75th OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY--2010 Special Session

                            Enrolled

                   Senate Joint Resolution 47

Sponsored by Senator FERRIOLI; Senators ATKINSON, BOQUIST, GIROD,
  KRUSE, MORSE, WHITSETT, WINTERS (Presession filed.)

  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:

Enrolled Senate Joint Resolution 47 (SJR 47-A)             Page 1

  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.
'
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                                 Adopted by Senate February 15,
                                              2010

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                                       Secretary of Senate

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                                       President of Senate

                                  Adopted by House February 19,
                                              2010

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                                        Speaker of House

Enrolled Senate Joint Resolution 47 (SJR 47-A)             Page 2