Rep. Tom Dent, R-Moses Lake, a co-sponsor of the bill, said at the hearing: “We’ve heard a lot of concerns from landowners, ranchers and the public around the state on damage caused by the elk.”
At the hearing, Skagit County Commissioner Ron Wesen said: “We’ve been hearing from east county residents about damage committed on their properties by elk.”
“They’re like hoodlums that we don’t need in our neighborhoods,” said William Schmidt, president of the Skagit County Farm Bureau, at the hearing. He said the county averages roughly 50 vehicle/elk collisions a year.
But some Native nations have raised objections to the draft bill. An official for the Stillaguamish Tribe
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