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Will we still be able to fish in 2026 and beyond? ACTION REQUIRED
3K views
Feb 5, 2025
This topic couldn't be more serious. Our entire lifestyle of consumptive engagement (hunting, fishing, etc) with Washington wildlife is at risk. The entire conservation and wildlife management in place for the last century that has been hugely successful depends on us, hunters and anglers, our license fees, and advocacy for stewardship and conservation. All that could change! This video attempts to explain what's going on and asks you to follow the Howl for Wildlife links below to contact your representative in the State of Washington to let your voice be heard. https://www.howlforwildlife.org/holdwfwcommissionaccountable https://www.howlforwildlife.org/nolameducks It should take less than a minute to send off your note to your representative! This is not a drill! The groups advocating to change the way all wildlife is managed are nearing their objective. We still have a chance, but we need to take action today before it's too late!
View Video Transcript
0:00
Loop so the bottom Lo ride you're
0:04
ride 2025 is shaping up to be an
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incredible Year we're a month away
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probably from getting new salmon
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forecasts for the Puget Sound and the
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coast what what if we lost all of this
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what if we lost these opportunities what
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if we started losing opportunities in
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2026 and 20127 in 2028 what am I talking
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about you know if you're on my channel I
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don't sound like this I don't raise the
0:31
alarm on stuff like this I don't talk in
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hyperbole usually I I joke around but
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I'm not you've never heard this you've
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never heard this from me maybe I'll lose
0:41
some subscribers over this I don't know
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this this is not a drill this is not
0:46
hyperbole you might not know this but
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Washington state has become the
0:50
Battleground for a different
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conservation and Wildlife Management
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approach there are groups that want to
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move us away from a consumptive
1:00
based approach to conservation and
1:02
Wildlife Management what what is a
1:04
consumptive based approach what am I
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talking about what I'm saying is you as
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the angler Hunter your license fees your
1:12
guns and ammo purchase all this money we
1:14
spend on enjoying the outdoors right
1:17
participating and hunting and fishing
1:19
and consuming the resource right um
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bringing home that Fresh Catch of salmon
1:25
to eat um that that deer uh whatever
1:28
right like that that's that that
1:30
consumptive model that it depends on us
1:32
going out and being part of the
1:35
ecosystem Predator management right all
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of these different things the the
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there's a proposed move uh away from
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that and I shouldn't say proposed
1:45
because it's it's it's really a lot more
1:47
forceful than that the groups that are
1:49
behind it are actively trying to move
1:53
the needle and move the process so that
1:55
Wildlife Wildlife Conservation
1:57
management moves away from requiring
2:00
consumptive use there is right now in
2:02
the Washington legislative session uh an
2:05
initiative going forward to evaluate to
2:07
do what to do with the wdfw commission
2:09
why what does that matter what does that
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have to do with all this well the
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commission is a nine member panel that
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basically sets the policy and oversees
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the work of the Department of Fish and
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Wildlife right have you ever realized
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something like far too late in the
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process where you realize man if I had
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just been if I had just been aware a few
2:28
years ago I could have done something
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about I could have I could have made a
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difference maybe I wouldn't have changed
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the outcome but I would have wanted to
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try that that moment is right now um we
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can put our head in the sand and wake up
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a few years from now and go wow uh why
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why didn't why didn't we have this
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opportunity why didn't this River open
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why aren't we fishing in pet s or you
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could we could get on the horn right now
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and have H have a say and have an
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influence in the process and I promise
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you the thing you can do the thing you
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need to do will take a minute or less of
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your your time so just stick with me as
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I go through and explain what's going on
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it's going to just take a couple minutes
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and then what you have to do what you
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need to do what what we're asking you to
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do is very uh it's very simple and very
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won't take much of your time at all look
3:14
and most of the angling Community is in
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the dark on this it's been a it's been
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an issue that uh The Hunting Community
3:20
the Predator management Community has
3:22
been primarily dealing with because
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that's who's been in the crosshairs of
3:27
these groups right but that's only the
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beginning that's the that's uh uh and
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I'm not just using a slippery slope
3:33
fallacy here the the the stated
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intention of these groups is to move
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away from the consumptive conservation
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model that has been wildly successful
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for the last century in North America
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and moved to something that has really
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not been tested at scale uh anywhere and
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does not depend on you hunting or
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fishing or paying any money into the
3:53
system for it to work that that's what's
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on the table all right so let's get into
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the meat of this very recently an
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independ study was chartered um to to to
4:04
to examine the way the commission worked
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and to come up with options of what to
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do about it going forward this is called
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this is the ruckles house report that
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the legislative session is is evaluating
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and there's essentially three options
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that have come out of that I'll call uh
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I'll call my option number one is reform
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the commission improve it introduce
4:25
accountability make sure that the
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commission members in the appointment
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process follows the rule of law and and
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includes the stakeholders Hunting
4:34
Fishing Community the the the tribal um
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co-managers right uh all of the
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constituency that care about about
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Washington wildlife and conservation
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right uh that's not happening right now
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that's Option One reform reform the
4:49
commission option two status quo leave
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let it be it's working fine let let it
4:57
be what it is no one wants this I think
4:59
although even this is probably still
5:02
better than option three which is
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abolish the commission and move the
5:07
function to a single appointee in the
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cabinet of the governor this is what
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this is what those groups really want
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because they believe they can influence
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that single appointee and get everything
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they want without much trouble uh that
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they have to go through now working with
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a nine member panel so they can get
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exactly what they want they can make all
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the reforms and radically change wfw
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your hunting and fishing rights and the
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entire way that Wildlife is managed uh
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and test it out and prove it out um and
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then and then probably work on other
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states as well to follow that model so
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this is this is huge this is absolutely
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huge you think you lost hunting and
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fishing opportunities in The Last 5
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Years you know we stick our head in the
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sand watch in the next the next five
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years will be
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unprecedented will absolutely blow us
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away and you know I'm sick to my stomach
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thinking about what could possibly
6:07
happen here but we have we can actually
6:10
do something about it now we can contact
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our local representatives and we can let
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them know that we want the commission to
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be reformed we want all the stakeholders
6:19
and all the interested parties involved
6:20
we want to remove politics from the
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science of conservation and Wildlife
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Management we want to continue with the
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model that has shown itself to be wildly
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successful for the last century in North
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America and it's the most successful
6:35
model in the world and all you got to do
6:37
is click on the link in the description
6:41
of the video it will take you to H for
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wildlife which is an incredible group
6:46
that helps put us just the the common
6:49
Hunter angler uh interested citizen out
6:52
there in contact with the correct
6:54
representative and helps you draft a
6:56
message in a very short amount of time
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again if if it takes you longer than a
7:00
minute I'll be surprised and send it off
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and I've already done that I already got
7:05
a reply back from my representative
7:07
thanking me for reaching out okay this
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this is it's so easy to do it's vitally
7:13
important and most most of the angling
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Community does not know what's going on
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and and that's that's a big problem we
7:22
got to get the word out so another thing
7:23
you can do in addition to following the
7:26
link to to how for wildlife and and and
7:30
filling out filling it out so that that
7:31
your representative is contacted like
7:34
this video and drop a comment in saying
7:36
I I I followed it I did it engage with
7:39
engage with the video in some way
7:40
because that will increase its reach so
7:43
more people will see this really
7:45
important message if there was any time
7:49
for us to Rally together and advocate
7:52
for lifestyle of consumptive use of
7:56
resources you know you know where you
7:58
know where I'm at this with this with
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this whole p&w best life thing
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conservation is my number one thing and
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I believe in the stewardship model of
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conservation that includes consumptive
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use as part of that and if there was
8:13
ever a time to step up to the plate and
8:15
Tak an action it's now it's really easy
8:19
it's really simple let's see if we can
8:20
make a difference
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