The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced that it is seeking comments by Monday, June 7 on its proposal to revoke the Jan. 7 final rule defining the scope of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act to clarify that the law’s prohibitions on pursuing, hunting, taking, capturing, killing, or attempting to do the same apply only to actions directed at migratory birds, their nests, or their eggs. The proposed rule was subsequently formally published.
Interior Sec. Deb Haaland called the Migratory Bird Treaty Act “a bedrock environmental law that is critical to protecting migratory birds and restoring declining bird populations” and said that the proposed revocation “will serve to better align Interior with its mission and ensure that our decisions are guided by the best-available science.”
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Principal Deputy Director Martha Williams called migratory bird conservation “an integral part of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s mission,” and added that the agency “heard from our partners, the public, Tribes, states and numerous other stakeholders from across the country that it is imperative the previous administration’s rollback of the MBTA be reviewed to ensure continued progress toward commonsense standards that protect migratory birds.”
The Jan. 7 final rule had been set to take effect on Feb. 8, but USFWS extended the effective date through March 8 and sought comments on issues of fact, law, and policy raised by the delayed rule, and whether it should be amended, rescinded, delayed pending further agency review, or allowed to take effect.
