At its June meeting, the California Fish and Game Commission acted on several issues affecting California’s natural resources. The following are just a few items of interest from this month’s meeting held in Sacramento with an option for the public to join via Zoom.

The Commission determined that listing Greater sage-grouse as threatened or endangered under the California Endangered Species Act may be warranted. This commences a one-year status review to be completed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) and Greater sage-grouse is protected as a candidate species during that time.

During the CDFW Law Enforcement Division report, CDFW Deputy Director and Chief of the division David Bess announced that Lt. Specialist Trevor Pell was named 2022 Wildlife Officer of the Year.

The Commission and CDFW jointly announced that San Diego Deputy City Attorney Jordan DuBois was named Wildlife Prosecutor of the Year.

The Commission authorized publication of a notice of intent to amend regulations related to commercial use of small-scale lampara gear by Humboldt Bay herring permittees.

The Commission approved two experimental fishing permits: one for Sustainable Seas Technology to test pop-up systems and conduct exploratory fishing for brown box and king crab and one for the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation to test fishing gear innovations including pop-up systems for the California commercial Dungeness crab fishery.

The next meeting of the full Commission is scheduled for Aug. 22 and 23 in Fortuna and via Zoom.