Coos County commissioners have placed a non-binding measure on the county's Nov. 6 general election ballot to gauge public opinion on a proposal to expand the Bandon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge.

Ballot Measure 6-145 asks voters if they support plans to add between 2,000 and 4,500 acres to the existing 889-acre marsh.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which proposed the expansion last September, plans to air its formal expansion plan early in 2013, with a public comment period to follow.

Citizens also have several opportunities to comment on a state proposal to swap forest land near Eel Lake for rangeland in the Winter Lake area of the Coquille Valley.

The land swap between the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and a private landowner at Winter Lake would facilitate a wetlands restoration project.

Citizens can comment by email at odfw.comments@state.or.us ; by mailing comments to the ODFW director's office, 3406 Cherry Ave. NE, Salem, OR 97303; or in person on Dec. 6, beginning at approximately 1 p.m., at the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission meeting at the Portland Airport Holiday Inn, 8439 N.E. Columbia Blvd.

--Mitch Lies