The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has extended by a month the deadline for public comment on several draft policies that provide guidance on public recreation and educational activities and conserving wilderness on the nearly 94-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System.
The initial public comment period was to end on March 19, 2001 for the draft policies on Appropriate Refuge Uses; Wilderness Stewardship; National Wildlife Refuge System Mission, Goals and Purposes; and seven wildlife-dependent recreational uses chapters. The public will now have 30 additional days, or until April 19, 2001, to comment. Responses and comments must be received by April 19, 2001. This extension was published in the Federal Register on March 15.
The draft policies were first published in the Federal Register on January 16, 2001. The full text can be found at http://bluegoose.arw.r9.fws.gov/new.html under the January 16 header.
The extension comes in response to a request from the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, a coalition of state natural resources agencies, who asked the Service for more time so that its membership could comment on the policies.
"One of the reasons we are extending the comment period for these policies is to fulfill our commitment to work cooperatively with state fish and wildlife agencies," said Marshall Jones, Acting Director, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The proposed General Guidance policy provides refuge managers direction for managing recreational and educational uses on units of the National Wildlife Refuge System. Six draft policies, Hunting, Recreational Fishing, Wildlife Observation, Wildlife Photography, Environmental Education, and Interpretation, update and replace the Services existing policy on recreation, providing specific guidance on the "priority public uses" given preference over all other uses in the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act.
The draft Appropriate Refuge Uses Policy spells out a process for evaluating uses other than those six priority public uses on refuge lands.
The draft Wilderness Stewardship policy updates existing wilderness management guidance and reconfirms the Services commitment to managing wilderness to accomplish the refuge purposes. This draft policy spells out how wilderness will be addressed in the preparation of Comprehensive Conservation Plans, and the proper management of the priority public uses in wilderness areas, among other items.
The draft National Wildlife Refuge System Mission, Goals, and Purposes policy clarifies the interaction between the mission of the Fish and Wildlife Service, the six goals of the National Wildlife Refuge System, and the purpose(s) for which each refuge was established.
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 more than 530 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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Reporters: An "online almanac" of refuge information for journalists and filmmakers, including the history of the system, a timeline of recent events and a wide variety of background information, is available at http://refuges100.fws.gov">.
