The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Commission met in Salem recently and approved testing of the three-year Fish Passage Mitigation Banking Pilot Project, an innovative approach to address high priority fish passage projects. Under the Pilot Project, ODFW has partnered with the Oregon Department of Transportation to develop a new habitat calculator tool for quantifying and qualifying native migratory fish habitat. This tool will help guide future fish passage waiver and exemption net benefit analyses. The new tool will be tested on a number of North Coast streams. The Department will report back to Commission with an evaluation of the Pilot Project and opportunities for future implementation of fish passage mitigation banking. The Commission also was briefed on proposed changes to the 2016 sport fishing regulations aimed at streamlining and simplifying the rules for trout and warmwater fishing. Some of the proposals include: Removing the April trout opener and opening these water bodies to year-round fishing. Setting the May trout opener at May 22 each year, ensuring that trout fishing statewide would always be open Memorial Day weekend. Streamlining the number of different seasons, gear restrictions and bag limits related to trout and warmwater species. Removing bag limits for warmwater fish in the Columbia, John Day and Umpqua rivers to both simplify regulations and potentially reduce predation on listed salmon and steelhead smolts. The Commission will consider adoption of the final 2016 sport fishing regulations at its Sept. 4 meeting in Seaside. In other business, the Commission: Approved two new members of the ODFW Restoration and Enhancement Board. Yancy Lind, a financial advisor and angler from Bend, will represent sport fishing interests. Ray Monroe, a commercial salmon troller from Pacific City, will represent the commercial troll industry. Both will serve four-year terms. The seven-member Board works with ODFW to approve grants under the Fish Restoration and Enhancement Program. Was updated on revisions to the Oregon Conservation and Nearshore strategies. The Commission will be asked to accept final revisions at its Sept. 4 meeting, and both documents will be submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by Oct. 1. Named Commissioner Bob Webber vice-chair by unanimous vote. The Commission is the policy-making body for fish and wildlife issues in the state. Its next meeting is Sept. 4 in Seaside. The Commission also set the 2015-16 game bird hunting regulations during its meeting. One of the major changes from last year will be the opening of the Beaver Tract of the new Coquille Valley Wildlife Area to bird hunting. The 2015-16 Oregon Bird Hunting Regulations will be online by Aug. 15 and the booklet will be available at ODFW offices and license sales agents by Aug. 24.
