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Published: September 14, 2022
This is the 2023-25 operating budget request for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), as approved by the Fish and Wildlife Commission. Our request seeks funding to maintain current service levels from increases in the last two legislative sessions and includes new high priority policy investments. Our goals are to continue to succeed in recent new work and make new strides preserving and perpetuating Washington’s species. We have limited our requests to activities central to protection and preservation of the state’s fish and wildlife resources and providing sustainable opportunities.
The state's fish and wildlife resources are central to the economy of the state. Fishing, hunting, and wildlife watching activities contribute over $4.5 billion each year in economic activity, and nearly $350 million per biennium directly to the state general fund. Commercial fishing supports thousands of jobs and many millions in personal income. The packages included in this request will reap economic benefits for local communities as well as enhance citizens’ quality of life.
We continue to lack the resources necessary to track the status of fish and wildlife species of greatest conservation need and implement protection and recovery actions for these species. Meanwhile, human stressors and climate change are accelerating losses of biodiversity, the foundation of state’s natural resources-based economy. We are proud to advance a request for much-needed funding to protect and restore habitat, recover populations of species of greater conservation need, and to educate the public about fish and wildlife conservation.
In addition to the operating expenditure authority requests included in the enclosed submittal, we have two other asks. The first concerns the Duckabush Estuary Restoration project. This project received partial funding for the state match portion in the operating budget of the Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO). RCO and WDFW’s request is to make this funding available in the capital budget in the new biennium. The second involves seeding the funding for a future program, Shoreline Loans. Our goal is to transfer $4.5 million in revenue to the Special Wildlife Account to capitalize a revolving loan program to be established later. WDFW doesn’t currently have the authority to issue loans to private individuals, but we are looking to set aside the principal in our Special Wildlife Account as we work with non-profits, the Department of Ecology, the Puget Sound Partnership, the Office of Financial Management, and the legislature on a plan for implementation.