Agency: 477 - Department of Fish and Wildlife

Perpetuating and managing wildlife, fish and shellfish into the future requires healthy aquatic habitat. Washington’s imperiled salmon and orca populations need healthy habitat to ensure ecosystem support throughout their life. The key reasons the state has seen a decline in wild salmon populations and subsequent orca health is due to habitat quality that has degraded over time. The department strives to preserve aquatic habitat health by protecting habitat from the effects of construction projects through the Hydraulic Project Approval (HPA) work, consulting with businesses, landowners and governments regarding aquatic species impacts, reducing the risk and devastation of oil spills, ensuring enough water remains in waterways to support healthy fish lifecycles, and monitoring and controlling invasive species. The department seeks to restore degraded habitat by improving fish passage through removal of stream barriers and screening of water diversions, developing and implementing plans to recover imperiled species and seeking out grant funding to use towards completing various restoration projects. Furthermore, effectively addressing the dual challenge posed by the changing climate and a rapidly growing human population is fundamental to WDFW’s success in the 21st century in all of these areas. To ensure this success, the department studies and plans for climate impacts on aquatic lands and resulting effects on species. In order to successfully preserve and restore aquatic habitats, the department maintains enforcement presence throughout the state to ensure construction projects near waterways are compliant with HPA permits, inspect vessels for invasive species, perform orca patrols and enforce all statewide rules and regulations that protect aquatic habitats and species.

Perpetuating and managing wildlife, fish and shellfish into the future requires healthy terrestrial habitat. The department strives to preserve terrestrial habitat health by consulting with businesses, landowners and governments regarding terrestrial species and habitat impacts and legalities, partnering with private landowners to implement conservation strategies, permitting and regulating wildlife-related businesses such as taxidermy and rehabilitation centers, and responding to and mitigating wolf conflicts. The department seeks to restore degraded terrestrial habitat and imperiled species by developing and implementing plans to recover and sustain diverse wildlife and seeking out grant funding to use towards completing various habitat restoration projects. Furthermore, effectively addressing the dual challenge posed by the changing climate and a rapidly growing human population is fundamental to WDFW’s success in the 21st century in all of these areas. To ensure this success, the department studies and plans for climate impacts on lands and resulting effects on species. In order to successfully preserve and restore terrestrial habitats, the department maintains enforcement presence throughout the state to respond to incidents such as wolf depredations, ensure compliance of wildlife related businesses such as taxidermists and rehabilitation centers and enforce all statewide rules and regulations that protect terrestrial habitats and species.

WDFW owns and manages over one million acres of land throughout Washington. These lands provide habitat for fish and wildlife, as well as recreational opportunities for the public, such as hunting, fishing and wildlife viewing. WDFW’s land base is strategically developed based on the conservation needs of fish and wildlife, and provides sustainable fishing, hunting, wildlife viewing and other recreational opportunities when compatible with healthy and diverse fish and wildlife populations and their habitats. To effectively and responsibly own and manage public lands, the department maintains and improves the ecological health of its lands, strategically acquires new lands or sells lands that no longer serve the mission, builds and maintains safe, sanitary and ecologically friendly water access sites and ensures public safety through enforcement presence.

WDFW is responsible for the management of Washington commercial and recreational fisheries. Management of these fisheries includes maintaining compliance with complex intersections of tribal treaties, international agreements, case law, federal Endangered Species Act restrictions and monitoring of species health and populations. To manage fisheries, the department monitors and manages populations of both shellfish and fin fish; develops, negotiates and implements fisheries co-management plans; markets and sells fishing licenses; and manages licenses for commercial fishing groups. In order to effectively manage fisheries, the department maintains enforcement presence in commercial marine areas as well as recreational fishing locations for trout and anadromous fish, such as salmon.

WDFW maintains 81 hatcheries, either through direct ownership or management contracted with cities or counties in order to meet their mitigation requirements. These hatcheries produce healthy fish to benefit the citizens of Washington while providing conservation to natural origin salmonids. Production of hatchery fish is critical for the majority of fishing opportunities throughout Washington – trout and anadromous salmon and steelhead fisheries rely on the presence of hatchery fish in our waterways. Additionally, production of salmon, specifically Chinook, is critical to the recovery of southern resident killer whales. Hatchery conservation programs contribute to protecting and preserving natural runs of salmon and steelhead. Hatchery programs also help us meet co-management plans and court ordered directives. The production of hatchery fish also requires facility maintenance of the system of 81 hatcheries owned or managed by the department.

WDFW’s wildlife population monitoring, protection and research help us ensure that wildlife populations will endure and provide future generations the opportunities to enjoy an abundant resource. These hunting opportunities, if protected in perpetuity, will promote a healthy economy; protect community character; maintain an overall high quality of life while delivering high-quality hunting experiences for the human populations we serve. In order to effectively manage hunting opportunities, the department surveys game populations and population trends, as well as health of the populations, sets sustainable hunting seasons, secures hunting access on private lands, provides opportunities for hunter education, responds to game wildlife conflicts and markets and sells hunting licenses. In order to sustainably manage hunting, the department maintains enforcement presence throughout the state to deter and address instances of poaching, ensure hunting safety and make sure that regulations, such as time, place and method of hunts, are upheld and statewide natural resources are protected.

Non-consumptive recreation passively benefits from all work of the department. WDFW promotes the opportunity to actively enjoy those passive benefits by working with local communities to develop and promote wildlife-viewing activities and festivals, providing wildlife web cameras featuring bald eagles, salmon, owls and more on its website, maintaining interpretive signs at select wildlife areas, and producing self-guiding pamphlets and birding trail maps. Additionally, WDFW promotes wildlife festivals, citizen science, bird watching, land-based whale watching, fish-migration viewing, beach combing, target shooting, outdoor learning, outdoor skill building, self-guided outdoor experiences, community-centric resources to interpret local wildlife and fish resources and active lifestyle opportunities that allow the public direct contact with wilderness and wild native places.

An effective agency requires administrative infrastructure that successfully supports the needs of staff who perform work directly in service to the mission. The department’s business management work comprehensively supports the entire agency and meets obligations by providing agency leadership and strategy, communicating with the public and legislature, managing finance and contracts, managing human resources, managing information technology infrastructure, building and maintaining office facilities, maintaining agency records, responding to public safety incidents (obligation to general policing by fully commissioned WDFW officers) and accessing legal counsel from the Office of the Attorney General.