Ok people,
Here it is, I don't know if any of you understand the grave situation we are in as sportsman with the WDFW and there lack of enforcement/ Information officers to properly serve us as sportsman and to protect the resources that we all love. After many conversations and observations I can clearly see that the higher ups in the WDFW and Enforcement do not have a clue on how to run, train, educate and staff the personel that they are putting out in the field to help us out and protect our resource. In a nutshell they are trying to run there enforcement officers like a police organization which it is not. They are suppossed to be resource officers, people who have a passion for fishing and hunting and want to protect the resource that it here for the next generation as well. Yes they are suppose to right tickets to offenders and educate those who have mistakenly done wrong. But they are not suppossed to be out looking for dope grows and pulling over speeders and such.
Also I don't know if you have noticed but we live in a very diverse state. We have every ethinic group that there is out recreating and enjoying the outdoors. Do you know that we have no Black officers, no Asian Officers, no middle eastern officers, no Indian officers and only 1 hispanic officer!! If you go to any average size police dept. in this state you will see officers of every race and of both genders. WDFW has ZERO diversity which makes them look like a bunch of redneck, white supremisist officers. This needs to change, especially being that you have a large number of Asian and african american sportsman.

It is time that we as sportsman ask the questions and take this to the commission and legislature and start the wheels of change. If we don't do something now we will lose the right to our resource. We need to form a group or a colalition to present the issues at hand to the commission and legislature to get the wheels of change moving and to hire a new batch of officers to compliment the under staffed group we have now and to add some diversity to the group to properly serve the diverse population of sportsman out there.

I know to some of you this sounds strange coming from me with my somewhat colorful past, but I do care about the resource and the people who protect it so lets stand up and take notice and help ourselves out.

Peace
Fly

I'm no expert on WDFW enforcement policies, but it seems like the one thing we could do to improve enforcement would be to allow the department to keep some portion of the revenue generated by citations and use it to hire/train/pay enforcement officers.

I realize that creates some dangerous incentives (like the podunk town speed trap used to keep the local town solvent), but it would probably be better than the lax enforcement we have now.

My two cents.

Superfly, I couldn't agree more. There really needs to be a whole shift in attitude and "in field" operating procedures of the WDFW. They should work in COOPERATION with sportsmen and use the general public as a resource, seeing as how the WDFW and the general public should be working towards the same goal.

One caution here, and that is "Diversity for the sake of Diversity" is just some more PC Crap. And we are now Full Up on PC Crap. I would be all for retaining Ticket Revenue in a Restricted Fund account, Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut this Department has already shown it's total and flagerant disregard for Restricted Fund useage, i.e., the Crab Catch Record Card & Puget Soud Blackmouth Restricted useage accounts. And the State Auditor Sonntag, the supposedly Watch Dawg of these Restricted Accounts has Hid his BallZ quite Well in ferreting out misuse and abuse. Here's an idea, how about a Sales Tax on all Things/Transactions that are Tribal Casino's to fund WDFW LE?????? Wouldn't that be "Special" in light of the Hood Canal Fiasco.

The bottom Line on this idea is that we Voting Dummies keep voting for the same 's in Power, and like dummies, expect different results. That is the classic definition of Insanity.

Rant Off, I feel sooooooooooo much better

Some good thoughts Fly, but I'm afraid that with State revenues tanking, the next round of state budget cuts will likely reduce the number of WDFW enforcement agents even more. We may need to advocate another license fee hike just to keep the LEOs we have now.

Sg

:

And I thought reverse discrimination had been made illegal in this State!

Anyway, what we should be looking for is the BEST candidate for the job. Period. Final.

If you want more minority officers then one positive approach is to advertise the openings with emphasis on those minority communities. Might I suggest that part of the problem is that those prospective employees find better LEO jobs than what WDFW can offer (and that those WASPS filling the jobs are more into the career field because of their love of the outdoors than the money).

Even Edmonton Alberta was in Seattle at a recent job fair seeking candidates for LEO. Funny thing was that the media reported several prospective candidates had come in thinking the openings were in Edmonds. Yea, hire those guys, eh!

There may be a couple of experienced ex-S'Klallam officers looking for jobs soon.

The dept. is already down 100 officers from just a few years ago, we and the resource cannot afford any more cuts. Also they need to Remove the "POLICE" from there uniforms, these guys are suppossed to be "GAME WARDENS" not city Police.
So.....When you have a few hundred asians fishing the duwamish waterway who is going to get more answers and more respect? a warden who is of asian decent and speaks the language or a whiteboy who looks like robo cop? pretty clear to me that the department enforcement division needs a house cleaning from the top down and that is first to remove the former state patrolman who is running the enforcement division and needs to retire since he has 37 years in and is most likely so out of touch with reality that he cannot see the forest from thew trees.

That is where we start.

Peace
Fly

Look, I respect the Enforcement folks at DFW as a whole.

Give Management at WDFW the static. You know where it ends is a result of where Management starts...

Jesus left us with a future. We sleep now with the fire 'cause Management was allowed to provide for the industrial, commercial take.

This mindset at DFW needs to change. The boots on the ground are not the problem IMHO. Staff at Harvest, at any cost, Management leave us fishing out of escapement.
In the military I trusted my life to my fellow team members. I would trust the Enforcement folks. Can't say the same thing for the Harvest Management.

No comment @ this time.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

The only thing left to do is get involved and encourage others to get involved. Develop an army and we will win...If you want change involve yourself, involve the ones around you.

Gotta agree with Fly here, tho I can only imagine he's posting this cause he doesn't know any insults (yet) in Russian or Vietnamese.

Even city cops know that the best way to gain trust/cooperation is to have someone who speaks the language. Don't necessarily need to hire ethnic minorities, but they do need to start hiring/training for the ability to communicate in a second language.

I tried to explain to a couple asian clam-diggers I ran into near Point No Point that the season wasn't open a couple years ago. They looked at me, then at each other, mumbled a bit and went right back to digging.

Another issue is one of outreach. A WDFW rep needs to be meeting the minority user groups to communicate proper use of our outdoor resources. WDFW pamplets are printed in English - a few handed out in other languages would be a good start.

Since all these changes are dependant on money, I doubt much will happen in the near future. But the direction can be established right now if we're able to get our point across.

.02,

Brian

I hear you.

I've been jacked around, even had one of my passengers knocked down to the floor in MA13. Gotta love the gal that shouts to keep your arms up as one lands a fish. I pass my CWP along with my punch card and license. Then I'm asked if I'm armed?
Perhaps I ,surprised, ran into her as she was scoping anglers at the S hole on the Satsop the year before.
Quite fitting description, location and attitude.

It's not fair to paint the whole group to the mess the former Director left as he went away.

Ok Fly, what prompted this?

I wanna hear the story(s).

The last few interactions I've had with WDFW enforcement has been Brian out in the OP. Class Act officer and sure as heck hope the rest are like him.

I did see a young "go getter" type out in Forks last year that liked to bark a lot - and snapped a little bit at Stam. Heard he barked at a few guides, but I think he's moved on to "bigger and better" things.

I've gotten WDFW's employment opportunities emailed to me for years now and the only people they are hiring have nothing to do with field work. Today's openings are for: Fiscal tech, Regional Director (ok, maybe), Management Analyist and Customer Service Specialist. Why the hell can't we get more people out in the field, whether it be bios, techs, enforcement, etc? I guess that is kind of a retorical question. Seems like there are plenty of tribal folks in the field. Maybe we need some state run casinos...

Alexander's always been a pretty good guy to deal with.

I'll admit that I had to check the calendar to make sure this wasn't April 1st, though.

So we wave our public resource goodbye?

In favor of Commercial, industrial impacts offshore?

No doubt a very, very complex issue. The rabbit hole is deep and the deeper you look, the farther it goes. I don't have experience with how things like budgets and staffing go on a state level, but I am learning a bit about that whole process in the federal system. Through my work,I interact with folks from a few different agencies from time to time.

As has been said, all of this "it would be great if" or "why don't they" stuff seems to come down to a case of the right people in the right place. I have a simple mind and so it is helpful for me to boil complex issues down to simple concepts. The WDFW has many challenges laid out before it, no question. Most great things don't come without a fight and without toil. The right people don't offer excuses, they offer solutions. They don't throw up their hands in despair and give up, they keep working and eventually succeed.

Effecting change in a multi-layered, multi-faceted beaurocratic machine like most State and Fed run organizations has to start at or near the top. Change chan't usually take place quickly in these beasts either. Even with the right people in positions of power, it can be years, even decades before the fruits of labor are seen, if they ever are.

With smaller budgets, less money, less manpower, the WDFW will certainly have it's work cut out if anyone there really cares about and hopes to achieve their stated mission. Even with the right person calling the shots, it is likely not possible in their current state. Things like budgets, staffing levels, resources, levels and types of training, diversity in the workforce, etc. all come about (or should) in support of the greater mission, the big picture. With a leadership team in place that not only understands the broad scope, but more importanly how to get there, it is possible.

Budgets can be fought for, policies can be changed, training and job descriptions can be improved. But not easily.

I listened to a talk given by the superintendent of a prominent national park earlier this year. When questioned about how he was going to handle a particular issue with one group of user withing the Park he responded by saying "our responsibility includes the visitors, but first and foremost it is to the resource." That is to say he understood the mission of the Park Service, that these lands were set aside for the people, but more importantly they were set aside to preserve their natural state. He went on to provide a well thought out solution that catered to the majority of the group of users, leaving the folks at either end of the spectrum a little restless, but the majority was pleased. No matter how hard you try, you will never please the world.

Balancing the concepts of "user enjoyment" and "resource conservation" is like trying to find the perfect mix of oil and water. Personally, I, as a user, wouldn't mind if folks like the WDFW put more emphasis in the resource.

To me the department is spread to thin.

The region 5 game department seems to do a great job with the short staff they have down here. We could certainly use a few more officers in the field....

Keith

I'd be happy to see more enforcement out in the field.

The buget cuts, lack of filling vacant positions, do not clear what could have been.