DNR Question

[Hiker of the Woods]

Oregon is looking at combining several agencies into the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). I was wondering with people from the states that have a DNR or people that travel and hunt in states that have a DNR think of the positives and negatives of a states dropping their Fish and Wildlife agency and combining it with several other agencies to establish a Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

Here is what I just found out about Oregon:

The Oregon Legislature will hear bill SB 521, the bill that establishes the Oregon Department of Natural Resources, on March 1 at 3PM in Hearing Room A at the State Capitol. This bill abolishes the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and puts it under one agency the Oregon Department of Natural Resources. Here are all the agencies that would be combined under the Department of Natural Resources if this bill were to pass:

* State Department of Fish and Wildlife, State Fish and Wildlife Commission,

* State Parks and Recreation Department, State Parks and Recreation Commission,

* Department of State Lands,

* Department of Land Conservation and Development, Land Conservation and Development Commission,

* Land Use Board of Appeals,

* State Department of Geology and Mineral Industries,

* Water Resources Department, Water Resources Commission,

* Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board,

* State Forestry Department, State Board of Forestry and

* Oregon Forest Resources Institute.

 

[TOPGUN]

Michigan has flip-flopped back and forth over the last two decades. For many decades we had a DNR and then it was spilt out and a second Department call Environmental Quality was also formed. The two always seemed to be butting heads and they were put back together for a few years and called the DNRE with one Department head. Now we have a new Republican Governor and one of the first things he has done when he took Office was to separate them again! God knows how many million dollars they have wasted in stationery alone with all those changes!