can all comment on the LOAF once we read the file and before it's completed.

SO, HERE’S THEIR PROBLEM!  THERE IS NO RULES MAKING FILE FOR THE PUBLIC TO REVIEW!!   LET ME REPEAT, THERE IS NO WAY WE CAN SEE HOW THE DECISIONS WERE MADE SO HOW CAN WE COMMENT ON THEM? 

FOR YEARS NOW, THE ENTIRE NORTH OF FALCON HAS BEEN A SHAM!  THEY PUT TOGETHER “PUBLIC MEETINGS” AND PUSH ADVISORY GROUPS ON US, AND ALL THE WHILE THEY ARE MAKING THE DEALS AND TO HELL WITH PUBLIC OVERSIGHT!

Well thanks to the Advocacy’s lawsuits, the dirt is about to become public.

Here is the Advocacy’s latest update, which was just published:

—————June 30, 2019  Update #5-

Advocacy files a second suit challenging WDFW's secretive season setting processes.

The Advocacy has filed a second suit in Thurston County court in its ongoing legal battle with WDFW over its secretive salmon season setting processes.  This time the issue is over the Department's performance related to the Public Records Act. This action rose out of WDFW's refusal to maintain a rule making file available for view by the public as required by state law.  When the Advocacy notified the Department a team would becoming to view the file for the season set in 2018 and the process underway in 2019,  WDFW took the remarkable step of claiming the Advocacy or other members of the public had to file a Public Document Request (PDR) to view the rule making files (see June 3, 2019 Update #3- below).

In the latest filing, the Advocacy notes for the court that it had already taken that route by filing a PDR request three years ago for the records of the "List of Agreed Fisheries" (LOAF) adopted behind closed doors in 2016.  Three years later, the request is still open and the Advocacy is still receiving a monthly trickle of records (mostly irrelevant) that were created and known to the Department years ago.  Accordingly, the second suit alleges WDFW intentionally and purposefully delayed delivery of some records and refused to disclose other requested records. 

The Advocacy believes this second suit will prove a valuable tool to educate the court on why the public can not wait three years for WDFW to process a PDR to access information for participation in the North of Falcon season setting process when the comment period set by WDFW is due to expire in three months.  We also believe the combination of the suits will show all that WDFW is setting salmon seasons in a manner that is contrary to the Open Public Meeting Act (OPMA), Administrative Procedures Act (APA), and the Public Records Act (PRA).    

The latest suit is available for viewing HERE

--------end of update-----

The THFWA is not going to let go of this. They are going to turn every last rock over until everything is exposed to the light of day, and we the Citizen Sportsmen can finally see first hand all the dirty deeds that have been going on.

They need our help to keep this fight going.  Make a donation, make another if you already have.  The State is using our tax dollars to fight us, let's not let them win because we ran out of money.

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