Gearing
Up for 2006-08 Hunting Season Regulation Cycle
The Department
is already gearing up to develop the 2006-08 hunting season
regulations. We recently completed a survey asking the public
what they think should be changed. We did that by listing
the issues we’ve heard during the past few years and
by working with the Game Management Advisory Council (GMAC).
The GMAC is a citizen panel of hunters, landowners, and conservation
organizations that provides advice to the department on game
management issues. We received over 2000 responses from the
survey that ranked the list of issues and provided comments
and recommendations for additional issues.
We are
sorting through the priority issues and developing options
to address them. The options will be available for public
review and comment next month. We will take the public comment
on the options and refine those down to two or three alternatives.
The alternatives will be available for comment in January.
We will also conduct public meetings in Vancouver on January
17th; Aberdeen on the 18th; Tacoma on the 19th; Edmonds on
the 20th; Wenatchee on the 24th; Pasco on the 25th; and Spokane
on the 26th.
All of
that input will be used to develop recommendations on the
hunting season package. The recommendations will be submitted
to the Fish and Wildlife Commission for action at their April
meeting. The public will be encouraged to comment on those
recommendations in March and/or at the meeting in April.
So there
is lots of opportunity coming your way to get involved in
hunting season regulations for 2006-08. The best way to track
the whole process is via the department’s Web page at
www.wdfw.wa.gov under the hunting section. You can also get
on our mailing list by calling the Wildlife Program at (360)
902-2515.
Many of
the articles in this edition of Game Trails provide a review
of the impacts from changes made during the last few years.
These impacts may result in recommendations for changes in
the 2006-08 cycle as well.
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