Spencer Smith, director of the Interior Department's Fish and Wildlife
Service, said today that the United States and Soviet Union are drafting a treaty for the protection of migratory birds and this year will begin several other cooperative wildlife programs.
Wildlife conservation is one of 11 specific areas designated to im-
plement the Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Environmental Protection, signed in Moscow by President Richard Nixon and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet N. V. Podgorny on May 23, 1972.
Dr. Joseph P. Linduska of the Fish and Wildlife Service, who headed an American team of wildlife experts who met with their Soviet counterparts in Moscow in February, said that he expects the draft treaty will be discussed at the next U.S.-Soviet wildlife session in Washington in September.
"The treaty should engage the Soviets more actively in studies of bird migration patterns and population levels," Dr. Linduska said. Indicating that eventually the two countries may agree on common regulatory
measures for certain species, he added: "The meetings revealed to us that waterfowl in the United States and Soviet Union face many of the same problems, especially from drainage of nesting areas and other land use changes.
