Wildlife Management and Protection Policy

Wildlife Management and Protection Policy

Text: Cubbage et al., 1992

Wildlife Policy in the US• From laissez faire (“let things be”) philosophy

to recognition of dwindling resources

to mgmt of individual species and populations

to ecosystem mgmt

• Before: wildlife policy aimed at conservation of sports game & fish• Now: holistic, include other aspects (ecology, aesthetics, ethics)• ESA of 1973: wildlife protection policy for ecological purposes• Science - to guide wildlife policy: findings interpreted in many ways?• Scientists’ (YOUR) important role in public debates

Ownership of Wildlife2 theories of assigning rights over wildlife:1. Rights assigned to individual private decision makers who

manage the resources in society’s best interest (under private property rights)

Vs.

2. Rights assigned to a gov’t agency who determine optimal harvest levels for each species, provide equality of access to users (not possible in #1)

– essence of American system of property rights in wildlife– rejects traditional private rights in English game law

Ownership of Wildlife

So, who owns wildlife?

Ownership of Wildlife

So, who owns wildlife?

In reality, wildlife cannot be truly owned by any person, private or governmental!!

(Hughes vs. Oklahoma, 1979)(a Supreme Court ruling)

Ownership of Wildlife• State regulates wildlife hunting, even on federal lands• States set hunting seasons, conditions, issue licenses• National Parks Service – often ignore state hunting & fishing regs

– No hunting on national parks• US Fish & Wildlife Service – can choose to manage wildlife

refuges in ways inconsistent with state wildlife law• BLM’s lands – state wildlife law dominates• Forest Service & BLM’s wildlife responsibilities -- directed more

toward habitat protection and enhancement

Ownership of WildlifeItems to ponder about:• Landowners – have ultimate control over wildlife. Why?• What are the chances of private-public partnership on

providing these wildlife access/hunting opportunities here in Iowa? (For. Reserve Law?)

• Since responsibility for wildlife is split between the stewards of resident wildlife populations (the state) and their habitat (the landowners), what issues can you think of relating to regulation and habitat management?

Wildlife Management Objectives4 major wildlife mgmt policy goals derived from English law:

1. to provide for sustained periodic harvests

2. to regulate human behavior (use of weapons, methods of taking wildlife)

3. policy favors particular groups (special hunting privileges, licenses)

4. to promote the rights of animals

Wildlife Management ObjectivesSix common wildlife goals among the states:

1. preserve all species and ecosystems

2. provide non-game wildlife enjoyment opportunities

3. provide hunting opportunities for state residents

4. promote econ. development (attract out-of-state hunters)

5. make wildlife mgmt self-supporting (user fees)

6. use of appropriated funds, other sources to support wildlife mgmt programs

Wildlife Management ObjectivesFour categories of activities constituting wildlife mgmt:

1. habitat management

2. predator control

3. species introduction

4. regulation of wildlife consumers

Aldo Leopold• Professor of Game Mgmt & Conservationist• A Young Forester, A Game Manager, A Wildlife

Ecologist

Aldo Leopold (1887 – 1948)• Illustration compared Leopold’s life and the evolution of wildlife mgmt &

protection in the US• Born in 1887 in Iowa• Started career as forester with Forest Service• Develop comprehensive way of thinking about relationship between humans

and natural world• Wrote first book on game mgmt• Helped launched game mgmt as a profession at Univ. of Wisconsin• Helped establish first administratively protected wilderness area in America• Helped establish Wilderness Society• 1946 – published “A Sand County Almanac”• “Land Ethic”

Aldo Leopold: Forester• 1906 – Leopold enrolled at Yale University for a forestry career • 1909 – Leopold got MS degree, joined Forest Service, worked in SW US• Problem in Southwest: Native wildlife stock was depleted; remaining game

animals were on national forests. FS had no legislative mandate to administer its lands for wildlife or recreation (Organic Act of 1897 provides for timber and watershed only)

• Used forced rest period to think about game conservation and recreation. • Forest Service took Leopold’s idea of recreation compatible with other

forest uses• As chief of recreation planning, Leopold did not favor some areas

subdivided for recreation led to promotion of roadless wilderness areas

Aldo Leopold: Wildlife Manager• 1928 – Leopold left the FS; conducted game surveys in the Lake

States with funding from a trade association• Game mgmt survey appraisal of environmental factors affecting

productivity policy measures to restore game• Replace “kill restrictions” with building up supply through “habitat

mgmt”• Considered new policy stressing:

– idea of production in the wild– encouraging game protection & habitat mgmt by landowners– cooperation with the conservation movement

Aldo Leopold: Wildlife Manager• 1933 – published first ever “Game Management” book• 1934 –on President’s Committee on Wildlife Restoration

– states in better position than fed gov’t to encourage game mgmt practice by private landowners

– promote idea of research and program admin at state level

• 1935 – creation of Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit Program, establishing research units in 9 of the nation’s land grant colleges (Iowa State has one – right here at NREM!)

Aldo Leopold: Wildlife Ecologist• Studied and found German forestry & wildlife mgmt methods to be

highly artificial • Started thinking about systems, not individual species• Objective switched:

Indiv. species protection preserve healthy functioning ecosystem

• “The Land Ethic” – “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”

• “A Sand County Almanac” – Leopold’s greatest legacy; reflections on interrelations of ecology, aesthetics, and ethics.

Monday – March 29, 2010

Wildlife Management and Protection Policy

(continued)

State Wildlife Policy

• Controlling the Take• Increasing Populations and Managing

Habitat• Non-game Concerns

State Wildlife Policy• colonial period to the late 19th century: principal goal of American wildlife

policy was unrestricted taking. Animals were slaughtered for 3 Fs: Food, Furs, and Fun

• special interest groups that carried through the call for real protection and enforcement of laws:

• 1. sports hunters – promoted the sporting values of wildlife• 2. nature lovers – helped develop different attitudes about wildlife• 1880 – all states enacted laws protecting fish & game and most had hired

game protectors/wardens• Hunters joined forces with nature lovers & the ladies’ clubs in the 1980s to

campaign against the slaughter of plume birds• Lacey Act of 1900 – first general federal wildlife statute.

State Wildlife PolicyControlling the Take• Key considerations to early wildlife conservation:

1. policy eliminating killing for mass markets

2. control no. of sports takers – licensing system• Funding from license revenues and federal excise taxes• Wildlife law enforcement significant portion of state

wildlife agency personnel & budgets

State Wildlife Policy• Principal goal of wildlife mgmt maintain population at

levels best for the animals and consistent with people’s cultural, economic, and social needs;– Manage habitat

Non-game Concerns• Policies to protect wildlife have ethical, aesthetic and

ecological dimensions, BUT nongame wildlife programs not funded well compared to traditional game programs

Federal Wildlife Policy• Starting 1900, Congress enacted a host of wildlife protection statutes• Federal laws impressive but fragmented, incomplete• Fed laws preserve important roles for states, yet limits state mgmt

discretion• States retain control over wildlife within their borders but may exercise

power only within framework of federal constitutional law• Principal thrust of federal wildlife policy cooperate with states to

facilitate sport goals• New policies reflecting ecological concerns for species preservation

are some of most controversial natural resource issues of 1990s.

US Fish & Wildlife Service• Administers many of the laws protecting wildlife• Charge: protection & restoration of migratory &

endangered wildlife species• 1939: two agencies (USDA Biological Survey, and USDC

Bureau of Fisheries) transferred to USDI• 1956: Congress renamed it to US F&W Service

– F&WS had 2 bureaus (Bu. of Sports Fisheries & Wildlife and the Bu. of Commercial Fisheries)

– Bu. of Comm. Fisheries transferred to Dept of Commerce (1970), and renamed as National Marine Fisheries Service.

US Fish & Wildlife ServiceMission: “to protect, conserve, and enhance fish & wildlife and

their habitats for continuing benefit of the American people”. • The seven principal functions of the agency are:

1. manage national wildlife refuge system of 400 refuges (~ 89 million ac)

2. protect endangered species3. protect habitat4. conduct research5. enforce fish & wildlife laws6. provide recreational fishing7. advise other agencies

Federal Wildlife Policy

• Lacey Act• Migratory Bird Conservation Act & Duck

Stamp Act• Animal Damage Control Act• Fish & Wildlife Coordination Act• Taylor Grazing Act & Forest Wildlife

Refuge Act• Fed. Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act• Bald Eagle Act• Fish Restoration and Mgmt. Act• Sikes Act• Land and Water Conservation Fund Act

• Anadromous Fish Conserv. Act• National Wildlife Refuge System

Administration Act• Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros

Protection Act• Fed. Water Pollution Control Laws• Marine Mammal Protection Act• Endangered Species Act• Fishery Conservation & Mgmt Act• Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act• Pacific Northwest Power Planning

Conservation Act• Federal Land Management

Principal Laws

3 Other Federal Laws

How do the following affect wildlife management? – NEPA of 1970

– NFMA of 1976 (FS)

– FLPMA of 1976 (BLM)

2 Trends in Federal Wildlife LawThere are two trends in federal wildlife law that are worth noting.• 1st -- the requirement that agencies consult with US F&W S in

planning the dev’t of land and water resources in order to consider wildlife needs (mandated by the Fish & Wildlife Coordination Act of 1934, as amended in 1946 and 1958, and the ESA of 1973)

• 2nd – combination of public participation and ecosystem mgmt in the planning process (concept of wildlife as a “public trust” resource and its use shall be accomplished with broadest possible public participation) (influenced by the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 and ESA of 1973)

Managing Habitat and Ecosystems• Congress allows some hunting & fishing on most federal

land systems, including wilderness areas• The regulation of taking is left to the discretion of the

states• National parks closed to hunting• National monuments, reserves, preserves, & recreational

areas some hunting allowed

• Public land mgmt today is undergoing transformation into ecosystem-based mgmt.

Protecting Biological Diversity• Endangered Species Act

– Listing– Critical Habitat– Protection

Endangered Species ActPurposes:1. to provide a means whereby the ecosystems upon which

endangered species depend may be conserved, 2. to provide a program for the conservation of such endangered

species

Objective of FWS based on ESA: “… to improve the status of endangered or threatened species so that they can be delisted.”

2 main processes created by ESA:– designation of species and their critical habitat through “listing” and– protection

• Listing process is needed before protection through ESA can be set in motion!

Endangered Species Act: Listing• Listing – selecting species to be put on the endangered species list.• Conservation: “the use of all methods and procedures which are necessary to bring

any endangered or threatened species to the point at which the measures are no longer necessary.”

• Endangered species “any species which is in danger of extinction throughout all or any significant portion of its range.”

• Threatened species species “likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future.”

• 5 criteria defined by law for this listing:– the present or threatened destruction, modification, or curtailment of its habitat or range.– overutilization for commercial, recreational, scientific, or educational purposes.– disease or predation.– the inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms.– other natural or manmade factors affecting its continued existence.

Endangered Species Act: Critical Habitat• Critical habitat “the area occupied by the species at

the time of listing and essential to its conservation.”• Critical habitat designation – among most controversial

aspects of FWS activities!• Nonbiological factors, including economics, are to be

used in determining critical habitat.

Endangered Species Act: Protection• Protection involves three prohibitions and required consultation among

agencies. Prohibitions are:1. Trade in endangered species without a permit

2. No person may take an endangered species.

3. A federal agency may not act unless it insures that its action will neither jeopardize a species nor adversely affect designated its critical habitat.

• Term definitions:– Take “means to harass, harm pursue, hunt, shoot. Wound, kill, trap, capture, or

collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct.”– Harm “an act which actually kills of injures wildlife by significantly impairing

essential behavior patterns, including breeding, feeding, or sheltering.”– Jeopardize “to engage in an action that reasonably may be expected, directly

or indirectly, to reduce the reproduction, numbers, or distribution of the species.”

Endangered Species ActEconomics and the ESA• ESA now includes economic concerns (not until spotted

owl listing)• 1978 amendments required economic concerns to be

considered in the designation of critical habitat after a species has been listed.

• 1988 amendment requires FWS to report annually on a species-by-species basis all federal expenditures and grants to states for the conservation of species under the act.

Endangered Species ActThe God Committee or the God Squad (Endangered Species Committee)• The 1978 amendment created the Endangered Species Committee (or the

God Committee)• Committee decides whether or not a particular species could be exempted

from the ESA• Committee may be convened when there are irreconcilable conflict between

a development project and species conservation needs• Composition: chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, USDA sec, USDI

sec (committee chair), USDoD sec, EPA administrator, and administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. President also appoints one individual from each affected state.

Endangered Species Act

Always a controversial policy, much debates during re-authorization.

So,

Should the ESA be reauthorized?