Noble v. Department of Fish & Wildlife

Petitioners, who own property on a small stream near Oregon City, seek review of a final order of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) approving fish-ways1 on two downstream dams owned by Lytle and Stoyan, respectively. Petitioners assign as error ODFW’s conclusion that fish require passage at the Lytle and Stoyan dams only when water flows over the spillways of the dams. We conclude that ODFW correctly construed the fish passage requirements in OAR 635-412-0035 to require fish passage over those dams only when there is water in their channel-spanning fishways. Consequently, we…