Senate Joint Resolution 47 Oregon Laws 2010 Special Session

          Whereas Raymond Moles was a Grant County resident who served as a founding member of the Grant County chapter of the Oregon Hunters Association; and

          Whereas Raymond Moles was an avid outdoorsman and a vocal leader on wildlife issues within the Grant County area; and

          Whereas Raymond Moles was committed to preventing wildlife losses along U.S. Highway 26 between Picture Gorge and Prairie City, an area that bisects the summer and winter range for migratory deer, elk and antelope; and

          Whereas Raymond Moles, along with other members of the Grant County chapter of the Oregon Hunters Association, worked tirelessly to implement reduced speeds along portions of U.S. Highway 26; and

          Whereas because U.S. Highway 26 separates critical winter rangelands from irrigated farm fields and a stable water source, mule deer mortality due to collisions between mule deer and vehicles appears to be a significant contributor to a decline in mule deer numbers; and

          Whereas mule deer mortality is also common along U.S. Highway 395, which runs south from John Day in the Murderers Creek Wildlife Management Unit; and

          Whereas since October 2009, 41 mule deer and 2 Rocky Mountain elk have been killed in animal-vehicle collisions along U.S. Highway 26 between John Day and Dayville; and

          Whereas since 2000, more than 600 animals, mostly mule deer, were killed on U.S. Highway 26 and U.S. Highway 395 in the Murderers Creek and Northside Wildlife Management Units; and

          Whereas the South Central Oregon Mule Deer Research Project showed that for every mule deer killed by collision and recovered within the highway right of way, an additional five were struck and died off the highway right of way and were not recovered, indicating that the total mule deer-vehicle collisions could be as high as 1,285 per year, or roughly 20 percent of the end-of-year population estimate for the Murderers Creek mule deer herd; and

          Whereas Raymond Moles, along with other members of the Grant County chapter of the Oregon Hunters Association, worked with the Department of Transportation to place wildlife migration corridor signs near Mount Vernon and Picture Gorge; and

          Whereas the State Department of Fish and Wildlife, in collaboration with the Department of Transportation, has recently installed variable message boards in John Day and Dayville warning drivers of wildlife crossings throughout the John Day Valley; now, therefore,

Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon:

          That we, the members of the Seventy-fifth Legislative Assembly, in special legislative session assembled, direct the State Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Department of Transportation to work with the Grant County chapter of the Oregon Hunters Association to establish a wildlife safety corridor along U.S. Highway 26 from Picture Gorge to Prairie City in memory of Raymond Moles and to locate and place two road signs designating the “Raymond Moles Memorial Wildlife Safety Corridor.”

Filed in the Office of Secretary of State February 23, 2010

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