Marbled Murrelet Decision

Marbled Murrelet in flight.\Photo by Harold Moses.

At their Aug. 3 meeting in Salem, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission will consider adoption of new rules known as “Advisory Survival Guidelines” to protect Marbled Murrelets on state-owned, managed, or leased lands. Meeting materials are available here. 

The commission meeting begins at 8 a.m.  However, because of other scheduled agenda items Exhibit E for proposed adoption of the Advisory Survival Guidelines will not begin any earlier than 2 p.m., and this discussion could come later depending on the length of earlier agenda items.  Whenever the Marbled Murrelet question does come up, public testimony will be taken.

At their June, 2018 meeting, the commission directed Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW)  staff to incorporate changes they discussed into the proposed Survival Guidelines for Marbled Murrelet. Survival guidelines were not required when the species was first state-listed as Threatened under the Oregon Endangered Species Act (OESA) in May, 1995 (the survival guidelines requirement became effective in July, 1995). Although guidelines adopted at this point would only be advisory for the affected state land-owning and managing agencies, they do provide an outline to reflect upon in future management actions and planning efforts on state 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 advisory survival guidelines.

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.

Once adopted, the advisory survival guidelines would encourage (but not require) certain actions to protect the seabird on state-owned or leased lands. Compliance with the federal Endangered Species Act remains required on all lands independent of the Commission’s decision. 

Conservationists have not been at all happy with the Fish and Wildlife Commission’s weak stand on Marbled Murrelet protection, and people concerned about preserving this threatened species are urged to weigh in.  See our Take Action section, https://oregonshores.org/engage/action.

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.

 Contact person for ODFW is Kevin Blakely, (503) 947-6311, kevin.l.blakely@state.or.us.