Washington State Department Of Fish And Wildlife
Biennium 2005 - 2007 General Information and Financial Projections

ENFORCEMENT PROGRAM

Program Purpose and Description

The authorities granted by the Washington State Legislature to Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) Enforcement personnel result in a diverse set of duties. Officers enforce recreational and commercial harvest regulations and ensure compliance with fish passage/diversion standards and hydraulic project requirements. Officers respond to dangerous bear and cougar complaints and prevent unsanitary shellfish from entering the marketplace and posing a threat to public health. Officers provide for boating safety and enforce the criminal codes of Washington. Officers assess and respond to commercial agricultural damage, respond to problem wildlife issues, provide education, and work with local communities. Officers ensure legal harvest of the state's forest products and control litter and waste in the outdoors. Fish and Wildlife Enforcement is one of only two statewide general law enforcement authority organizations and its officers are charged with a broad array of responsibilities within their respective jurisdictions.

Within their various authorities, Fish and Wildlife Enforcement personnel perform four fundamental functions:

• Ensure compliance with harvest regulations.
• Protect fish and wildlife habitat and non-harvested species.
• Provide for public health and safety.
• Respond to and resolve damage and problems caused by wildlife.

The Enforcement Program is composed of headquarters administrative and support staff, field operations staff, an aviation and vehicle/vessel shop, and hunter education staff.

Strategic Objectives
The Enforcement Program's role in accomplishing the Department's mission is to protect Washington's fish, wildlife and habitat resources, and the public by promoting voluntary compliance with fish and wildlife statutes and rules, and other laws and rules as prescribed by the state legislature; to promptly resolve human and wildlife conflicts; and to partner with the public to benefit fish and wildlife resources and maintain the quality of life in Washington for all citizens.

The Enforcement Program focuses on meeting the following objectives of the WDFW Strategic Plan and the Governor's Salmon Recovery Scorecard and Action Plan:

WDFW Strategic Plan Objectives

• Protect, restore and enhance fish and wildlife populations and their habitats.
• Influence the decisions of others that affect fish, wildlife and their habitats.
• Minimize adverse interactions between humans and wildlife.
• Provide sustainable fish and wildlife-related recreational and commercial opportunities while improving the economic well-being of Washington, compatible with maintaining healthy fish and wildlife populations and habitats.
• Work with tribal governments to ensure fish and wildlife management objectives are achieved.
• Provide excellent professional service.
• Reconnect with those interested in Washington's fish and wildlife.
• Improve the effectiveness and efficiency of WDFW's operational and support activities.
• Develop information systems infrastructure and coordinate data systems to provide access to services and information.

Governor's Salmon Recovery Scorecard and Action Plan

• Meet the requirements of the Endangered Species Act/Clean Water Act.
• Ensure freshwater and estuarine habitats are healthy and accessible.
• Ensure rivers and streams have flows to support salmon.
• Ensure harvest management actions protect wild salmon.
• Enhance compliance with resource protection laws.
• Reach out to citizens.
• Achieve cost-effective recovery and efficient use of government resources.

Strategies
The Enforcement Program's role in achieving the Department's goals is accomplished in the following ways:

• Goal 1 - Healthy and Diverse Fish and Wildlife Populations and Habitats - Achieving compliance with statutes and rules that protect fish and wildlife and their habitats, and ensuring public safety by timely response to dangerous wildlife complaints and keeping unsanitary shellfish from entering the marketplace, assisting landowners with wildlife damage problems, and responding to other calls for service.
  
  
• Goal 2 - Sustainable Fish and Wildlife-Related Opportunities - Working with tribal governments and landowners to achieve compliance with statutes and rules that ensure fair, equitable, and lawful harvest of fish and wildlife.
  
  
• Goal 3 - Operational Excellence and Professional Service - Ensuring the most efficient and effective distribution of staffing resources to high priority duties, measuring the results of compliance efforts, reducing risk and liability to the public, to officers, and to the state, and providing hunter education instruction.

Strategies for achieving these goals during the 2005-07 biennium

• Promote Increased ESA Marine Compliance - One key to success of the state's Salmon Recovery Plan is the ability to effectively monitor and ensure compliance of both commercial and recreational fishers in key fisheries in order to protect listed species. Increased on-the-water emphasis is vital to protecting Puget Sound listed stocks and those returning to the Columbia River. With current resources, marine patrols are limited to, on average, three to four boats on the water at the same time for critical fisheries.
  
  
• Measure Results of Compliance Efforts - Compliance reporting continues to be enhanced and expanded. For fishing activity, some compliance information is currently reported for recreational Coho selective fisheries. For marine areas, further reporting needs to occur for other fisheries, such as purse seine fishery release of Chinook, and gillnet fishery compliance with net size, timing, and area closure.
  
  In addition, enhanced and more detailed compliance reporting must occur for key habitat protection regulations. Monitoring and reporting of Hydraulic Project Approval (HPA), fish screen and fish passage compliance is critical to protecting listed species and for assigning staff resources to those locations, and at those times where focused compliance is needed the most.
  
  
• Increase Public Health and Safety - Ensuring prompt officer response to dangerous wildlife incidents and other public safety concerns is a top priority for fish and wildlife officers. As a first responder, officers are expected by the public to be thorough and to provide for their well-being. In order to implement Senate Bill 6118 passed by the 2004 Legislature, enforcement staff are working closely with identified local governments to increase the safety of their communities by reducing dangerous wildlife conflicts.
  
  
• Maintain and Improve Customer Service by Improving Business Practices - Basic business practices need to be improved in order for the program to continue to provide current service levels, to become more effective and efficient, and to reduce the probability of risk and exposure. In order to maintain current levels of service to the public, officers need reliable equipment. Vehicles and vessels are the primary "tools of the trade" officers use to carry out their assigned duties. Regularly scheduled replacement of such items reduces downtime and resources expended on repairs and maintenance. During the past year, the equivalent of four FTEs were expended on equipment maintenance.
  
  In addition, improved care and control of evidence and seized property is necessary to conform to professional law enforcement standards and to meet processing requirements prescribed by the legal system. Continued evidence and forfeited property processing improvements will reduce state and officer liability.
  
  
• Expand Fish Screen Cooperative Compliance - During the 2001-03 Biennium, the Program initiated a pilot effort in the Walla Walla River Basin in response to federal listings of steelhead and bull trout under the Endangered Species Act. The pilot program is designed to inform and assist landowners and irrigators in an effort to cooperatively achieve compliance with current state laws regarding fish passage, screening of gravity diversions and pump stations, and obtaining permits required by the state hydraulics code for the operation and maintenance of such facilities. Landowners who participate in the program and commit to an approved compliance plan are not at risk under state law.
  
  With the success of the Walla Walla River Basin pilot, the Program will expand this effort to the Kittitas/Upper Yakima Basin within available resources.

Appraisal of External Environment

The ratio of commissioned Fish and Wildlife enforcement staff to the state's citizenry has continued to decline. In 1983, the ratio of commissioned staff to citizens of the state was 1:24,000. Prior to the 2003-05 Biennium it was 1:37,000. In 2004, it is 1:41,000.

Although the number of licensed hunters and fishers has declined over the past decade, Washington's human population growth has created an increase in the demand for services from fish and wildlife officers. Workload has increased for activities associated with protecting listed species, providing for public safety as a result of dangerous wildlife incidents and unsanitary shellfish entering the marketplace, protecting private property from damage by wildlife, and implementing provisions of citizen initiatives (trapping and use of hounds). This diverse demand has created competing expectations for service from fish and wildlife officers.

Endangered species listings are requiring more definitive compliance monitoring and reporting. A 1998 statewide telephone survey conducted by a polling firm found strong public support for a state-led salmon recovery effort that emphasizes enforcement of existing natural resource laws and protection of salmon habitat. In order to ensure that enforcement strategies are successful, improved measurement of compliance efforts is necessary.

Fish and wildlife officers are deployed throughout the state in communities where they live and work. They are an integral part of their communities and the public often calls upon them during off-duty hours seeking information or requesting service. In small, rural communities, this is often a daily occurrence. Officer availability is an expectation within local communities. The broad geographic areas and population base covered by officers can affect response times to calls for service. Dependable and reliable equipment is paramount to allow officers to efficiently and promptly respond to service calls.