ODFW, WDFW Commissioners To Talk Columbia Fish, Fisheries Weds.

Seven members of the Washington and Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commissions will discuss fish and fishery issues on the shared Columbia Wednesday afternoon.

(ANDY WALGAMOTT)

The Joint-State Columbia River Salmon Fishery Policy Review Committee will meet via Zoom beginning at 1 p.m. on Jan. 27, with conservation and orderly fisheries listed on the WDFW agenda.

The ODFW version of the agenda paints a broader picture, listing four presentations from staffers from both agencies during the expected three-hour meeting.

Those presentations include: Columbia River Basin Partnership; Northwest governors’ collaborative Columbia salmon-steelhead initiative; productivity as measured by smolt-to-adult survival rates and how those vary in the basin and what’s being done to increase them; and potential climate change and ocean condition impacts on smolt-to-adult survival rates.

The meeting follows Columbia salmon and steelhead fishery reforms instated by both states in 2013 and paused in subsequent years, creation of the policy review committee and modifications on the Washington side which challenge concurrency with Oregon.

Representing Oregon’s Commission will be Chair Mary Wahl and Commissioners Greg Wolley and Jill Zarnowitz; from Washington’s citizen panel will be Chair Larry Carpenter, Vice Chair Barbara Baker and Commissioners Don McIsaac and Jim Anderson.

No public comment will be taken.