The Services decision, announced by the release of a final Environmental Assessment today, was issued after completion of a review of an experimental general swan season in the Pacific Flyway authorized during the 1995-99 hunting seasons. Despite the killing of approximately 38 trumpeter swans mistaken by hunters for tundra swans over the five-year period, the Rocky Mountain population of trumpeter swans grew by an average of six percent per year during that period to about 3,500 birds, suggesting that a limited hunt did not have a significant impact on the population.
"The results of a five-year experiment with restricted tundra swan hunts demonstrate that hunting can be managed in a way that protects the Rocky Mountain population, and we see no reason to eliminate current swan seasons," said Service Director Jamie Rappaport Clark. "We all share the desire to protect trumpeter swans and enhance their ability to survive by expanding their migratory range in the West, and we look forward to working with our partners in the Pacific Flyway to achieve that goal."
The proposed action adopted in the final Environmental Assessment further modifies the limited take and restricted hunting seasons on tundra swans to give added protection to trumpeters. At the same time, it establishes a permanent general swan season in Nevada and Montana and extends the experimental season in Utah for an additional three years. Swan harvests in Utah and Nevada would continue to be monitored and the hunting season immediately closed if the states quota of trumpeter swans is reached.
Trumpeters are classified as a migratory game bird. However prior to 1995, they had not been hunted since they came under the protection of migratory bird compacts beginning in 1913. The western population of tundra swans has expanded steadily and is now at a historic high of more than 90,000 birds.
Concerns have been expressed that the limited swan hunting season in Utah has discouraged the Rocky Mountain population of trumpeter swans from dispersing south in the winter, where it remains concentrated in the greater Yellowstone area of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. Lack of dispersal southward has created a severe "bottleneck" as increasing numbers of trumpeters arrive from Canadian nesting areas to spend the winter within Harriman State Park on the Henrys Fork of the Snake River in eastern Idaho. At this site, which receives the greatest amount of swan use, the aquatic plants can no longer provide enough winter food to support the increasing flocks of swans, Canada geese, and ducks. The population also remains vulnerable if a severe winter hits the area.
Given reasonable uncertainty about the effect of the swan season on efforts to re-establish historic migratory routes south for trumpeter swans, the Service will establish a new experiment lasting three years with a modified hunting season in Utah. Swan hunts will be closed in the Great Salt Lake Basin in Utah north of the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, an area that has been open to swan hunts during the five-year experimental season. In addition, the Service will reduce the allowable annual take of trumpeter swans in Utah from the current 15 birds to 10, reduce the number of general swan permits from 2,750 to 2,000, and continue all other hunting restrictions imposed by the 1995 Environmental Assessment.
In addition, the Service will support and participate in cooperative efforts to disperse the winter population of trumpeter swans and re-establish southern migration routes. Efforts to haze trumpeters away from Harriman State Park will continue, and the Service will continue the suspension of supplemental feeding programs for both trumpeter and tundra swans on Service-managed lands and work to create habitat in the current wintering area that is less attractive to wintering swans.
"We intend to increase our efforts to expand the range of these magnificent birds and establish new breeding populations in suitable habitats throughout the Pacific Flyway. While capture and translocation of birds shouldnt be the first option, we will consider it whenever it is necessary to protect the population," said Clark.
Once abundant and widespread throughout much of North America, trumpeter swans were threatened with extinction by 1900 due to subsistence hunting pressure, habitat loss and the commercial plumage trade. Small flocks persisted only in Alaska and remote habitats of the Rocky Mountains. In the lower 48 states and Canada, the last remaining 200 Rocky Mountain trumpeters survived by wintering in the frigid wilderness in the Yellowstone Region where warm springs kept small areas of water ice-free regardless of winter severity.
Rocky Mountain trumpeters that wintered in the Yellowstone Region included some that were year-round residents and others that migrated north each spring to Canadian nesting areas. Virtually all of the trumpeters that migrated south to milder wintering areas had died by 1930 and the use of those traditional migration routes was lost. In addition to the loss of historic migrations, for almost 60 years the last remaining trumpeters were encouraged to winter in the Yellowstone Region. Although some attempted to explore and migrate further south, they had little success.
From 1935-1992, the trumpeters were fed grain during winter at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, 20 miles northwest of Harriman State Park. Large sanctuaries in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and at Harriman State Park also protected the swans from human disturbance. While artificial feeding and sanctuaries saved the population from extinction, they discouraged southward migration which is essential to long-term recovery. Artificial feeding at Red Rock Lakes ceased in 1992.
The Service will complete a more detailed implementation plan in 2001 for activities on Service lands designed to benefit trumpeter swans, and will work with the Pacific Flyway Council to expand that plan to include activities on other State, Federal and Private lands within the Pacific Flyway. Failure to develop a comprehensive plan for the flyway by the fall of 2002 will require the Service to re-evaluate the continuation of all swan hunting activities in the Pacific Flyway.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal Federal 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 525 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 66 national fish hatcheries, 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.
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