The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a draft environmental assessment today that reviews the annual frameworks for swan hunting in the Pacific Flyway. The Service initiated the assessment in order to include recent swan population survey data and to evaluate the effect of the completed 2000-2001 limited swan hunting season.
The draft environmental assessment evaluates three alternatives for managing tundra swan hunting in order to protect the Rocky Mountain Population of trumpeter swans. The Service will thoroughly evaluate comments received on the draft in light of new population data for trumpeter swans and continuing concerns about the impact of hunting on trumpeter swans in Montana, Utah, and Nevada before issuing a final decision.
"The Service recognizes that there are widely divergent views about how best to manage swan hunting in the Pacific Flyway to minimize its impact on trumpeter swan populations, and how to assess impacts that do occur. We encourage the public to suggest ways we can improve our swan management and monitoring practices," said acting Service Director Marshall Jones. "Our goal is to continue the steady improvement in trumpeter swan populations beyond their current record levels."
The assessments preferred alternative is to continue the course of action approved in July of 2000, when the Service authorized a general swan hunting season in Nevada and Montana and extended an experimental season in Utah. The preferred alternative would extend restrictions put in place last year that reduced the number of swan hunting permits available in Utah, reduced the number of trumpeter swans that could be accidentally taken, and reduced the areas in which tundra swan hunting could take place to give added protection to trumpeters. At the same time, it would again establish a regular general swan season in Nevada and Montana and extend the experimental season in Utah. Swan harvests in Utah and Nevada would continue to be monitored and the hunting season immediately closed if the States take of trumpeter swans (currently 5 birds in Nevada and 10 birds in Utah) is reached.
In addition to season, area, permit and time modifications contained in the preferred alternative, the Service would assume a greater leadership role in cooperative efforts with the Pacific Flyway Council, States and conservation organizations to expand the winter range of trumpeter swans throughout the Pacific Flyway under this alternative. The Service would attempt to achieve this action through introduction of additional trumpeter swans into suitable habitat throughout the Pacific Flyway, and by continuing management efforts aimed at discouraging use of wintering habitat in the greater Yellowstone area that has hindered efforts to reestablish migration.
Concerns have been expressed that the limited swan hunting season in Utah has hampered efforts to re-establish historic migratory routes south for trumpeter swans. The Service proposes to continue the hunts experimental status in Utah, with restrictions on the areas and dates that hunting will take place in order to further reduce what are expected to be negligible impacts to migrating trumpeters. The experimental status would expire in two years (after the close of the 2002-2003 season), at which time the Service would evaluate impacts on trumpeter swans and determine whether to approve a regular swan season or to further modify or eliminate swan hunting in the flyway.
The draft environmental assessment includes a "no action" alternative that would return management to 1994 policies that allowed tundra swan hunting but barred any trumpeter swan harvest. Under this alternative, the Service would continue to establish open seasons on tundra swans in all of Utah and parts of Montana and Nevada, while maintaining a "closed season" on trumpeter swans. The Service would also work cooperatively with the Pacific Flyway Council, State wildlife agencies and conservation organizations to enhance trumpeter swan populations and improve their breeding distribution within the Pacific Flyway by working to establish breeding trumpeter swans in suitable habitats throughout the Pacific Flyway.
The draft assessment also evaluates the effect of closing swan hunting in those parts of Montana, Utah, and/or Nevada that are used by trumpeter swans. Under this alternative, the Service would again continue to cooperate with the Pacific Flyway Council, States and other interested parties in mutually agreed-upon efforts to benefit the winter-range distribution of trumpeter swans. The Service would work with these partners to establish breeding trumpeter swans in suitable habitats throughout the Pacific Flyway. The Service would support limited winter capture and translocation on a case-by-case basis, when circumstances developed that seemed to warrant such activity.
The Service reached a settlement last month with the Fund for Animals and other plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit challenging the July 2000 decision to continue general swan seasons in the Pacific Flyway. Under terms of the settlement, the Service must decide on a course of action and issue a finding of no significant impact, or provide notice of its intent to supplant the environmental assessment with a more comprehensive environmental impact statement by June 15.
In 1995, the Service first approved an experimental general swan season in the Rocky Mountain region, recognizing that a small number of trumpeter swans might be killed accidentally by hunters who mistook them for tundra swans. The trumpeter is often confused with the smaller, more numerous tundra swan, especially where their ranges overlap. While the trumpeter swan is larger than the tundra swan and has a distinctive call, individual variations in size and differences due to sex and age lead to some overlap among birds of the two species. The fact that differences in the two species physical characteristics are observable only at close range makes it difficult to differentiate between trumpeter swans and tundra swans under field conditions.
Despite the killing of approximately 37 trumpeter swans mistaken by hunters for tundra swans over a five-year period ending in 1999, the Rocky Mountain Population of trumpeter swans grew by an average of six percent per year during that period to reach 3,666 swans, suggesting that the limited hunt did not have a significant impact on the population. The Service permitted a limited quota of up to 15 trumpeter swans to be taken in Utah and Nevada combined during the 2000-2001 season incidental to the tundra swan hunts, though hunters did not reach that limit. Preliminary harvest results suggest that only one trumpeter swan was taken during the 2000-2001 season held in Utah and Nevada. Each of the continents three populations of trumpeter swans recorded record high populations in the most recent population survey conducted by the Service and its partners.
The tri-state flock of the Rocky Mountain Population declined from 589 birds in 1990 to 364 birds in 1995, due in large part to a single harsh winter and subsequent management actions taken to reduce the birds dependence on the area. However, the population rebounded over the past five years to number 426 birds in the 2000 survey, which some biologists believe may be at or near the carrying capacity of the flocks wintering grounds in the greater Yellowstone area.
Trumpeters are not currently, nor have ever been, classified as either "threatened" or "endangered" under the Endangered Species Act. In 1989, the Service was petitioned to list the Rocky Mountain Population as threatened, but the petition presented information insufficient to conclude that such listing was warranted. After the Service authorized the continuation of swan hunting in the Pacific Flyway last year, it was petitioned to list the greater Yellowstone, or "tri-state" flock, as endangered. However, the Service found that an emergency listing was not warranted, and has not yet evaluated the petition under its standard listing procedures.
Rocky Mountain trumpeters survived for decades by wintering in the frigid wilderness in the Yellowstone region, where warm springs kept small areas of water ice-free regardless of winter severity. While Red Rock Lakes and other sanctuaries in the greater Yellowstone area helped preserve and improve the status of the Rocky Mountain Population, through artificial feeding and other management practices, they discouraged southward migration essential to long-term recovery. The greater Yellowstone area is considered marginal winter swan habitat, and any future increases in the number of trumpeter swans within the Tristate region will likely be dependent on the birds ability to reestablish migration routes that expand their range into lower elevations.
The Service will accept public comments on the draft assessment beginning today. The comment period will close 30 days from the official notice of the draft assessments availability, which is expected to be published in the Federal Register the week of April 23rd. Copies of the draft environmental assessment can be obtained by writing to Robert Trost, Pacific Flyway Representative, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of Migratory Bird Management, 911 N.E. 11th Avenue, Room 125, Portland, Oregon 97232-4181. The Draft Environmental Assessment may also be viewed on the Fish and Wildlife Services Division of Migratory Bird Management Home Page at http://migratorybirds.fws.gov">. Written comments can be sent to the address above or e-mailed to Trumpeter_Swan@fws.gov">. All comments received, including names and addresses, will become part of the public record. You may inspect comments during normal business hours at the same address.
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 94-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System which encompasses more than 535 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 70 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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