The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service invites the public to provide input as a part of the scoping process in drafting a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) on migratory bird hunting.
Comments may be sent directly to the Service or provided at a scoping meeting to be held in on April 20 at the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge Visitors Center, 3815 East 80th Street, in Bloomington, Minn. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m.
Federal and state agencies and the public are invited to present their views on the scope and substance of an SEIS, options or alternatives to be considered and important management issues. The SEIS will update the 1975 EIS and 1988 SEIS for issuing of annual hunting regulations.
Under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Fish and Wildlife Improvement Act, the Secretary of the Interior has the authority to determine whether migratory bird hunting can take place and issue regulations to guide management. Migratory game birds are species designated in conventions between the United States and Canada, Mexico, Japan, and Russia.
The draft SEIS – which will contain management alternatives –Will be published for comment next year. The notice of the public scoping process was published in the March 9, 2006, volume of the Federal Register.
Written comments regarding SEIS scoping are due by May 30, 2006, to Chief, Division of Migratory Bird Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior, MS MBSP-4107-ARLSQ, 1849 C Street, NW, Washington, DC 20240. Alternately, comment may be sent by fax to (703) 358-2217 or by e-mail to <huntingseis@fws.gov>.
All comments received from the initiation of this process on September 8, 2005, (when the Service published a Notice of Intent to prepare an SEIS) until May 30, 2006, will be considered.
For more information, please see <http://www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/fedreg/mgbhr.html>.
A total of twelve public scoping meetings will be held around the nation to gather input on the SEIS.
The Service regulates the hunting of waterfowl, cranes, rails, snipe, woodcock, doves and pigeons. Regulations governing seasons and limits are created annually since bird populations change from year to year. These “annual” regulations have been written by the Service each year since 1918. Other regulations, termed “basic” regulations such as those governing hunting methods, are changed only when a need to do so arises.
In the September 8, 2005, Federal Register, the Service provided information on the current process for establishing sport hunting regulations, the tribal regulations process, the Alaska subsistence process, and past NEPA considerations.
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 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, which encompasses 545 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 63 Fish and Wildlife Management offices and 81 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 Assistance program, which distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
