These management bodies will offer Alaskas indigenous inhabitants a role in the conservation of migratory birds. People serving on management bodies will be involved in the development and implementation of regulations for harvesting migratory birds and their eggs in the spring and summer. This means subsistence users will now participate in the national migratory bird management process.
According to David B. Allen, Alaska Regional Director for the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Statewide Management Body will develop guidelines for harvesting migratory birds and their eggs in subsistence harvest areas. The seven regional management bodies, established locally by twelve partner organizations, will then develop their own regional recommendations for the following spring and summer season. Those recommendations will be sent to the Statewide Body where they will be consolidated and forwarded to the Flyway Councils in the lower 48 states and to the Fish and Wildlife Service in Washington, D.C. Each of the seven regional bodies will have at least one representative on the Statewide Management Body. The Statewide Body will send two representatives to the Pacific and Central Flyway Council meetings and to the Service Regulations Committee meetings. Meetings of the Statewide Management Body and the regional bodies will be open to the public, and public comment and recommendations will be encouraged.
The partner organizations, with the Service and the State of Alaska, that will form the seven regional management bodies are: North Slope Borough, Maniilaq Association, Kawerak, Association of Village Council Presidents, Bristol Bay Native Association, Aleutian/Pribilof Islands Association, Kodiak Area Native Association, Tanana Chiefs Conference, Chugachmiut, Cook Inlet Tribal Council, Copper River Native Association, and the Central Council, Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes.
"This has been a long process," said Allen, "but we expect to have the Statewide Management Body in place by the fall of this year and hope to see regulations published in 2001." Until that time the Fish and Wildlife Service will rely on existing policy, established in 1988 and updated this year, allowing subsistence harvest compatible with sustainable conservation.
Allen believes that implementation of these amendments is an important step forward in conservation of migratory birds and in recognizing a centuries-old way of life. "Management bodies give Native people a voice in the management process and recognize their crucial role as stewards of our priceless migratory bird resources."
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 93-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System which encompasses more than 520 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 66 national fish hatcheries, 64 fish and wildlife management assistance offices, 64 Fishery Resource Offices and 78 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces Federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Aid program that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
