"Restoring Oregon Oak Woodlands for Wildlife: Monitoring, Restoration and Funding", a one-day workshop hosted by TWS and others, will be held on Wednesday, February 10, 2009 in Lincoln City, Oregon in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the Oregon Chapter of The Wildlife Society. Details will be forthcoming. Questions may be directed to David Ross (541-885-2518).
"Practical Applications of Wildlife Management on Working Forests," a one-day workshop co-hosted by TWS, the Emerald Chapter of SAF, and OFRI, will be held on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 in Eugene, Oregon. Details will be forthcoming. Questions may be directed to Francesca Cafferata Coe or 503-224-3445).
Your Executive Board needs you! Consider the opportunity to serve your chapter by becoming a board member. I n 2010, there will be 3 board positions open as well as the officer positions of secretary, vice president, and president. All positions are two year terms. The board meets once every other month throughout the year to plan the annual meeting, plan workshops throughout the year, provide input on pressing conservation issues, consider grant requests, and in general serve the interests of the chapter and Oregon’s wildlife. Former board members in particular are urged to consider running for an executive office. If you haven’t been on the board before, becoming a general board member is an excellent opportunity to get a taste for what is involved.
Please send your nominations, along with a brief description of the candidate (you are allowed to nominate yourself!) to Dan Edwards or Matt Hane.
Legislative Affairs Report by Warren Aney, Stephen Kafoury, Charlie Bruce, and
Bruce Campbell
10 July 2009
Our major effort for the recently ended legislative session was to develop funding for implementing the Oregon Conservation Strategy. We did not succeed, despite the efforts of a broad coalition of conservation organizations.
We considered a wide range of funding options including a General Fund allocation, a special non-game wildlife license plate, an excise tax on wild bird feed, and alternative energy development and operation fees. When the state budget crisis materialized, we dropped the General Fund idea. The license plate fee never got written into a bill.
The wild bird feed excise tax did get written up as HB3303 but it never got out of committee despite some strong support from several key legislators and organizations. The main reasons for this appeared to be strong opposition from the wild bird seed industry and bad newspaper publicity (and the House Speaker didn’t like it).
We participated in a meeting called by Repr. Ben Cannon with alternative energy industry and conservation folks. This meeting was inconclusive but did bring up a number of issues such as mitigation banking and the need for providing pre-development funding for state agency studies and evaluations.
There will be meetings in the next few months to revisit OCS funding and alternative energy issues.
Here is a summary of the legislative bills we were watching and our activities relating to these bills:
SB425. Exempts certain facilities from requirements to obtain permits to hold wildlife. This could have had the effect of reducing state control over private game farms, but it never got out of committee.
SB436. Limits applicability of statewide land use planning goals to areas of critical state concern designated by Legislative Assembly. This could have affected protection for critical wildlife habitat, but it never got out of committee.
HB2081. Authorizes governmental units to implement systems for buying and selling transferable development credits to encourage landowners to voluntarily protect resource lands. This never got out of committee, but a similar bill, HB2228, did pass (see below).
HB2220. The original bill would have authorized Department of State Police, State Department of Fish and Wildlife and State Marine Board to require persons transporting recreational or commercial watercraft to stop at check station for inspection of watercraft for presence of aquatic invasive species, but this was determined to be unconstitutional. Stephen reported ORTWS endorsement with no statement prepared. The bill was amended to establish an aquatic invasive species fund using new boat fees, and create mobile check stations. This amended bill passed and is awaiting the governor’s signature.
HB2221. Creates crime of sale or purchase of hunts for feral swine. We presented a statement a House committee hearing in March. The bill passed and has been signed by the governor.
HB2222 and HB2223. Increases angling and hunting license fees. Based on ORTWS Board guidance, we presented a statement supporting the 2003 fee increases, based on the need to effectively collect and use scientifically valid information. Both bills passed and are awaiting the governor’s signature.
HB2228. Establishes pilot program to conserve resource lands by facilitating transfer of residential development rights from farm or forest property to other property. Passed and signed by governor.
HB2229. Relating to recommendations of Oregon Task Force on Land Use Planning; appropriating money; declaring an emergency. Establishes main principles for state land use system. We presented an oral statement in February pointing out this bill’s need to consider wildlife habitat values. The bill did receive substantial amendment, but its wildlife provisions remained static.
HB2628. Authorizes moneys available for access and habitat programs to be expended on programs that promote access to public and private lands through acquisition of lands or through acquisition of easements. We reported our support for this concept. The bill never got out of committee.
HB3072. Defines statutory term regarding management of acquired lands designated as state forests, common school forestlands and Elliott State Forest lands. Requires State Board of Forestry to amend forest management plans to achieve policy and goals reflected in definition. This would have required state forestlands be managed primarily for timber production. The bill was amended by removing this provision and substituting language authorizing the State Board of Forestry to designate areas on certain state forestlands as exempt from requirement that those forestlands be managed to secure “greatest permanent value” (i.e., timber production for revenue). The bill never got out of committee.
HB3303. Creates excise tax on birdseed. Directs revenue from tax to conservation programs. Establishes Conservation Strategy Fund. Continuously appropriates moneys from fund to State Department of Fish and Wildlife for conservation purposes. This was scheduled for a hearing in April but pulled by the House Speaker who does not want it out there by itself. It never got out of committee.
HB5014. Appropriates money from General Fund to ODFW for certain biennial expenses. We presented a statement on this in March. Passed, awaiting governor’s signature.
HB5049. Directs Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board to allocate moneys deposited into Watershed Improvement Operating Fund Restoration and Protection Research Fund, and Watershed Improvement Grant Fund to various state agencies (including ODFW) to implement section 4 (10), Article XV of Oregon Constitution (state parks and watershed enhancement). Passed, awaiting governor’s signature.
We also watched, but did not get involved in, some other bills that would have designated osprey as the state bird, changed the membership of the State Board of Forestry, funded county noxious weed control programs, etc.
