The Ohio-based Sportsmen’s Alliance has upped its effort to have four members of the Washington Fish & Wildlife Commission removed from their positions by Gov. Bob Ferguson by filing supplemental evidence last week to reinforce its petition to the governor in May requesting the commission removals.
According to this new document, there are allegations of malfeasance because some commissioners destroyed certain communications, amounting to destruction of public records in violation of state law.
“Unfortunately,” the document says, “Commissioners appear to have destroyed, concealed, or erased – or conspired to do so – communications relating to official Commission business.”
The Seattle Times is reporting that questions from the newspaper to the Commission were referred to the Governor’s office.
As reported earlier by TGM, the Sportsmen’s Alliance has been in a battle with commission members for allegedly colluding with animal rights extremist groups, apparently to curtail hunting opportunities in the state. The group’s complaints focus on Commissioners Barbara Baker, Lorna Smith, Melanie Rowland, and John Lehmkuhl.
The supplemental information delivered to Ferguson’s office includes copies of heavily redacted emails between commission members regarding various subjects. There are indications some emails had been deleted, which the Times notes in its coverage, must be retailed under the state’s Public Records Act.
At the heart of this controversy are allegations that the four named commissioners have worked to limit, rather than provide, opportunities to Evergreen State hunters. In an Alliance news release published by The Outdoor Wire on Monday, the group states, “The supplement provides new evidence of corruption and bad practices of the commission, highlighting the apparent destruction or erasure – or the intent to do so – of public records in violation of Washington law.”
“Unbelievably, we keep uncovering more and more corruption. This time, we found undeniable evidence that commissioners have, or intended to, destroyed or deleted substantive public records,” said Dr. Todd Adkins, Senior Vice President at the Sportsmen’s Alliance, in the news release. “Not only are these actions unfitting of a commissioner – they are illegal This supplement to our original petition was necessary to fully inform Gov. Ferguson of the depth of this wrongdoing.”
Washington hunters have long complained about shrinking hunting opportunities in a state with millions of acres of public land. Former Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat and gun control proponent, appointed all four commission members to their positions.
The situation apparently reached its crescendo when the commission, despite evidence from biologists on black bear populations in the state, voted to at first suspend the traditional spring bear hunt and then to not approve future spring bear hunting. According to an Alliance news release, “The Sportsmen’s Alliance has closely followed the Fish and Wildlife Commission since before the November 2021 vote that ended spring bear hunting that season, and the subsequent vote in November 2022 that ended it permanently in the state. Every move in the state has been noted, including interference from former Gov. Jay Inslee, and has led to exposing the commission’s communications, which the Sportsmen’s Alliance will continue to comb through in its search for the truth.”
A spokesperson for Gov. Ferguson told the Seattle Times the information delivered by the Alliance is being reviewed.
The Alliance has been posting many of the documents it obtained through a Public Records Act request. The revelations have fired up many sportsmen and women in the state.
The Lewiston Tribune quoted the Alliance’s Adkins, who asserted, “Unbelievably, we keep uncovering more and more corruption. This time, we found undeniable evidence that commissioners have, or intended to, destroyed or deleted substantive public records.”
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