Oregon Administrative Rules
Chapter 635 - DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND WILDLIFE
Division 900 - Climate and Ocean Change Policy
Section 635-900-0017 - Climate and Ocean Change Key Principles for Species and Habitat Management

(1) The conservation of naturally produced native species in the geographic areas to which they are indigenous is a primary obligation of the Department. It is on this platform of conservation that the social and economic benefits of harvest and viewing are realized. As such, the ability to utilize fish and wildlife for harvest or viewing is dependent on the health of wild populations. Conservation and use are not mutually exclusive, and can be fully integrated through risk management that scales use appropriately to avoid undermining conservation.

(2) The Department should, to the extent predictions are available, incorporate into all of its actions an understanding of predicted future conditions and how species may respond to these conditions on a time horizon that is relevant to specific species' life history. These responses may include range shifts, local extirpations, altered species compositions, and elevated life-stage vulnerabilities. Management goals, strategies, and actions will consider this long view, but allow for near term conservation, utilization, or transition in an adaptive management approach.

(3) The Department may manage a species whose range naturally expands into or within Oregon as a result of the changing climate and ocean for conservation or utilization purposes in the new area, provided this management does not conflict with the conservation of naturally produced native species in the new area. When a species range shift or expansion is likely to have a negative effect on native species conservation in the new area, the Department will strive to limit these expansions to the extent practicable, unless otherwise directed in a Commission adopted plan.

(4) The Department should proceed with a precautionary approach that is most likely to result in conservation of native species across as broad a range of future conditions as possible, including when faced with scientific and management uncertainty.

(5) The Department should prioritize conservation actions for native species and their habitats to be most efficient and effective in achieving conservation outcomes. In some instances, naturally-produced, native species will be unable to persist in an area because the impacts of changing climate and ocean conditions are practicably irreversible. In these instances, the Department, only through the Commission, may consider modification of the conservation approach as long as healthy populations of the species exist elsewhere in the range and the modification is in compliance with other state and federal laws.

(6) The Department should plan for real time adaptive management of hatcheries, wildlife areas, and harvest to account for potential impacts to fish and wildlife populations during periods of adverse environmental conditions, such as high water temperature, low river flows, low oxygen water, or fire.

(7) The Department should generally use the following approach when implementing management actions that relate to fish and wildlife habitat, unless directed otherwise through a Commission adopted plan: