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FISH AND WILDLIFE SEEKING COMMENTS ON SPORT HUNTING OF MIGRATORY BIRDS

3/17/2006

CHEYENNE - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is inviting public participation in the scoping process for preparing a supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Sport Hunting of Migratory Birds.

The Fish and Wildlife Service will consider a range of management alternatives for addressing sport hunting of migratory birds under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Migratory game birds are bird species such as waterfowl, rails, cranes and snipe, designated in agreements between the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan and Russia.

The Service is seeking comments on harvest management alternatives, limiting the scope of the assessment to sport hunting (i.e. exclusion of the Alaska migratory bird subsistence process) and inclusion of basic regulations.

A public scoping meeting will be held April 6, 2006, in Denver, Colorado, at the Colorado Department of Wildlife Northeast Region Service Center at 7 p.m.

Written and e-mail comments will also be accepted through May 30. Comments should be sent to the 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 20250.

Comments may also be faxed to (703) 358-2217 or e-mailed to huntingseis@fws.gov.

For more information, visit the Service’s Web site at http://www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/

DR2 are you going to write up some comments for us? Listened to some of your ideas and they should probably be heard. Mods could this be a sticky where we compile ideas and someone sends it in on our behalf?

I just sent one that was short and sweet, BAN SPINNERS OR THEY WILL BE THE DEATH OF OUR SPORT!

We've all got a different take on things, varying interests and different solutions. I don't know what they want to hear, and gone are the days that "hook-and-bullet biologists" with a little common sense ran the FWS show at the national level, especially, and at the local level in specific instances only; can just imaging some granola-eating, card-toting Audubon member with endangered species leanings and a keen eye on kissing whatever ass necessary to advance up the ladder, smirking and rolling their eyes when they read my humble, low-brow suggestions (the italics are my unsubmitted sidebar comments)...

1. Re-evaluate AHM to ensure the model is maximizing productivity.
(That AHM maximizes waterfowl productivity or maximizes annual harvest to the derision of long-term sustainability is heavily argued among involved biologists. Recent decreases in the total breeding mallard population indicates the latter to some that say the model is flawed. Obviously it is my contention that is should maximize yield in perpetuity irregardless of of how many ducks/day the hunters want)

2. Review impact of "robo" ducks on migratory bird mortality, especially as pertaining to AHM harvest estimates and implement federal mandate accordingly.
(i.e., ban the sumbitches)

3. Ensure that the National Wildlife Refuge system is implementing habitat management practices which best satisfy life-cycle requirements of waterfowl for the respective landscape; utilize "passive" management - i.e., do nothing but post it - only when it is the BEST management option per that refuge.
(Ask yourself - what is your local refuge really doing with their $1.5x million dollars annually to satisfy the life-cycle requirements for waterfowl? Is it all passive management, i.e., post it, put the boards in, forget about it and call it sanctuary? Given that a substantial amount of funding for management and acquisition was paid for with Migratory Bird dollars, is it too much to ask that it really benefit migratory birds - ducks - when they winter here?)

4. Increase Migratory Bird Stamp cost to adjust for inflation to increase waterfowl production ground management and acquisition.
(Fifteen dollars doesn't buy what it used to.)

5. Re-evaluate population status of CITES-listed waterfowl such as spectacled and Stellar's eiders, and emporer geese. The possible bidding of limited special use permits for the taking of such species would (1) stimulate additional public interest and (2) generate addition funding for these species. Note: Consider what limited-draw hunt permits for Desert Bighorns did for that species!
(There are actually MORE spectacled eiders known to exist world-wide today than there were when you could still actually hunt them - back before they even knew where the birds nested - and yet while Native Americans are still alowed to harvest their eggs, as in the instance of emporer geese, recent CITES rulings forbid their being imported to the US from Russia, where last I recall they could still be hunted without limits, or even sold among private aviaries. Now consider - reckon they'd ever try that with pintail, scaup, canvasbacks or black ducks...you know, those species that are "struggling" but still there's an open season?)

6. Reconcile treatise elements specific to the taking of CITES-listed waterfowl by Native Americans with both the population needs of the species and with what the sporting taxpayers of America are likewise permitted by Federal law to do!
(US taxpayers-only can't hunt them, but the Natives can collect eggs for breakfast and shoot without seasons or limits? WTF!)

7. Implement predator trapping on smale-scale waterfowl production areas.
(I'm talking federal dollars, not citizens operating under special permit provisions..."protect the best and trap the rest").

Don't like my comments - submit yours and make yourself heard!

Email sent thanks for the heads up DR2

allow us to hunt 30 minutes after suset and shoot 10 wooducks a day..

that should make gh22 happy!!! bwabwaa

http://www.ducks.org/News/032306.asp

Waterfowl Hunters Encouraged to Comment On Migratory Bird Hunting

MEMPHIS, Tenn., March 23, 2006 – Duck and goose hunters have a great opportunity to let the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) know what they think about migratory bird management in the United States. During the next 34 days, USFWS will hold 12 public meetings around the country to hear what you have to say. It's all part of a process that will result in drafting a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) on the hunting of migratory birds.

The SEIS will consider a range of management alternatives for addressing sport hunting of migratory birds under the authority of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. You can also send comments directly to the USFWS.

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.

Ducks Unlimited, a world leader in wetland and waterfowl conservation, supports sustainable use and harvest of renewable resources based on sound science. We support migratory bird hunting, when conducted in an ethical and sustainable manner, as a legitimate and acceptable use of a renewable resource and encourage our supporters to make comments to the USFWS in support of migratory bird hunting.

The SEIS will update the 1975 EIS and 1988 SEIS for issuing annual hunting regulations.

Written comments from the public are due by May 30, 2006. Send comments 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. Or fax your comments to (703) 358-2217 or e-mail huntingseis@fws.gov.


For more information, please see http://www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/fedreg/MGBHR.HTML

The 12 public meetings are listed below.


March 24, 2006: Columbus, Ohio, at the Hyatt Regency Columbus, 350 North High Street; 1 p.m.

March 28, 2006: Memphis, Tennessee, at the Holiday Inn Select Downtown, 160 Union Avenue; 7 p.m.

March 30, 2006: Rosenburg, Texas, at the Texas Agricultural Extension Service Education Center, 1402 Band Road, Suite 100, Highway 36; 7 p.m.

April 5, 2006: Anchorage, Alaska, at the Howard Johnson Motel, 239 North 4th Avenue; 7 p.m.

April 6, 2006: Denver, Colorado, at the Colorado Department of Wildlife, Northeast Region Service Center, Hunter Education Building, 6060 Broadway; 7 p.m.

April 10, 2006: Hadley, Massachusetts, at the Northeast Regional Office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 300 Westgate Center Drive; 7 p.m.

April 12, 2006: Charleston, South Carolina, at the Fort Johnson Marine Laboratory, 217 Fort Johnson Road, James Island; 7 p.m.

April 19, 2006: Fargo, North Dakota, at the Best Western Doublewood Inn, 3333 13th Avenue South; 7 p.m.

April 20, 2006: Bloomington, Minnesota, at the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge Visitors Center, 3815 East 80th Street; 7 p.m.

April 24, 2006: Salt Lake City, Utah, at the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, 1594 West North Temple; 7 p.m.

April 26, 2006: Arlington, Virginia, at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 4401 North Fairfax Drive, Room 200; 1 p.m.

April 26, 2006: Sacramento, California, at the California Department of Fish and Game, Auditorium, Resource Building, 1416 Ninth Street; 7 p.m.

Contact: Gregg Patterson
901-758-3937
gpatterson@ducks.org

With more than a million supporters, Ducks Unlimited is the world's largest and most effective wetland and waterfowl conservation organization. The United States alone has lost more than half of its original wetlands ­− nature's most productive ecosystem − and continues to lose more than 100,000 wetland acres each year.

I hate to say it, but did the point system not help years ago. At the risk of a pissing contest i feel we need to cut back on the amount of ducks shot for a few years. It seems to me when the majority of this board were old enough to hunt on there own we had just come out of many years of lower limits. If you guys remeber ten, fifteen years ago, we had plenty. I think its time to cut back for awhile again.
JMHO
Spoon

Comments sent! Thanks RR

Allow limited hunting on refuges

I sent in my comments and forwarded the info to several hunters not on the forums.

Do anyway with a daily bag limit for the honor system.

tell you what would be neat..

early teal season consits of either one of the following: (1) a 9 day season or (2) a 16 day season..

i wish that there was a way that we as the hunters could pick the days during the month of sept. that we want to hunt... some years you'd take your days in early sept.. some years youd opt to wait for the later part of sept... just according to if you on the birds or naught..

theres so many factors that its such a crap shoot to begin with. it'd be nice if there was some lee-way in picking the days that you wanted to hunt.. of course you wouldn't be able to hunt more than the # of days allowed by the feds..

how many times have we seen teal in a spot and then gone 2 days later if not sooner.. how many times has a big ol storm blew in that disrupted the birds..

finally if nothing else.. early goose season always starts on sept 1... screw that.. i would like to see the early goose season open when the teal season is open.. it doesn't hurt anything to have that overlap..

there have been days where i was teal hunting and didn't see anything but geese.. and there have been days where i was goose hunting and didn't see anything but teal..

If anything at all duck stamps should be raised CONSIDERABLY. And spinner users should be publicly castorated.

greenheadgrimreaper wrote:If anything at all duck stamps should be raised CONSIDERABLY. And spinner users should be publicly castorated.

Speaking of which...

The House is trying to pass a resolution to increase duck stamp revenues and forward the USFWS $400,000,000 for wetland conservation. The cost of a stamp will be $25 from 2007 to 2014 and then $35 after 2014. More info here is the link with the text of the resolution, as well as which representatives have singed on. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.r.04315

H.R.4315
Title: To amend the Acts popularly known as the Duck Stamp Act and the Wetland Loan Act to reauthorize appropriations to promote the conservation of migratory waterfowl and to offset or prevent the serious loss of important wetlands and other waterfowl habitat essential to the preservation of such waterfowl, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Rep Kennedy, Mark R. [MN-6] (introduced 11/14/2005) Cosponsors (83) Latest Major Action: 11/28/2005 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Fisheries and Oceans.