November/December Director’s Bulletin
This holiday season, I can’t help but feel thankful. Looking back on this year, it’s remarkable to reflect on all that we’ve accomplished together for fish, wildlife, and the habitats we all depend on. This year marked significant strides in our longstanding commitment to conservation, our partners, staff, and the public.
In 2025, we continued to champion public service that equips communities across Washington with new tools to support conservation outcomes. From releasing guidelines for wildlife-friendly renewable energy development to publishing the Washington Habitat Connectivity Action Plan, our work reflected a shared commitment to thoughtful, science-based stewardship.
We invested $1 million in collaborative projects to protect some of the state’s most at-risk wildlife. Our teams participated in projects to support northwestern pond turtle and northern leopard frogs and continued vital work to protect snowy plovers along Washington’s coast, butterflies in south Puget Sound prairies, and many other wildlife species statewide.
We completed the annual salmon season process, known as North of Falcon, and worked tirelessly through spring, summer, and fall to share timely updates with anglers through our Salmon Current blog series. We pursued valuable research on coastal steelhead survival, Dungeness crab movement, and used environmental DNA to support a comprehensive, ongoing survey of the state’s native resident freshwater species.
WDFW Police are wrapping up another year of protecting Washington’s natural resources, most recently participating in swiftwater rescue efforts, including rescuing Wilson the dog, during the state’s record flooding disaster. Throughout the year, Enforcement responded to poaching reports and patrolled forests, wild spaces, and waterways, in addition to providing public safety support in rural and urban communities.
We also continued to support meaningful ways for Washingtonians to get outside, from shellfishing to turkey hunting and so much more. We celebrated Black Friday Fishing, Bass Week, and our 10th annual Trout Derby, providing trout fishing tips in English and Spanish! We highlighted opportunities to hunt spring turkey, reel in pink salmon, and dig for razor clams with an important question for clammers — clam gun or shovel? We acquired a new public boat launch, pursued public land acquisitions, and engaged our neighbors in wildlife area planning. We even launched our new MyWDFW application, a comprehensive mobile licensing tool for both hunters and anglers.
This past year, we ultimately worked together to inspire a broader community of fish and wildlife conservationists. We invested in wildlife watching opportunities across Washington state to directly connect community members with the fish and wildlife around them. We expanded coordination with schools to bring conservation education to elementary schools statewide through our Wild Washington curriculum, teacher trainings, and community events such as outdoor school experiences at the Beebe Springs Wildlife Area Unit. We also joined partners for National Hunting and Fishing Day events in Wenatchee and Waitsburg, and offered clinics to help support new and returning hunters.
Make no mistake — this isn’t an exhaustive summary of 2025 at the Department, just a small sample of highlights. Whether you’re new to fish and wildlife conservation — a first-time hunter or angler or you’ve been returning to your favorite spots for years — thank you for being part of our work.
I can’t wait to see what we’re able to accomplish together in 2026.
Happy holidays,
Kelly Susewind
Topics in this edition include:
Introducing the MyWDFW mobile application
The new MyWDFW mobile application is now available for free download in the Google Play and Apple app stores. The MyWDFW app is a comprehensive mobile licensing tool for both hunters and anglers. It supports license purchases, displays active hunting and fishing license privileges, and enables electronic tagging for a wide range of game species, including deer, elk, turkey, and black bear. App users can also report migratory bird harvests and submit end-of-season harvest reports.
Other functionalities incorporated into MyWDFW, and also available in the newly updated Fish Washington® app, include catch record cards for select fish species and an Enforcement View for WDFW officers, along with access to customer licensing (WILD) profiles. Refer to the WDFW website for more information.
2025–26 coastal steelhead regulations
Steelhead fishing season is back along the Washington coast. Most major steelhead fishing areas are scheduled to be open through March 31, 2026, with some exceptions. Before heading out, be sure to check season regulations and closing dates by area on WDFW’s emergency fishing rule changes webpage and the Fish Washington® mobile app.
WDFW continues to operate under its Statewide Steelhead Management Plan, which requires the Department to prioritize the sustainability of wild coastal steelhead runs by focusing on healthy levels of abundance, productivity, diversity, and distribution. We are modifying permanent regulations for coastal steelhead, game fish, and trout seasons, which we aim to enact by January 2026.
Learn more about WDFW’s coastal steelhead management, including how we work to balance conservation with opportunity, in our blog.
Innovative technology helps Washington track black-tailed deer in dense forests
Deep in the forested Cascade Range of southwest Washington, WDFW and Blacktail Deer Foundation are partnering on research that could transform how biologists and wildlife managers monitor one of the state’s most elusive big game animals — Columbian black-tailed deer.
The study uses research-grade trail cameras, proximity sensors, and GPS collars to help provide a detailed picture of local black-tailed deer populations. Understanding current population dynamics that can more accurately determine the ratio of bucks to does is essential for setting appropriate hunting seasons and ensuring long-term sustainability of the subspecies.
WDFW biologists hope results from this study will help them create a monitoring framework for black-tailed deer across Western Washington, with camera grids rotating among management zones each year. Learn more about this collaborative study on WDFW’s blog.
How prescribed fire is restoring Washington’s ecosystems
The intense, fast-moving wildfires common today are much different than the frequent, low-intensity burns that shaped the Pacific Northwest for centuries. A long history of fire suppression has created dense, overgrown forests and dangerous fuel loads, setting the stage for large-scale wildfires.
Along with a host of key partners, WDFW is recreating the positive effects of natural fire cycles through carefully planned prescribed burns. These controlled fires reduce heavy fuel buildup, which slows down future major wildfires, giving firefighters a critical advantage. The burns also rejuvenate natural habitats, spurring the growth of grasses and food sources vital for native wildlife. Through prescribed fire and forest health treatments, WDFW is investing in the long-term health of Washington’s biodiversity, landscapes, and communities. Learn more in WDFW’s blog post.
Washington’s rivers, revealed: Mapping aquatic biodiversity with eDNA
What exactly lives in Washington’s vast network of rivers? WDFW is undertaking a groundbreaking, seven-year project to map the aquatic biodiversity of every major river system in the state. Scientists are using environmental DNA (eDNA) — the microscopic genetic material living things shed into the water — to conduct a census of the state’s freshwater species.
This highly efficient method allows a small team to detect hundreds of species, including rare fish, amphibians, shellfish, and invertebrates, all from a single sample. This comprehensive study, the first of its kind in the Pacific Northwest, is closing critical knowledge gaps about at-risk species and creating a molecular snapshot that will guide future conservation actions for decades to come. Learn more in our blog post.
New Volunteer Management System coming soon!
WDFW is transitioning volunteer management systems. The new system improves volunteer recruiting, scheduling, training, and tracking, creating a more streamlined and user-friendly experience. The new system will also provide more detailed reporting of volunteer contributions.
The new system allows WDFW to track safety and skills trainings and ensure volunteer supervisors have clear visibility of volunteer qualifications. The official transition timeline is still being finalized, with a target of early 2026.
Come see us at the 2026 sports shows
Winter is sports show season in the Pacific Northwest, and we look forward to having a presence at several shows in 2026. These events provide valuable opportunities for WDFW staff to connect directly with hunters, anglers, and wildlife watchers, and other outdoor enthusiasts around the state. WDFW will have a booth at the following shows:
- Tri-Cities Sportsman Show in Pasco, Jan. 23–25
- Washington Sportsmen’s Show in Puyallup, Jan. 28 — Feb. 1
- Pacific Northwest Sportsmen’s Show in Portland, Oregon, Feb. 11–15
- The Big Horn Show in Spokane, March 19–22
New poetry anthology focuses on climate resilience in Washington’s ecosystems
“On Resilience: Stories of Climate Adaptation Across Washington’s Landscapes,” a new poetry anthology created in partnership with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), NatureCulture, and Writing the Land®, is available now through most major and independent booksellers.
“On Resilience” brings together place-based management stories with poetry and artwork to showcase how Washington’s landscapes are shifting due to climate change, and how natural resource management practices are evolving in response. The anthology is organized around Washington’s nine ecoregions, each of which experiences climate impacts in distinct ways. Each chapter highlights WDFW-managed wildlife areas and describes the Department’s management objectives for those places.
For more on the anthology and how to order a copy, read our blog post.
How a collaborative partnership is restoring balance to kelp forest ecosystems, one lab-raised sea star at a time
WDFW is supporting a groundbreaking effort to restore the sunflower sea star, a marine invertebrate whose population was nearly wiped out by a wasting disease beginning in 2013. As part of a collaborative partnership led by University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Laboratories (FHL) and including the Samish Indian Nation, WDFW is helping test a promising method for recovering endangered sunflower sea stars and the biodiverse kelp forests they help to balance as a keystone predator.
Read the full story of this collaborative comeback on our blog.
Wild watercolor: explore the new map visualizing Washington’s biodiversity
Biodiversity can be a hard concept to imagine, because it includes so many living things and habitats. We created a watercolor illustration in 2025 to help kickstart your brain on biodiversity. The map features a variety of native plants and animals, which we highlight in this video.
Curious what species are which? You can visit the Biodiversity in Washington page on our website to explore the interactive illustration to learn more and download the map to print and hang in your home, classroom, or at work.
