Sernate actually has to take its job of review seriously. As does the Governor.

Given the abject fiasco this has become I expect (no, I hope) that the Senate will see how they failed and mend their ways. In the appointment process they are the check and balance to the Governor.

Having any hope or faith in a for profit corporation registered at Dun & Bradstreet https://dunsnumberlookup.dnb.com/en-gb/home/search-company-result?searchType=name is a bad idea...


The Federal,, state and local governments,, that means cities and counties,, each is registered at Dun & Bradstreet as a for profit corporation...

You have rigged elections and a totally captured government,,, each branch obtained or stole office via a rigged process always controlling the outcome via vote rigging...

Not much hope of accountability or even dong the right thing...

Guess What? It's now April 8th and still no result on the Commission investigation! The counter suit by the crooked commissioners should not change the facts found by the independent investigators! Where is the transparency? There aint any in this corrupt agency!

I TOLD YOU SO!!!!

Here ya go Tug!

WA Fish and Wildlife commissioner accuses agency director of retaliation

Jerry Cornfield

Washington State Standard

A federal lawsuit filed Thursday accuses the leaders of the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife of attempting to silence a member of the citizen panel that oversees the agency in retaliation for her ongoing criticism of their administration.

Director Kelly Susewind and Deputy Director Amy Windrope targeted Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Lorna Smith, manufacturing allegations about her conduct to incite an investigation by the governor’s office, according to the lawsuit. The complaint contends that the probe has harmed her reputation and could lead to her removal.

“I have been outspoken,” Smith said in a statement. “The Commission cannot operate effectively and wisely if commissioners feel bullied or are hesitant or afraid to speak or vote freely.”

The suit also accuses Susewind and Windrope of making defamatory statements and unfounded allegations against attorney Claire Davis and the wildlife advocacy group she leads, in an alleged rebuke for her critical comments and numerous lawsuits the group filed against the department “What happened here was about using the machinery of government to go after people engaging in protected speech,” said Francisco J. Santiago-Ávila, science and advocacy director for Washington Wildlife First, at a Thursday news conference. Washington Wildlife First wants to see Susewind removed from his leadership post.

Alicia LeDuc Montgomery, attorney for Davis and the wildlife group, described the actions to reporters as “statesanctioned repression.” The conduct should be concerning to Washington’s attorney general and governor because those offices are “being asked to give cover to the defendants’ unconstitutional retaliation,” she said.

Smith, Davis and Washington Wildlife First filed their lawsuit in U.S. District Court in western Washington.

Susewind, who has served as Department of Fish and Wildlife director since August 2018, and Windrope are the only named defendants.

“I am unaware of the litigation and we can’t comment on active litigation at this time,” Susewind said in a statement.

Old wounds, new chapter

Thursday’s lawsuit is the latest flashpoint in a multiyear drama involving the commission, which is often a battleground for groups fighting over how far the state should go in protecting wildlife or allowing for hunting or fishing of various species.

It arrives days before the expected completion of an investigation ordered by Gov. Bob Ferguson, looking at whether Smith and other commissioners violated open meetings and public records laws in the course of a monthslong debate ahead of a November 2021 vote to ban hunting of black bears the following spring.

Sportsmen’s Alliance, an Ohio-based organization, opposed the decision. Convinced commissioners misbehaved throughout the process, it sought their emails, texts and other communications to figure out if they failed to follow state law. The group went to court and eventually received thousands of records last year.

Susewind is a hunter, and Thursday’s lawsuit says he egged on those angered by the spring bear hunt decision. This resulted in ongoing verbal attacks at public meetings and online of Smith and other commissioners who voted for the ban.

The governor quietly hired an investigator in June 2025 to sort out if any government transparency laws were breached. This




Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Kelly Susewind

report was expected last fall, but the contract has been extended three times. It is now due April 13.

Ferguson first acknowledged the investigation in August after Susewind asked for it. The lawsuit points to a May 2025 memo by a Fish and Wildlife Department lawyer as fueling the probe and the department leaders’ campaign to quell the voices of Smith and Davis.

Susewind had Thomas Knoll Jr., a criminal justice legal liaison, review public records generated from the hunters’ group’s request and provide an “independent assessment” of potential inappropriate conduct. Susewind’s move was unusual, as the commissioners oversee his department and he answers to the panel.

Knoll concluded the behavior of Smith and Commissioner Melanie Rowland posed “serious risks” to the department, “especially when it comes to avoiding a conflict of interest and favoritism.”

The report also scrutinizes a former commissioner, Tim Ragen, who Ferguson chose to replace on the panel last year. Washington Wildlife First wanted to see Ragen kept on the commission.

Knoll expressed concerns about Smith and Rowland’s “tight relationship” with Davis, at one point saying they appeared to “have each other on speed dial.” He hinted at collusion between them.

The lawsuit says the memo is “rife with false, misleading, inflammatory, and defamatory allegations.”

It accuses Susewind and Windrope of directing Knoll to produce a document that could serve as a vehicle to chill the plaintiffs’ speech and motivate the governor to get involved. The suit alleges that the agency leaders knew an investigation would cause reputational, financial, and emotional harm to the plaintiffs, especially if it became public.

In addition to seeking damages, the plaintiffs hope that the lawsuit spurs the full commission to exercise its authority to investigate Susewind and act.

“We’ve asked the commission to remove him based on this broader pattern of mismanagement and behavior, including this most recent effort to target certain commissioners based on their viewpoints or criticism of his administration,” Santiago-Ávila told reporters.


Copyright (c) 2026 Aberdeen Daily World, Editio

Thanks, but I was already there. Gosh, I'm just certain there will be a full, detailed report by the 13th, won't there? The investigation report, if we ever get to see it, will be the best cover-up since the Warren Commission with the JFK murder.

notice how Guv Bob is being sued because he didn't comply with state law and appoint folks to the Public Disclosure Commission? Washington sure loves transparent gubmint.

Little update :

wildlife commission investigation

Governor Bob Ferguson authorized an independent investigation into members of the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission in June 2025 following allegations of collusion and violations of state transparency laws. The probe, conducted by Transformative Workplace Investigations, was extended into 2026 to review thousands of records.

Washington State Standard

Core Allegations
The investigation focuses on claims that several commissioners bypassed public meeting requirements and coordinated policy with outside advocacy groups.

Washington State Standard

Collusion Claims: A 10-page internal memo (the Knoll Memo) alleged that commissioners Lorna Smith and Melanie Rowland appeared to collude with Washington Wildlife First on policy matters, posing "serious risks" of favoritism and conflict of interest.
Transparency Violations: The Sportsmen’s Alliance obtained records through a lawsuit suggesting commissioners violated state laws regarding open meetings and records preservation.
Targeted Members: The Sportsmen's Alliance filed a petition for the removal of four commissioners: Barbara Baker, Lorna Smith, Melanie Rowland, and John Lehmkuhl.

Washington State Standard

Key Developments
Director's Request: WDFW Director Kelly Susewind formally requested the inquiry in August 2025 to clear the "cloud of uncertainty" surrounding the commission.

Commissioners' Rebuttal: The targeted commissioners have denied the allegations, calling them "false and defamatory" and stating the inquiry has had a "chilling effect" on their work.
Recent Lawsuit: In April 2026, a commissioner filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Director Susewind, alleging retaliation for criticizing his leadership.

Tensions at Meetings: Recent Commission Meetings have seen public calls for both the resignation of commissioners and the firing of the agency director.

Washington State Standard

Timeline of Events

Date Event

Nov 2022 Commission votes to end spring black bear hunting, sparking the initial controversy.

May 2025 Sportsmen's Alliance receives thousands of public records following a lawsuit.

June 2025 Gov. Ferguson hires an independent investigator.
Aug 2025 Director Susewind formally requests the investigation; Ferguson publicly acknowledges it.

Feb 2026 The "Knoll Memo" detailing alleged collusion is made public.

April 2026 Commissioner files a retaliation lawsuit against the WDFW director.

Doncha' just luv this stuff? What a model for gobernment! Now I see that I better hurry to buy my licenses because WDFW didn't order enough license paper! "World Shortage" what BS! Idiots! The war just started. The license paper should have been ordered many months ago.

I'm a grouchy old timer that doesn't appreciate changes to things or systems that already work. I don't want my license on my phone. I want it in my truck. I use my phone to make calls, not as a file cabinet for my life.

If I can print my own tags, I can only imagine sopping wet Deer tags in Western Washington hunts. Catch record cards? Readable? Huh? What about my Disabled Companion tag?

I guess I'll know some answers when I get to Fred Meyer to buy paper licenses and tags. Also, the hunting permit applications are available, but correspondingly, the hunter prospects aren't, same as usual.

OOps! Put my remark in the wrong subject category! (First mistake I ever made in my life!) Lo siento mucho.

This is some more about the Commission and Director as they seem to be all tangled up together.

BY ANDY WALGAMOTT, NORTHWEST SPORTSMAN MAGAZINE

Updated 10:40 a.m., Friday, April 3, 2026, in the fourth paragraph with additional statements from WDFW.

A sitting Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission member and her environmental attorney ally have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against top WDFW brass, claiming they’re the targets of attacks meant to chill their determined bird-dogging of agency management.

Lorna Smith and Claire Loebs Davis allege that they’re the victims of “viewpoint discrimination and retaliation prohibited by the First Amendment” by Director Kelly Susewind and Deputy Director Amy Windrope, and they’re asking a federal judge to declare that their rights have been violated, enjoin the WDFW duo from further actions against them, and award themselves and Davis’s organization compensatory and punitive damages, along with attorney’s fees.

In a Facebook reel posted Thursday evening, Davis colleague Francisco Santiago-Ávila also called on elected leaders “to investigate and to act.”

In an initial statement Friday morning, WDFW Communications and Engagement Director Sam Montgomery said the agency couldn’t comment on “active litigation.” Subsequent to that, Montgomery sent an updated statement that the lawsuit against Susewind and Windrope had been “announced” but “has not yet been served on the named defendants, so WDFW is not prepared to make any statements about this new litigation.”

“WDFW’s staff continue to operate under the Department’s core organizational values of Accountability, Service, Professionalism, Integrity, Respect, and Empathy,” Montgomery also said.

This is just the latest battle in a years-long war as preservationist interests have attempted to wrestle WDFW and critter management away from the heart of the legislative mandate through multiple means, and it comes just as a Governor’s Office investigation into Smith and another commissioner’s activities is scheduled to wrap up and even more questions are being raised out of it.

Indeed, it’s become existential for all parties.

That governor’s investigation was spurred by the so-called “Knoll Memo,” written by a WDFW legal liaison by the name of Thomas Knoll last May and ultimately forwarded to Governor Ferguson, who hired an outside investigator to look into it. It has also become the heart of the lawsuit.


LORNA SMITH, WASHINGTON WILDLIFE FIRST AND CLAIRE LOEBS DAVIS HAVE FILED A FEDERAL CIVIL RIGHTS LAWSUIT AGAINST WDFW. (WDFW, WWF)
In their suit, which was filed in US District Court for Western Washington, Smith and Davis allege Susewind “carefully curated” a trove of public records for Knoll to go through to see if there was evidence in public records requests of inappropriate conduct by Smith, Commissioner Melanie Rowland and two others.

Knoll’s 10-page memo was first mentioned publicly in a Washington State Standard story in February, which termed it “scathing,” and it was posted in its entirety earlier this week by the Sportsmen’s Alliance and Conservation Coalition of Washington.

Not surprisingly, Smith and Davis’s lawsuit takes a very different view of the memo, saying it “consists of reckless speculation aimed at inflicting reputational harm” on themselves and Davis’s organization, Washington Wildlife First.

They say that Susewind and Windrope’s motives behind the memo were to “produce this document to convey their retaliatory allegations to the governor.”

The suit claims that Susewind has an “obsession” against Davis and her organization – who have sued him and his agency any number of times over the years over predator and hatchery management, put the responsibility of two employees’ deaths in the field on his shoulders, and have otherwise been a thorn in WDFW’s side – and he and Windrope directed agency staffers to pore through former Commissioner Tim Ragen’s laptop “for anything they could use to discredit Smith and unseat Rowland.”

According to the memo, Knoll found evidence of 20 private meetings between Smith, Rowland and Tim Ragen with Washington Wildlife First, Wild Fish Conservancy and other advocacy groups on Ragen’s laptop, as well as a curious group-curated spreadsheet grading potential future commissioners and identifying decoy candidates. Knoll labeled both as evidence of “possible collusion.”

In that Washington State Standard story, Davis parried the collusion allegation by saying her chats with the commissioners were “an appropriate, ethical, and protected exercise of my First Amendment right to speak to government officials on matters of public importance.”


WDFW DIRECTOR KELLY SUSEWIND AND DEPUTY DIRECTOR AMY WINDROPE. (WDFW)
Anybody who’s been reading this blog and Northwest Sportsman Magazine lo these past few years knows that the commission has been a hot mess since late 2019 when Davis and others began to challenge the limited entry spring black bear hunt, ultimately killing it off as it had existed for decades, and in doing so, they struck something of a blow against Susewind’s core hunting memory – his first kill five and a half decades back.

After failing to get any traction on WDFW-altering bills in the legislature, Davis and WWF inserted a proviso into the agency’s budget that ultimately led to the UW-WSU Ruckelhaus Center review, which also didn’t turn out with the recommendation they had hoped for –– folding WDFW under the governor’s thumb. Instead, the commission was called “dysfunctional” by observers, and no small part of that is the fault of Davis, WWF, Smith and Rowland.

Emblematic of that dysfunction, in the very last days of his administration, former Governor Jay Inslee attempted to stuff the commission with more preservationist-oriented members like Smith, Rowland, Ragen and former Commissioner Fred Koontz, but incoming Governor Bob Ferguson struck two from the board and appointed his own people.

That led to howls of protest from Davis and WWF, who have also been campaigning since then to have Susewind removed for a variety of reasons.

Back to the federal lawsuit for a moment.

It claims Susewind “boasts that all his decisions as director are framed by his perspective as a hunter, and he clings to the days when the state wildlife agency was operated by and for the benefit of hunters, anglers, and commercial consumptive-use stakeholders.”

Davis and WWF basically want a WDFW that “prioritizes the protection of fish and wildlife, respects the intrinsic value of wild animals” – it already does that, though not to their far extremes – and they frequently allude to the changing climate, both physical and among the makeup of state residents as the impetus. But they come up against the fundamental core of the agency’s mission, as prescribed by the state legislature: to provide fishing and hunting opportunities.

To tweak US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts’ phrase this week, “It’s a new world, it’s the same mandate.”

Along the way, the defense of the mandate was joined by the national Sportsmen’s Alliance, which has filed public records requests that have been slow to be fulfilled in part they say due to Smith and Rowland, and they’ve called on Governor Ferguson to remove the pair and two others. Meanwhile, the ending of the spring bear hunt energized a core of hunters to frequently speak before the commission during public comment.

And given the fears of what each side is really up to here, things have spilled well beyond the meetings. They’ve become especially heated online, where everybody’s 10 feet tall.

According to the federal lawsuit, Smith, who should not ever be confused for a meek old lady, has had to endure “a constant barrage of hostility and harassment, accompanied by heightened concerns for her personal safety,” and the allegedly coordinated campaign between WDFW and some hunters has caused her “substantial emotional distress and physical symptoms.”

And the suit adds that as a result of the current atmosphere around the commission, complaints have reportedly been filed against Davis with the Washington Bar Association so as to “damage (her) reputation and threaten her livelihood.”

But they level their most serious claims against Susewind and Windrope specifically:

“In doing the acts of which Smith complains, Defendants’ conduct was intentional, reckless, or callously indifferent to Smith’s federally protected right to be free from retaliation and discrimination for her engagement in activities protected under the First Amendment, and accordingly, Smith is entitled to punitive damages against Defendants Susewind and Windrope in their individual capacities,” reads the suit.

It repeats that language for Davis and WWF.

In a press release, their attorney, Alicia LeDuc Montgomery, said “People in power cannot weaponize the machinery of government to punish citizens for speaking out and advocating for policy change Our complaint alleges that state officials used public resources to target disfavored speakers and stigmatize protected advocacy simply because it did not align with their preferred views. That is not just improper – it is unconstitutional.”

The lawsuit demands a trial by jury.

Meanwhile, more questions from the Knoll Memo are being raised, including about Smith’s apparent filing of compensation claims for working nearly every day as a commissioner between January 2024 and February 2025, which Knoll found “unrealistic.”

The lawsuit denigrates Knoll’s knowledge of how the commission operates. It also claims that Commissioner John Lehmkuhl has “moderated his positions” since the spring bear debacle and that he and Commissioner Barbara Baker “did not pose the same threat to Susewind’s ideology” as Smith, Rowland and Ragen. Commissioners Molly Linville, Jim Anderson, Steven Parker and Woody Myers are mentioned in passing, though former Commissioners Kim Thorburn is called out for pro-hunting actions.

The commission next meets in-person and online in Olympia in mid-April. Things might be a bit awkward and tense the whole way around.

If the Commission does not like Suswind then it is their job to fire him. Not the Governor nor the Courts. They have that authority and responsibility so Smith should bring it up for a vote.

My thought is Smith doesn't have the votes.

I agree. With the recent changes she's kind of on an island.