The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) has been criticized for outsourcing so much of its work. But many Oregonians don’t understand the political and procedural obstacles that hamper the agency’s efforts.
For example, Oregon state law ORS 291.216 (3) requires that every two years state agencies like ODFW to submit their budget request to the governor’s office with a list of “options for a 10 percent reduction from the estimate of the projected costs of continuing currently authorized activities or programs for the next biennium.”
This means each state agency must “describe the 10 percent reduction in terms of the activities or programs that the agency will not undertake” and to rank them “in order of importance and priority on the basis of lowest cost for benefit obtained. Then it’s up to the governor’s office to make the cuts. ODFW staff have little influence on the outcome.
Suffice to say, having to comply with ORS 291.216 (3) really hobbles ODFW’s ability to function, as it would any business facing similar financial constraints.
As the cost of goods and services continue to increase, every two years the governor’s office can cut up 10% of ODFW’s funding for a litany of ongoing projects. This means important projects must be downsized or shut down.
For more than two decades, ORS 291.216 (3) has allowed the governor to take across-the-board reductions to prevent an “officially forecasted General Fund biennial budget deficit.”
Since 2002, Oregon governors have exercised allotment reductions on five occasions, “each coinciding with an economic recession. For allotment reduction, the governor must assume that all general fund appropriations have the same priority, and reduce each by the same percentage, for only those agencies under allotted authority.”
As state employees, ODFW staff are barred from engaging in political activity, as well as lobbying for or against programs they consider important. So, agency personnel are reticent to discuss this matter as they wait to learn the fate of their budget request. They feel that their hands are tied.
This may explain why ODFW’s $599 million 2025-2027 budget request calls for the closure of the Rock Creek Hatchery on the North Umpqua River, the Salmon River Hatchery, in Otis, Oregon, 50 miles west of Salem, and the Oregon Hatchery Research Center in Alsea, Oregon, 25 miles southwest of Corvallis, which was damaged in a 35-acre landslide in 2020.
This is bad news for supporters of rebuilding of the Rock Creek Hatchery on the North Umpqua River that burned down in the 2020 Archie Creek Fire. In 2022, ODFW Commissioners voted to end the 64-year-old hatchery program in the Umpqua Basin.
Additionally, 35% of ODFW’s funding comes from the federal government. So it remains to be seen how this revenue will be affected by the incoming Republican administration.
