Washington State Department Of Fish & Wildlife

Washington State Department of Fish & Wildlife, a U.S. state government agency and division of the Washington Department of Public Instruction, acts as a prime recipient on federal grants and contracts (96% prime) to deliver fish and wildlife management, habitat restoration, law enforcement, and scientific research services to 39 federal agencies. The agency competes exclusively in full-and-open procurements with no set-asides; work is performed statewide across CONUS locations including Olympia (administrative headquarters), Mesa, Tumwater, and Clarkston, with subordinate operations across hatcheries, wildlife areas, and field research sites throughout Washington state.

WDFW's federal footprint spans 1,253 awards with $41.7 million in combined potential value and $1.3 billion in obligated dollars, concentrated heavily in grant work across Fish and Wildlife Service programs. Recent prime contract awards exemplify the agency's operational scope: a $2.3 million definitive contract awarded by the Army Corps of Engineers (ENDIST Portland) in April 2026 for fall Chinook fish production at Ringold Springs Hatchery through December 2028; a $619,092 sole-source purchase order from Bureau of Reclamation (June 2025, modified to exercise Option Year 1) for law enforcement patrol services supporting the Ephrata Field Office across four counties through May 2030; a $4.5 million three-year definitive contract from the Army Corps of Engineers (July 2024) for urban fall Chinook production at Priest Rapids Hatchery producing 1.7 million smolts and 4.5 million eggs annually; and a $954,213 NOAA contract (June 2024) for salmonid consumption rates and harbor seal population overlap studies in Puget Sound using genetic stock identification. WDFW also holds numerous purchase orders for specialized fisheries services including scale analysis, fish passage improvements, law enforcement, and invasive species monitoring across DOI Fish and Wildlife Service Region 1, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Bureau of Land Management, and NOAA.

Grant funding dominates the portfolio. WDFW is a recipient on formula and project grants supporting sport fish restoration ($23.9 million, Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration and Basic Hunter Education and Safety, FY2025–FY2026), Pacific salmon treaty implementation and recovery ($5.66 million, NOAA Pacific Salmon Treaty Program, September 2025), marine mammal stranding response ($133,334 from NOAA Marine Mammal Data Program, November 2025), and state wildlife grants for species of greatest conservation need ($191,049 to $629,852 per award, DOI Fish and Wildlife Service Region 1, multiple rounds). Recent multi-year cooperative agreements include $10.1 million for large-scale estuary and floodplain restoration in the Whidbey Basin (NOAA Pacific Coast Salmon Recovery, September 2024–August 2027), $1.9 million for hatchery production supporting Southern Resident Killer Whale prey supplementation (NOAA Pacific Salmon Treaty, September 2024–September 2025), $900,000 for vegetation management and invasive species control across the Columbia Basin Wildlife Area (Bureau of Reclamation Recreation Resources Management, October 2025–September 2030), and $238,910 for habitat restoration and aquatic invasive species protection under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Forest Service IIJA Restoration/Revegetation, September 2024–December 2027). WDFW also receives pass-through grant funding as a recipient from multi-agency programs such as the $985,162 regional fisheries enhancement group allocation distributed to 14 nonprofit organizations across Washington (DOI Fish and Wildlife Service Region 1, July 2023–June 2028).

Customer concentration reflects WDFW's role as a state fish and wildlife management agency. The top five funding agencies account for 78% of awards by count: DOI Fish and Wildlife Service Region 1 (329 awards, $225 thousand combined potential value), DOI Fish and Wildlife Service (333 awards, $66 thousand), NOAA (252 awards, $3.6 million), FEMA HQ Financial Assistance Awards (30 awards), and Bureau of Reclamation (29 awards, $2.4 million). By potential value dollars, the Army Corps of Engineers (Walla Walla and Portland engineering districts) anchors the ranking with $28.8 million across 25 awards, followed by NOAA, the National Park Service, and Bureau of Reclamation. This split reflects both high-volume, lower-dollar formula and project grants from DOI and NOAA (supporting routine fisheries management, species monitoring, and habitat stewardship) and larger-dollar definitive contracts from the Army Corps for specific hatchery production and restoration initiatives tied to biological opinion mitigation obligations.

Activity has remained steady across the past five years—68 awards in 2022 rising to 77 in 2024—with 35 awards (combined potential value $5.9 million) facing ultimate completion in the next twenty-four months, representing recompete opportunity. WDFW carries minimal subcontract footprint (4% of awards, 47 sub awards); subrecipient relationships surface primarily on grant work where WDFW partners with regional fisheries enhancement groups, tribal nations, and local governments (City of Tumwater, Port of Olympia, and the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community are named sub-recipients on habitat conservation plan and restoration grants). SCI-reported federal services invoicing is negligible (FY2024: $0 in reportable prime contract revenue, 0.8 FTEs across 2 records), reflecting that the vast majority of WDFW's federal funding flows through grants rather than service contracts. The agency operates as a direct recipient across multiple federal grant programs—Sport Fish Restoration, State Wildlife Grants, Pacific Salmon Treaty initiatives, marine mammal programs, and disaster-recovery funding—with no reliance on GWACs, BPAs, or schedule contracts typical of commercial contractors.