We live in an age of unraveling — ecosystems fraying underneath the strain of local weather disruption, species loss, and human overreach. From document ocean temperatures and vanishing salmon runs to catastrophic wildfires, intensifying hurricanes, and tornadoes in locations they don’t belong, the proof is throughout us. This isn’t a distant disaster. It’s right here, now, and rising.
Each one in every of us has a job to play. Whether or not we’re scientists, policymakers, or advocates, we feature a duty to behave — to defend the pure methods that maintain us and to insist our leaders do the identical.
That’s why Gov. Bob Ferguson’s quiet dismissal of Timothy Ragen from the Washington Fish & Wildlife Fee — one in every of his first acts in workplace — despatched a troubling message on the worst potential time. Ragen, a globally revered marine mammal scientist and former govt director of the U.S. Marine Mammal Fee, was among the many most certified commissioners this state has ever seen. His elimination, with out rationalization, casts doubt on whether or not Washington’s environmental management might be formed by science and ethics or political comfort.
Simply earlier than leaving workplace — and after consulting straight with Ferguson and his senior advisers — Gov. Jay Inslee reappointed Ragen and appointed Lynn O’Connor to the fee. Ferguson agreed. However inside days of taking workplace, he reversed course. He requested the Senate to rescind each appointments and, with out public rationalization, summarily fired Ragen — an motion that surprised observers and eroded public belief.
Ragen’s expertise spans many years of labor recovering endangered species and advising federal companies on marine ecosystem safety. His position on the fee was to make sure selections affecting species just like the southern resident killer whales — whose inhabitants has fallen to only 73 — have been grounded in science, not strain from particular pursuits. His absence leaves a void at a time when management rooted in proof and ethics is important.
Additionally dismissed was O’Connor, a Ferry County landowner, businesswoman and conservation advocate whose balanced, community-based method made her a uncommon and revered voice bridging rural values with ecological stewardship. The lack of each voices has deeply unsettled the conservation neighborhood.
I used to be one in every of 74 scientists, conservationists and environmental advocates who signed a letter urging Gov. Ferguson to rethink. We did so not out of partisanship, however as a result of this resolution undermines public belief and weakens the Fee’s capacity to fulfill our state’s environmental challenges.
Much more troubling than the choice itself has been the silence that adopted. No public rationale. No transparency. No clear path ahead.
The Fish & Wildlife Fee shapes coverage on every thing from salmon and steelhead to ungulates and keystone predators like wolves, cougars and bears. These selections ripple by ecosystems, tribal nations, rural economies and concrete communities. We can not afford to allow them to be guided by something apart from science, public curiosity and ecological integrity.
We’re all on this collectively — and our shared future is determined by selections that put science, integrity and stewardship forward of politics. Washingtonians deserve leaders who rise to fulfill the challenges of our time with braveness and readability — not retreat into silence or short-term calculation.
Gov. Ferguson’s elimination of Ragen and O’Connor was a grave mistake — one which have to be reversed. Something much less indicators a troubling disregard for science, transparency and the belief of Washingtonians who count on principled management within the face of ecological disaster.
And whereas that duty rests squarely with the governor, the bigger work belongs to all of us. Every of us has a job to play in turning this disaster round. We should converse out, keep engaged and demand higher from these entrusted with the care of our pure world. The wild locations and species we stand to lose aren’t simply symbols of magnificence or biodiversity — they’re very important threads within the net of life that sustains us all.
