Proposed wildlife-rehabilitation rules, salmon fisheries on commission agenda

OLYMPIA - The public will have an opportunity to provide comment on a proposal to modify state rules governing wildlife rehabilitation at an upcoming meeting of the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission in Olympia.

In addition, the commission will consider changes to the policy that guides statewide salmon fisheries, and will receive an update on progress in securing federal approval of a new Puget Sound Chinook Harvest Management Plan for Puget Sound.

The commission, a citizen panel appointed by the governor to set policy for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), will meet Jan. 11-12 in Room 172 of the Natural Resources Building, 1111 Washington St. SE, Olympia. The meeting will begin at 8:30 a.m. Friday and at 8 a.m. Saturday.

A full agenda is available online at https://wdfw.wa.gov/commission/meetings.html.

WDFW currently licenses 53 wildlife rehabilitators across the state to care for sick, injured and orphaned wild animals. WDFW is proposing new rules for those developed in conjunction with a 12-member advisory committee to clarify the department's rules and make them easier to understand.

Those rules, designed to promote humane treatment and care, would apply to such practices and the transfer, transport, and release of wild animals.

In other business, WDFW will brief the commission on:

• Whale entanglements in fishing gear during coastal Dungeness crab fisheries.

• Differences between Washington and Oregon in recreational night-fishing regulations on the Columbia River.

• The history of pronghorns and pronghorn management in the state.

• The department's efforts to increase public awareness of the benefits of WDFW Wildlife Areas around the state.