Commission meeting March 15, 16 and 17

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission will invite public comments on hunting season proposals during meetings in Wenatchee March 15, 16 and 17, this Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

The meeting will be in the Wenatchee and Chelan rooms of the Red Lion Hotel, 1225 N. Wenatchee Ave., in Wenatchee. The meetings begin at 8 a.m. each day.

The Thursday meeting will begin at 1 p.m., and there will be no public comment this day. Meetings scheduled Friday, March 16, and Saturday, March 17, begin at 8 a.m., with a review of hunting season proposals on Friday and Columbia River fisheries policy review on Saturday.

An agenda for the meeting is available at the commission website.

The hunting season setting public process began last summer with surveys and meetings to develop proposals. They include: Changes to Yakima and Colockum elk hunting permit allocations, adding unmanned aircraft (drones) to the list of prohibited hunting equipment, requiring black bear hunters to complete a bear-species identification test in areas with threatened grizzly bears and prohibiting night hunting of bobcats in areas with endangered lynx.

The commission will hear final public input at the March meeting, with decisions scheduled for the April meeting.