Henry Miller, Statesman Journal
The commission that oversees the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has asked the agency to take a two-track approach in looking at taking wolves off the state Endangered Species Act.
The department will explore two options for a delisting: One that would delist wolves east of the boundaries of highways 97, 20 and 395 in eastern Oregon, and another that would remove wolves from the list throughout the state.
The delisting process was triggered by Oregon’s Wolf Plan, which calls for starting the process when the state reaches a population of four breeding pairs for three consecutive years in eastern Oregon.
The state hit that conservation objective early this year.
Meeting in Bend on Friday, the five-member commission heard a Biological Status Review from Russ Morgan, the department’s wolf coordinator.
It also took comments from 38 people.
“This is a success story,” Morgan told commissioners. “Not very many years ago, we had no known wolves in Oregon. Now we not only have wolves, but the population is healthy and growing.”
Many of those who testified oppose any delisting, and a third option that is on the table, “no action,” would leave status of wolves unchanged.
Because of the amount of time and effort needed to come up with information about the implementation and consequences of the two options, the proposals may not be available until next fall.
Because of strong returns of Sacramento and Klamath fall Chinook salmon stocks, ocean Chinook seasons south of Cape Falcon near Manzanita are similar to recent seasons, but coho fishing will be trimmed because of lower predicted numbers of fish.
Related: 2015 Oregon ocean sport salmon seasons (PDF)
For Pacific halibut, this year’s catch ceiling is 970,000 pounds, or 1 percent more than in 2014.
From Falcon south to Humbug Mountain between Port Orford and Brookings, spring all-depth fishing will be May 14 through 16 and 28 through 30, June 11 through 13 and 25 through 27, with optional additional days July 9 through 11 and 23 through 25 if enough fish remain in the 110,649 pounds allowed for the spring season remain.
The summer all-depth season opens Aug. 7 and 8, then reopens every other Friday and Saturday after the opener until the total allowed catch for the season, 43,909 pounds is landed.
The near-shore halibut season in waters 240 feet (40 fathoms) or less depth between Falcon and Humbug opens July 1 with fishing open every day through Oct. 31 or the total allowed catch of 21,076 pounds crosses the docks.
One new rule also was approved for the area north of Humbug. You will be allowed to keep other flatfish species such as flounder, sole and sanddabs when you have halibut on board.