Fish and Game Commission to Consider our Petition

I received this email which I think is a very hopeful sign. Dear Pat, I am the Wildlife Advisor for the Commission. In that role I provide guidance and recommendations to the Commission on wildlife policy and management issues, including, in this case, ferrets. Regarding the August meeting, Commission action (deny or grant further consideration) on your petition will occur on Thursday, August 25th under the agenda item titled Non-marine petitions for regulation change and non-regulatory requests from previous meetings. You, and the others, are welcome to speak in support of your petition under public forum for that agenda item. Generally members of the public are granted 3 minutes to speak. However, we are anticipating a large number of speakers under that agenda item due to another petition on striped and black bass. If that turns out to be the case speaking time may get reduced to one minute. For you, as the petitioner, one option to consider is to make a formal request for additional time to speak (up to 10 minutes). This option has been used by other petitioners in the past. That request needs to be made in advance and the decision on whether to allow is made by the Commission President. If you would like to do that, I recommend submitting an email request to Commissioner Sklar by early August through our FGC email account (fgc@fgc.ca.gov). If the others do not wish to speak at the meeting they can send a letter of support for your petition to the Commission by August 11th, either by regular mail or email (fgc@fgc.ca.gov). I have the report you submitted as supporting documentation. You may send additional materials for consideration as well. Please let me know if you have any other questions. Sincerely, Erin Erin Chappell, Wildlife Advisor California Fish and Game Commission 1416 Ninth Street, Suite 1320 Sacramento, CA 95814