TILLAMOOK — Staff from the Oregon Department of State Lands’ (DSL) removal-fill permit program will present information, answer questions and take formal testimony at a public meeting regarding proposed new rules to change state maps designating “essential indigenous anadromous salmonid” habitat (ESH).

The meeting runs from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Tillamook office of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), located at 4907 Third St. The first hour will be an informal discussion and information exchange; the second 30 minutes will be a formal, recorded rulemaking hearing.

DSL works with the ODFW to update statewide maps designating ESH. Changes in the maps, which affect DSL’s removal-fill permit program, are adopted through formal rulemaking. At the meeting, ODFW staff will be available to discuss the maps, and DSL staff will cover definitions and policy implications of the proposed rules.

ESH streams are identified as such because they and their tributaries provide critical spawning and rearing habitat for fish listed as threatened or endangered by the federal government, or sensitive by ODFW (for example, chum, chinook and coho salmon, and steelhead and cutthroat trout – all known as “salmonids”).

If a stream is designated ESH, it means a permit from DSL will be required for any nonexempt activities regardless of the amount of removal or fill in the waterway. This includes adjacent wetlands that are seasonally connected to the ESH stream.

Exemptions to permit requirements in ESH streams include routine agricultural and state forest management activities, emergency road repair and voluntary stream restoration. Exemptions will be discussed at the meetings, along with expedited permits that may be used for regulated activities in ESH.

The public comment period for the new ESH rules opened on Sept. 1, and closes 5 p.m. Nov. 28. Comments received outside this 90-day period will not be considered. The public may provide comments in person at the meeting, or by sending comments to DSL via email at rulemaking@dsl.state.or.us; or on paper to Department of State Lands, 775 Summer St. NE, Suite 100, Salem, OR 97301-1279.

More information, including the new ESH maps, is available on the DSL website at www.oregon.gov/dsl/Pages/Rulemaking-Activity.aspx. Additional meetings will be held in Salem, Tillamook, Charleston, Grants Pass and Klamath Falls. The agency hopes to adopt the new rules by March 2015.