I received an announcement this evening from the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission:

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission convened in a special meeting via telephone conference call this afternoon and immediately went into executive session to discuss personnel issues. The Commission came back into public session and voted in favor of accepting a letter of resignation received today from Director Jeff Koenings, with an effective date of December 11, 2008.

Another vote was taken to appoint Phil Anderson as acting director.

The Commission also approved the following statement:

“The Fish and Wildlife Commission has accepted the resignation of Dr. Jeffrey P. Koenings from his position as Director of the Department of Fish and Wildlife effective December 11, 2008. The Commission is extremely grateful to Dr. Koenings for his service and contributions as Director of the Department for the past 10 years. The Commission has named Phil Anderson as interim director. Anderson has been the deputy director of the Department for the past 1-1/2 years. The Commission will begin a nationwide search for a permanent Director in 2009.”

For a couple of weeks, I have heard rumors that Koenings may be leaving. I never got to the bottom of them, but it sounds like there may be more to this than the commission is letting on. I’m not sure about the politics of commission members, but I realize that some anglers believed Koenings favored commercial fishermen when it came to salmon allocations.

Koenings was always helpful to me, but that says nothing about his troubles inside or outside the agency. Anyone who cares to comment may do so here or contact me offline.

The Associated Press carried this story:

Head of Wash. fish and wildlife resigns

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — The director of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is resigning after 10 years in the position.
Jeff Koenings (KA-NINGS) said in a statement Monday that he will leave Dec. 11 to pursue new challenges, but he didn’t specify his plans.
The state Fish and Wildlife Commission has appointed Phil Anderson as interim department director. Anderson has been the department’s deputy director for resource policy since July 2007.
Koenings has overseen 1,500 employees and management of more than 640 animal species, including butterflies, elk and salmon.
He recently led negotiations that resulted in British Columbia and Alaska agreeing to reduce harvests of chinook salmon.
Koenings says he’s most proud of the agency’s stewardship of wild salmon, rebuilding relationships with tribes and bringing a science-based approach to fish and wildlife management.

Tags: Jeff Koenings, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission

This entry was posted on Monday, December 1st, 2008 at 10:37 pm and is filed under Birds, wildlife, Fish, Fishing interests, Salmon, Sea life, Shellfish, Tribes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.