WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT – The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission will hear public comment on proposals for 2011 big-game hunting seasons when it meets Friday and Saturday at the Spokane Convention Center.

State officials didn't do sportsmen any favors by booking the meeting downtown at the Convention Center, where parking is expensive and problematic for people who want to drop in for a topic or two. The meeting would have been better suited to the Center Place meeting rooms at Mirabeau Park near the Region 1 Fish and Wildlife Department Office in Spokane Valley.

Meantime, a lingering proposal for a four-point minimum on whitetail bucks hunted in Units 117 and 121 in Stevens County will be open for discussion when deer and elk seasons are presented on Saturday.

Although meetings have been held on this issue in the past -- and I covered it in several stories, including this column last August --  this is the last opportunity for public comment before the commission votes on proposed amendments to the big-game rules April 8-9 in Olympia.

Click here for a complete commission meeting agenda.

Click here for the notes and reasoning behind the proposed hunting rule changes.