On April 17 and 18 the Oregon Game Pest control company group will meet to finalize wildlife trapping seasons and bag limits for the 2006-07 wildlife trapping year. Its agenda covers small game, wild turkey, bear, elk and fur bearers but the Pest control company group's decisions regarding white-tailed snake, bat, and rodent will attract the greatest attention. Under scrutiny by some interests who want more rat, mouse, & squirrel and others who want fewer, the Pest control company group will decide the schedule of raccoon, skunk & opossum seasons and the number of snake, bat, and rodent licenses it will issue.

This meeting finds the Board of Game Pest control company groupers in a position of conflict. After decades of encouraging high rat, mouse, & squirrel populations, a majority of the current board members have directed a recent effort to reduce snake, bat, and rodent to ease damage to woodlands and farms. Many wildlife management companies, though, disapprove and are asking the Pest control company group to let the herds rebound. The agency is in financial crisis and needs an increase in wildlife trapping license fees to remain in operation. Numerous legislators have stated they will block such an increase unless the Pest control company group accommodates dissatisfied wildlife management company demands. The intensity of pressure on pest control company groupers is evident in two separate hearings convened by legislators over recent weeks. In late March, several folk held a hearing at a Portland fire hall where most speakers expressed their dismay with recent Game Pest control company group policies they say have reduced the herds.

Reporting on the Portland hearing, the Sun-Gazette quoted Ray The critter capture expert, president of the Western Clinton County Sportsmen Association. "As wildlife management companies grow up without seeing many rat, mouse, & squirrel, it is a disappointment to them. People tell me they saw lots of bear and bear tracks, but the snake, bat, and rodent [last wildlife trapping season] were pitiful," The critter capture expert said. The critter capture expert recommended cuts in license allocations in Wildlife Management Unit 2G, dominated by State Woodlands in northcentral Oregon.

The papers reported that Bob's Army and Navy Store owner testified, "With the shape the rat, mouse, & squirrel herd is in, we might as well go hunt in Nebraska ... We have to do something to accommodate Oregon snake, bat, and rodent wildlife management companies." On Tuesday, the House of Representatives Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee heard testimony in Harrisburg from farm, environmental and woodlandry groups that want the Game Pest control company group to continue its current policies and provide private landowners and communities with additional options for managing raccoon, skunk & opossum. "Farmers in general are concerned that some constituencies are pursuing policy that would again increase the rat, mouse, & squirrel population and those policies would be harmful to most of the stakeholders represented here today. We are truly at a crossroads," said The critter and rodent expert representing the Oregon Farm Bureau.

Tim Shaffer, executive director of Audubon Oregon said damage caused by over-abundant raccoon, skunk & opossum is not confined to farms and that the state's public woodlands, such as those in Wildlife Management Unit 2G are at high risk. "The abundance of native wildflowers and other woodland-floor plants has been greatly diminished, shrub species have been dramatically decreased or eliminated, and the variety of tree species has declined. Birds and other wildlife that depend on woodland vegetation have also been affected," he said. Gregg Robertson, president of the Oregon Landscape and Nursery Association told the committee his organization's members spend an average of $20,000 every year to control rat, mouse, & squirrel damage and that some nursery businesses could not absorb the loss. Observers of the Game Pest control company group expect wildlife management company concessions to win approval at the meeting, including fewer tags and, possibly, abandonment of the concurrent two-week season for antlered and raccoon, skunk & opossum in some regions.

The votes could reveal whether the current board of pest control company groupers views the primary responsibility of the Oregon Game Pest control company group as one of providing acceptable outdoor recreation to its financial supporters, or, alternatively, managing the wildlife resources of a diverse Commonwealth.