Marbled Murrelet Decision

Marbled murrelet in flight. | Photo by Harold Moses

At it's upcoming meeting on Thursday, June 7, in Baker City, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission will consider adoption of new rules known as “survival guidelines” to protect Marbled Murrelets on state-owned, managed, or leased lands. Meeting materials are available here.  The meeting begins at 8 a.m. at the Geiser Grand Hotel (1996 Main St.) in Baker City.  The exact time of the portion of the meeting to be devoted to the murrelet question isn’t known; it is item G on the agenda.

In February 2018, the commission determined that the Marbled Murrelet warrants reclassification from threatened to endangered, or “uplisting”, under the Oregon Endangered Species Act. The Commission also directed Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife staff to develop survival guidelines for adoption at the time of murrelet reclassification in June 2018. The issue of reclassification was initiated by a petition from several conservation groups in June, 2016.  Oregon Shores strongly supports this higher level of protection for the bird, which links land and sea by nesting in old-growth coastal forests and foraging in the nearshore ocean.

 Marbled Murrelet reclassification requires adoption of survival guidelines by the commission and future endangered species management planning by some state agencies. Survival guidelines will be superseded by commission-approved endangered species management plans once developed by affected state agencies.  Survival guidelines are quantifiable and measurable guidelines the commission considers necessary to ensure the survival of individual members of the species. By law, they only apply to actions proposed on lands owned or leased by the state, or for which the state holds a recorded easement. Survival guidelines do not apply to private lands or other non-state public lands.

On state-owned lands, most Marbled Murrelet nesting habitat is managed by the Oregon Department of Forestry, Oregon Department of State Lands, and Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. These agencies will be most directly affected by these survival guidelines.

More information on meeting procedures and guidance on providing testimony are available here. Written comments may be sent to the commission at odfw.commission@state.or.us. Background on the Marbled Murrelet rulemaking process is available from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Marbled Murrelet webpage.

Our colleagues at Portland Audubon have set up a page to provide talking points and facilitating the submission of comments for those wishing to weigh in via e-mail without traveling to Baker City:  https://portlandaudubon.salsalabs.org/murreletactionalert/index.html.

 If you have questions, contact Christina Donehower, Strategy Species Coordinator with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, (503) 947-6099.