and one more for ya. Kinda a summary of the meeting.
------------------------------------------------Commission decides against Eastern WA gamebird proposal, accepts others
BOB MOTTRAM
The Tacoma News Tribune
April 16, 2003


MOSES LAKE - The state Fish and Wildlife Commission declined to go along Saturday with a Department of Fish and Wildlife proposal to open all upland gamebird hunting in Eastern Washington on the first Saturday in October for the next three years.
That decision came during a two-day meeting that started Friday in Moses Lake at which the commission established a three-year hunting season "framework," effective this year. During the next two years, the commission is expected to make only minor adjustments to the framework.


The commission also established rules for hunting deer, elk, moose, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, black bear, cougar and many smaller species.


The department had proposed a uniform, early-October opener for pheasants and other gamebird species in order to simplify regulations. However, commission members objected to opening pheasant season that early on grounds that many farm fields still would contain unharvested crops and that irrigation still would be under way. Hunters often find pheasants in crop lands in the fall.


The commission voted instead to open Eastern Washington pheasant hunting on Oct. 18, 16 and 15 in 2003, 2004 and 2005, respectively. In Western Washington, where pheasant hunting takes place on Department of Fish and Wildlife release sites, openings will continue to occur in late September.


Hunting for quail will open the first Saturday in October statewide, as will hunting for chukar and Hungarian partridge, which are found only in Eastern Washington.


The commission agreed to continue the extended pheasant season in Western Washington (Dec. 1-15 on six release sites) to give hunters an opportunity to harvest game-farm-reared birds that remain at the close of the regular season. It also decided to prohibit use of lead shot on all pheasant release sites on Whidbey Island.


The commission continued the traditional April 15-May 15 turkey gobbler hunt, and special two-day hunts for youngsters the weekend before the general opener in selected game-management units in each of the next three years.


It voted to increase permit levels for the fall turkey season in northeast Washington to 2,175 from 1,425, with 600 of the new permits to be used in Stevens County.


The commission maintained the status quo for seasons on whitetailed deer in northeastern Washington, in which a hunter may take any buck, but lengthened the modern firearms season for deer in Chelan and Okanogan counties. It decided to allow hunters to purchase a second deer tag in order to shoot an antlerless deer in regions 1 or 4. The department said it needed the change in order to meet its antlerless harvest goals, so hunters wouldn't have to use up a regular tag to take an antlerless animal.


The commission modified the definition of a "three-point" bull elk for those areas in Western Washington in which hunters may not take a bull unless it has at least three points on at least one of its antlers. Managers expect hunters to be able to comply more easily with the new definition.


The department sought - and got - elimination of special elk permits in game-management units 154 (Blue Creek) and 181 (Couse) in the Blue Mountains to compensate for increasing numbers of elk taken there by poachers.


The commission moved back the start of early archery season for elk by six days on both sides of the state from what the department had recommended to try to avoid the early-September period when fire danger often closes industrial timberlands to the public. Early-archery elk hunts each of the next three autumns will run Sept. 8-21.


Beginning this year, hunters will be able to apply for a special moose, sheep or goat permit providing they never have harvested an animal of the same species in Washington. Formerly, such application was prohibited if a person even had drawn such a permit before.


The department said the change had been sought by hunters so they would not feel compelled to shoot an animal just to avoid wasting a permit. It said the change would have no biological impact on the herds.


The commission authorized issuance of 12 new moose permits, distributed among four game-management units, but decreased the number by 12 in other units, leaving the total unchanged from last year at 94. It increased the number of bighorn sheep permits to 23 from 20, and decreased the number of goat permits to 19 from 21.


It established bear and cougar seasons for the next three years virtually unchanged from the current ones.


The new three-year package takes effect May 15. The commission will set waterfowl seasons during its meeting Aug. 1 and 2 in Bellingham, after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service establishes a 2003 waterfowl framework.


Bob Mottram: 253-597-8640
bob.mottram@mail.tribnet.com