The Oregon Legislature is in session and there is a large number of House and Senate Bills under consideration that will, if adopted into law, have impact upon wildlife management and hunting.

Some of those impacts are favorable and some unfavorable. You might wish to learn more about proposed legislative bills, and might decide you’d like to tell your legislators – representative or senator – how you feel about one bill or another.

To get informed about which House and Senate Bills impact are likely to have impact on wildlife management and hunting in Oregon, the Oregon Hunters Association website is a good place to start. OHA has a professional lobbyist that prepares a Weekly Legislative Report, posted on the web at http://www.geocities.com/ohastateboard/legislative.html .

The legislative bills are listed by number proceeded by two letters, HB indicates a House bill and SB indicates a Senate bill. There is a short paragraph summarizing the intent of the bill.

You might also wish to read the bill itself to obtain more detail (always a good idea).

To read the full text of a 2009 legislative bill go to: http://www.leg.state.or.us/bills_laws/

Left Click on 2009 Regular Session and then left click on Full text of 2009 Regular Session bills… Up will come the list of 2009 bills, divided by HB and SB. You’ll find it easy to get to the full text of the exact bill number you interested in reading. You can even save the bill to a file on your computer for future reference.

After reading the text of a bill you may feel you’re motivated to contact your legislative representatives to offer your ideas, support for or opposition to passage of the bill. You’ll need a name and address for your Oregon State Representative and State Senator.

Find out who your State legislative representatives are and how to contact them by going to the web at: http://www.leg.state.or.us/findlegsltr/.

Type in your home address in the screen fields provided. The computer will provide the name, postal address, telephone and e-mail address for all your Federal and Oregon State legislative representatives. At this time you should be interested in your Oregon State legislators.

For ease and speedy delivery of your comments to your legislator using e-mail is recommended. In the subject line of your e-mail be sure to include the bill number including the HB or SB prefix so the legislator knows exactly which bill you are commenting on. In writing your comments, just make your points like you are talking to them in person. Say what you support or don’t support and the reasons for your position. Keep your comments to the point, short and sweet.

Legislators really do read their mail from constituents and they like to learn what the folks they represent are thinking about regarding legislation.

Here is list of proposed Oregon legislation that may be of interest to you.

House Bills

HB 2218 - This is the Access and Habitat reauthorization bill.

HB 2219 – This bill extends the sunset on landowner preference tags program.

HB 2221 – This bill helps with the eradication of feral swine in Oregon.

HB 2222 – This is the ODFW fee increase bill.

HB 2226, HB 2227, HB 3100, HB 3221, and HB 3224 – These bills all deal with destination resorts in the Metolius River Basin and on or near agricultural lands.

HB 2628 – This bill allows the Access and Habitat program to purchase easements or land.

HB 2694 – This bill requires ODFW to develop and implement a program to provide technical assistance to Oregon landowners for non-lethal control options.

HB 2742, HB 2743 – These two bills examine the equity in hunting by bow and rifle in terms of the seasons, units, tags issued and road closures.

HB 2879 – This bill extends landowner immunity for public's recreational use of land, woodcutting and harvest of special forest products to paths, trails, roads, watercourses and other rights of way that are used by people to reach land for recreation purposes.

HB 3068 –This bill increases certain fines for illegal take of wildlife.

HB 3089 – This is another fine increase bill. This bill has more of an emphasis on the “fish” side of fines in relation to illegal take.

Senate Bills

SB 429, SB 430, SB 431, and SB 741 – These are the destination resort bills.

SB 522 – This bill would allow the usage of a decoy that is used in hunting game birds and that is powered by a battery, motor, wind or human action via cable, cord, pull string or other device.

SB 523 – This bill allows certain hunters to use bow and arrow with movable blade broadheads to hunt game mammals.

Upcoming Events

• 9/11/2010: Gold Country BGB in Deadwood , SD
• 9/18/2010: Platte Creek BGB in Platte Creek, SD
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Upcoming Volunteer Opportunities

• USFS Cobey Creek Habitat Enhancement Project in the Cobey Creek Drainage of the West Fork San Poil Watershed , WA

Recent Projects

• USFS Cobey Creek Habitat Enhancement Project in the Cobey Creek Drainage of the West Fork San Poil Watershed , WA
• Big-game fence relocation in Enumclaw, Wa., WA
• Lodgepole Flats Meadow Enhancement Project in Highway 22 at Big Springs Sno Park , OR