2017 - Judge rules against Willapa Bay
gillnetters.... AGAIN .... and sides with upholding the WA Fish/Wildlife
Commission's policy!
Here's an article about the original suit filed 2 years ago...
http://www.chinookobserver.com/co/fi...-salmon-policy
Cut/Paste below....
From: Grossmann, Mike (ATG) [MikeG1@ATG.WA.GOV]
Received: May 19, 17:26
To: Unsworth, James W (DFW) [Jim.Unsworth@dfw.wa.gov]
CC: Scott, James B (DFW) [James.Scott@dfw.wa.gov]; Hoffmann, Annette (DFW)
[Annette.Hoffmann@dfw.wa.gov]; Herring, Chad J (DFW) [Chad.Herring@dfw.wa.gov];
Thiesfeld, Steven L (DFW) [Steven.Thiesfeld@dfw.wa.gov]; Mcclellan, Barbara A
(DFW) [Barbara.Mcclellan@dfw.wa.gov]; Lininger, Tami L (DFW)
[Tami.Lininger@dfw.wa.gov]; Frymire, Bill (ATG) [BillF@ATG.WA.GOV]; Shorin III,
Joseph (ATG) [JosephS@ATG.WA.GOV]
Subject: WBGA v. WDFW - Judge Dixon rejects all claims and affirms WDFW's
actions
Jim,
Just a quick heads up on the litigation brought by the Willapa Bay Gillnetters’
Assn. challenging the Willapa Bay Salmon management policy and the 2015
commercial fishery rules. Bill Frymire and I spent the afternoon in Judge
Dixon’s courtroom arguing the merits of their legal challenge. Judge Dixon
agreed with the State’s arguments and dismissed all their claims.
In summary:
1. The claims arguing the WB policy looks too much like a rule and is not
flexible to accommodate new information that might be provided in rule-making
were dismissed on alternate grounds – that we had already litigated this to
success in Pacific County; and that, even if the merits of their arguments are
considered anew, the Commission and WDFW were acting within their statutory
authority to engage in policy and rule-making.
2. The claim WDFW failed to properly consider economic impacts was dismissed on
the grounds that conservation trumps economic considerations; that the agency
worked hard to consider economic issues where they could do so consistent with
conservation; and that general concerns about ways to possibly conduct alternate
economic analysis presented by their expert were not sufficient to displace the
reasoned economic analysis undertaken by the Department.
3. The claim WDFW improperly reduced the harvest rate on Chinook was rejected on
the basis that the Department’s analysis of conservation was thoroughly and
well-reasoned, and thus cannot be characterized as arbitrary and capricious.
4. The claim WDFW improperly used emergency regulations to undertake in-season
management was dismissed on the basis that WDFW’s actions were consistent with
APA requirements on emergency rule-making, were well supported by in-season data
collection and analysis, and were thus both lawful and well-reasoned.
Some of the gillnetters were pretty angry. I expect an appeal, but we will see.
Judge Dixon was well-prepared and outlined his decision-making in a way that
will make success on any appeal a heavy lift for the WB gillnetters.
As always, this was a great team effort. Jim Scott (!!), Chad Herring, and Steve
Thiesfeld were huge amounts of help, and the work we/they did with the
Commission and DFW staff to anticipate each and every possible argument – from
the policy phase to rule formulation - made this case a compelling story of
conservation and responsible agency action that considered all interests and
made tough but well–reasoned decisions. The story was easy to tell and obviously
persuasive to the court.
Tami, please pass along to members of the Commission.
Mike
Michael S. Grossmann
Assistant Attorney General
Fish, Wildlife and Parks Division
P.O. Box 40100
Olympia WA 98504-0100
------------------------------------
For you legal beagles who might be interested in the details of how it all went
down...
http://thfwa.org/legal-issues
Best to read that page backwards... scroll to the bottom and digest it in
sections from the bottom up.... to get the full flavor of how this victory was
achieved.
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+--------------
Major props to Twin Harbors Fish/Wildlife Advocacy for being the original
catalyst for major harvest and hatchery reform in Willapa Bay.
Thanks to THFWA and CCA for joining to intervene in the gillnetters' litigation
against the WFWC policy which has been under relentless attack since its
adoption.
This court decision is another affirmation of the validity of the Willapa Bay
Policy and a victory for conservation.