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June 29, 2000
Dear Dr. Koenings: I recently sent a letter to Gerry Jackson, director of the Western Washington office of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, thanking his agency and especially Doug Zimmer for the successful "Living with Carnivores" workshops that were recently completed. Several of your staff were key participants in this effort. The workshops were designed to provide citizens who live, work or recreate in carnivore country with information about the behavior and biology of Washington's five major carnivores along with tips on how to minimize conflict and increase safety. From all responses of workshop attendees, the information that they obtained was highly valued. Please extend my thanks to Harriet Allen in your Wildlife Program and Margaret Ainscough in Public Affairs for their help in planning and organizing the workshops. Donny Martorello presented the WDFW cougar slide show at three of the events and did an excellent job. Scott Fitkin filled in for Donny at the Winthrop workshop and did admirably on such short notice. Several members of your Enforcement Program were able to make events in their areas. Their contributions on responding to specific questions from local citizens were excellent. As mentioned in my letter to Mr. Jackson, the workshops are a popular success and we are getting requests for presentations in other communities next year. This is an excellent public outreach effort and I hope you and your managers appreciate how valuable it is for good public relations and benefit to Washington citizens. I encourage you to support this program as it looks to improve an a remarkable beginning. I look forward to working further with your staff on this. Sincerely yours,
G. A. Ring Erickson, Ph.D.
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