WDFW gives Cowlitz County overview of Region 5 priorities: fish passage, habitat projects, deer collaring and hoof-disease work

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) Southwest Region officials briefed Cowlitz County commissioners on regional fish, wildlife and habitat priorities and fielded county questions about license fees, hatcheries, elk hoof disease and predator trends.

Ryan Salee, WDFW Southwest Region director, opened the workshop with an agency overview and introduced program leads from fish, wildlife, habitat and enforcement. He said the region manages a broad portfolio of programs across diverse landscapes, including the Columbia River and multiple tributary fisheries, and works with tribes and federal partners on fish passage and recovery.

WDFW staff described several items of direct relevance to Cowlitz County. On the North Fork Toutle River, WDFW and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are updating the Toutle Fish Collection Facility; WDFW said the project is at about 60% design and construction is scheduled for 2026–27, and that design work is intended to improve collection efficiency, transport survival and to include lamprey passage. Staff noted that the Army Corps retains ownership of the sediment retention structure while WDFW owns and maintains the collection facility.

Staff also discussed land acquisition and access work. They said the agency is proceeding with purchase of roughly 7,500 acres in the Hofstad area (planned acquisition in the coming year) and that the region now manages more than 75,000 acres of lands open through private-lands access agreements and other partnerships.

On wildlife monitoring, WDFW said it plans to collar up to 80 black-tailed deer to improve population estimates where aerial surveys are difficult. “So what we're trying to do … we're putting collars on the animals and we're putting out camera stations to detect when a collar is near,” said Dr. Saundra Jonker, WDFW wildlife program manager. She said collaring plus remote detection will provide a detectability correction to improve population estimates beyond harvest data alone.

Commissioners raised concerns about a widely reported 38% increase in license fees. WDFW staff said the fee proposal originated in the Legislature rather than as an agency request and described a proposal to reduce the department’s general fund allocation by an amount equal to projected license revenue, which the department said would leave the agency with no net budget gain under that scenario.

WDFW staff also outlined hatchery and recovery work. They said Region 5 operates 14 hatchery facilities, six of which are in Cowlitz County, and described two hatcheries currently proposed for reduction from the operating list (identified in the briefing as North Tewdell Hatchery on the Green River and Skamania Hatchery). Staff noted that federal Mitchell Act funding and permit constraints affect hatchery funding and allowable production when populations are ESA-listed.

On fishery programs, staff highlighted the Northern Pikeminnow sport-reward program, which WDFW said averages about 165,000 fish harvested annually and has removed some 5,590,000 pikeminnow since 1991. The region also described ongoing salmon and steelhead monitoring and habitat-restoration work in cooperation with local partners and the Lower Columbia Fish Recovery Board.

WDFW officials addressed wildlife-health issues and management tools. On elk hoof disease, Dr. Jonker said Washington State University leads laboratory research and WDFW has implemented an incentive program that encourages hunters to deliver elk hooves for testing. “Once it’s on the landscape, it’s not going to leave,” Jonker said, describing why eradication is unlikely and why management focuses on monitoring and targeted removal where helpful. She said research is ongoing and that studies on impacts to elk productivity will be released this summer.

Commissioners asked about predator trends and how cougar and bear populations affect elk and deer. WDFW staff said the agency is conducting rotating bear density studies across regions and that updated cougar management rules are being implemented to incorporate additional sources of take (including depredation removals) into harvest models.

Region 5 enforcement and habitat staff described patrol priorities, regulation compliance work, and collaborative local efforts including the Tule and Spirit Lake collaborative (which addresses floodplain development, sediment management and fish passage following the Mount St. Helens eruption) and an early-stage Interstate 5 wildlife-passage planning effort to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions.

Staff invited follow-up and deeper briefings on any of the topics raised by commissioners and said they would return with more detailed presentations if the county requested them.