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Hunters, anglers want bang for their buck By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune WHITE CITY - Rogue Valley residents appear willing to pay higher hunting and fishing fees if it means not losing field biologists or hatchery programs. Hunters like Bob Webber of Medford said Monday that they will accept paying $5 more for each license and tag they buy, provided other groups also pay their fair share toward balancing the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife budget. Yet Webber and others at a Monday town hall meeting in White City said they are not convinced commercial fishermen, shellfish collectors, and non-sportsmen are digging as deep as the hunter and angler. "We want to maintain the same levels of (ODFW) services," Webber said. "But are we, as a group, having a bigger burden than the others. Are we being treated fairly?" About 50 people sharing Webber's sentiment gave ODFW Director Lindsay Ball their two cents' worth about the agency's funding woes. The ODFW plans to cut as many as 30 field biologists, close two fish hatcheries and eliminate two enforcement jobs next year if the agency does not get part of all of a proposed increase to hunting and fishing fees. Locally, two wildlife biologists and one fish biologist would be laid off, and the Elk River Hatchery could be closed. Any cuts would be permanent. The ODFW is mulling whether to ask Gov. John Kitzhaber, and ultimately the Oregon Legislature, for a $5 increase to most resident fishing and hunting licenses and tags beginning in 2004. If granted, the move would increase the cost of a hunting license and deer tag to $42. A fishing license with a salmon-steelhead harvest tag would cost $46.25. The increases would raise almost $8 million, the same amount the ODFW faces as a projected short-fall in the 2003-05 budget. Required cost-of-living raises for most of its 1,355 employees, hits to the employees' retirement accounts and inflation have created the projected shortfall in the agency's $215 million biennial budget. That has prompted the agency to propose its first fee increase in four years. Ball came to Medford to start his eight-stop tour of Oregon to gather public input on the proposed cuts and proposed fee increases. "We're not wed to these," Ball told the crowd. "If someone can come up with a better idea, then I'm all ears." Members of the crowd singed Ball's ears over many issues, ranging from wild fish protection, research projects and whether the agency can open fishing on the Rogue River for migrating smolts in the spring. "We'll pay a fee increase gladly because we're hunters and fishermen," said Otis Swisher of Medford. "I'm not really sure the family guy or the guy who goes fishing three times a year can justify it. "If you ask for $5 more," Swisher told Ball, "you better have something to give people." Marty Clark of Gold Hill told Ball that cutting field biologists would weaken efforts to get anadromous fish off the Endangered Species Act lists -a move Clark considers crucial to the future of hunting and angling. "I don't mind paying extra fees if we can keep those biologists in the field to work on these problems," Clark said. "We want to be able to go fishing and catch fish," he said. "We want to go in the woods and harvest animals." Ball said the crowd's interest in keeping field biologists and ensuring hunting and fishing opportunities rang very clearly. "They were adamant about that, and that's not something we can turn our back on," Ball said. The ODFW will hold seven more public meetings this week across Oregon. The input will be presented to a committee that will recommend if the agency should seek any program cuts or fee increases. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.