This is listed in the available jobs for the Department.

The Washington State Fish and Wildlife Commission are seeking prospective candidates to apply to serve as Region 6 Director of the Department of Fish and Wildlife[i]

2/28/2024

Region 6 has "been looking" for some time now........there has been a "fill in", I think from LE, doing the job.

Lot's of different people have held that position in the past 10 years.

Region 6 is a big challenge, 3 gill net entities, Chinook problems, wild steelhead problems, NOF, Big region, knowledgeable general public members, and soon to have a new 10 policy to work on, Wynoochee mitigation still not complete, I'm sure there are others but compared to other Regions, its a tough job.

I'd think 4 would be tougher with all the people, tribes, development, and such.

But, the Regional Manager position is a holdover from WDG/W with one glaring exception. Pre-merger the District Manager actually ran the show; everybody reported to them. Now, each program head reports to Olympia. The Manager is more of a powerless organizer. They can arrange for people to meet and talk but can't actually drive an answer. But the catch all the crap when things go wrong. Which R6 has raised to an art form.

And, R6 has at least a dozen tribes to deal with plus NI GN and Purse Seine.

The legislature liked the old WDG structure because they and locals could have meaningful conversations but what we got was not that at all. When our local Senator found out that it was really a figure head position who had zero authority as divisions reported to Olympia not the regional director he took it poorly. WDFW has not and never will except major structural changes. The only meaningful one I know of is when the hatchery division was placed under the control of the harvest managers which has not turned out well.