New state Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Miranda Wecker was instrumental in implementing in-depth research into the relationship between algal blooms and razor clam toxins at Kalaloch Beach.
Wecker, who lives 5 miles north of Naselle, became the closest commissioner to the North Olympic Peninsula when Gov. Christine Gregoire announced an overhaul of the commission earlier this week.
Gregoire replaced four of the nine commissioners in an unprecedented move that saw Pete Schroeder of Sequim, the North Olympic Peninsula’s first commission voice in 11 years, pushed out.
The governor’s move was, simply stated, a wide sweep intended to empower hand-picked commissioners.
“If we were going to make some change in the commission, we had to do it now,” Elliot Marks, Gregoire’s executive policy adviser for natural resources, said in a phone interview with Peninsula Daily News on Wednesday afternoon.
“It was more about her desire . . . to appoint people of her choosing,” Marks said.
Natural Resources Center
One such person was Wecker, a onetime nonprofit organization employee who is now a marine program manager for the University of Washington Natural Resources Center.
The center’s main campus is in Forks, but Wecker works out of a field office in South Bend. She spends about one-third of her time on the North Olympic Peninsula.
“I think she will be terrific for the position,” said John Calhoun, director of the center and also a Port of Port Angeles commissioner.
“She has the cognitive capacity that I think is required for that type of a position,” he said.
Wecker, 54, applied for a commission seat in January.
“I knew that there was going to be change because we have a new governor,” she said by phone Wednesday.
She met Gregoire during a campaign fund-raiser last August and was immediately struck by the diminutive woman who would go on to win the most powerful seat in Washington state by the thinnest margin in history.
“We had a conversation in which I was very impressed with her opinions about how often agencies . . . just don’t open their books enough or don’t explain themselves enough,” Wecker said.
“That was music to my ears.”
