Wildlife for All commends Governor Jay Inslee for appointing three qualified Commissioners with substantial professional expertise in wildlife science and policy to the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission. The Commission sets wildlife policy for the state.
Members of the Washington State Senate introduced several bills that would make changes to how and who selects the members who serve on the state Fish and Wildlife Commission. One bill would give authority to the Legislature to fill empty commission seats if the Gov doesn’t act within 12 months. The other bill would take away the power of the fish and wildlife commission to hire the Department director and give it to the elected State Lands Commissioner. It would also take away the power of the governor to appoint commissioners, and give it to the State Lands commissioner.
Less than half of New Mexico’s native fish species are protected by law, yet the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish wants to introduce another nonnative fish species into the state. A department spokesperson could not point to any conservation benefits when questioned about the introduction of this species.
Wildlife for All’s Executive Director Kevin Bixby and Donna Stevens of the Upper Gila Watershed Alliance recently had an in-depth conversation about the status of wildlife protection in New Mexico.
The Species in Peril project at the University of New Mexico (UNM) is a public service initiative. The project was founded in April 2020 to foster conversations, creative production, public scholarship, and grassroots initiatives to bring attention to the intensifying crisis of biological annihilation, which includes human-caused species extinctions, mass die-offs and massacres. In their most recent newsletter they gave Wildlife for All a shoutout.
By Eli Francovich. The Spokesman-Review.
This article highlights an important example of a wildlife commission following the will of the public. Due to an unfilled commission seat, the vote ended in a 4-4 tie putting the controversial bear hunt on hold. The commissioners that voted against the hunt questioned WDFW’s population data and cited public opinion as a main reason for their vote.
By Carol Shaye. Reno News & Review.
The article discusses the Nevada Board of Wildlife Commissioners 5-4 vote against banning coyote-killing contests. However, as the article mentions, at least one Nevada lawmaker has vowed to bring the issue to the Nevada Legislature if the wildlife board failed to impose a ban. Changing the composition of the commission is also something legislators may consider.
By Michael Doyle. Greenwire.
This story is noteworthy because indigenous activists are forthrightly declaring wolf management by the states to be a “social justice” issue. We couldn’t agree more.
By Nancy MacDonald. Originally published in The Globe and Mail.
Although this story is about events in Canada, it illustrates how provincial wildlife management, like its counterpart in state wildlife management in the U.S., is driven by an ethos of domination (often leading to the death of wildlife) rather than coexistence, a predictable result perhaps of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation’s view of wild animals as soulless resources.
By Hannah Grover. Originally published in The New Mexico Political Report.
A newly launched initiative seeks to reform wildlife management not only in New Mexico, but across the nation.
By Henry Redman. Reprinted by permission.
This article from the Wisconsin Examiner illustrates how wildlife issues are about much more than wildlife. They are about values, identities and power, and ultimately about who gets to decide what our relationship with non-human nature and the planet will be.
By Michelle Lute. Originally published in Earth Island Journal.
Wisconsin’s war on wolves is a war on its people, particularly the disenfranchised voices that speak up for a moral, just life. But their voices will not be silenced.
By Cody Atkinson. Originally published in the Missouri Independent
With its trophy hunt on black bears in the state set to begin in a few days, the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) has taken a reckless and irresponsible turn. A turn against science. A turn against ecology. A turn against public values.
Like many wildlife agencies around the country, and driven by its governor-appointed commission, the MDC is trapped in a century-old mindset, one that assumes we must kill bears to conserve them.
By Patrick Donnelly. This piece originally appeared in the Nevada Independent
Nevada’s Board of Wildlife Commissioners is intentionally designed to protect the entrenched interests of people who shoot wildlife. By promoting policies exclusively designed to improve opportunity for hunters, they have perpetuated an unjust system which benefits a small number of Nevadans.
(LAS CRUCES, NM) Today the Southwest Environmental Center announced that it is launching Wildlife for All, a national campaign to reform state wildlife management to be more ecological-driven, democratic and compassionate.
“This is the culmination of our three decades of advocacy for wildlife,” said Kevin Bixby, executive director. “Wildlife management in every state is stuck in the past, a legacy of when wild animals were viewed as inanimate resources, without consideration of their importance in natural ecosystems or intrinsic worth. It’s time to align our conservation efforts with modern ecological knowledge and changing public attitudes. We can’t stave off the Sixth Extinction crisis without this kind of systemic change.”
