KEYSER, W.Va . — The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources will change its long held format for meetings of the Natural Resources Commission. Sunday’s meeting at Potomac State College in Keyser was the last of the meetings under the old format. Starting with the next meeting in July, they’ll transition to what DNR Director Brett McMillion called a “hybrid” format to allow more locations for the public to participate without having to travel a great distance and more utilization of technology.

The Director said the change was for a number of reasons. One is to respond to the Morrisey Administration’s push to make government more efficient and accessible to the public.

“We’re looking at adding seven locations at each meeting quarterly where folks can come and go on line and be heard,” McMillion explained.

The state code requires four meetings annually by the Natural Resources Commission. The body makes decisions on season dates, bag limits, and a number of other measures tied to the activities of the DNR and their regulation of hunting, fishing, and wildlife and fish management in the state. For years, the meetings have rotated to various locations around the state typically held in a state park or other public meeting venue. Each meeting agenda includes a public comment portion.

Historically if the Commission was considering a hot button or controversial topic, often the meetings would be prolonged to allow numerous speakers, each limited to three minutes. However, since last year’s action to lower the buck limit form three to two, the attendance at the meetings has fallen off significantly. McMillion hoped by offering an opportunity to make the shorter drive to one of the six district offices throughout the state, more people may want to see what was happening. A seventh location for the public to attend will be in the newly opened DNR offices at the State Capitol complex. If sportsmen or any other members of the public do not want to speak they can simply watch the live stream of the meetings on line anywhere.

The times will also be changed. Instead of the traditional 1 p.m. on Sunday afternoon the meetings will be on Thursday at 5 p.m.

“Our Sunday participation has been so low, we need to find times that might be more acceptable to our general public. We looked at most of the commissions in West Virginia to find out what time they offered. What we found was most of them are done during the day, so we thought most of the public might be engaged in work so we wanted to pick an evening hour as late as we could,” McMillion added.

The change also meant Commissioners will all be in separate locations as well, but will be accessible to sportsmen and women in the DNR district they represent.

“We’d like to see each of our Commissioners at the district office so they could be there for the public they represent in those particular areas,” he said.

The first meeting with the new format is the third quarterly meeting for 2025 scheduled for Thursday, July 24 at 5 p.m. The final quarterly meeting of the year is scheduled for Thursday, October 30.