Proposed Rule Could Curb Predator Control and Planting Grains for Waterfowl in Refuges. Hunting Orgs Now Wonder, Is USFWS Turning Against Duck Hunters?

Mallards loafing at the Rainwater Basin National Wildlife Refuge in Nebraska. Photo by USFWS

The proposed regulations are a step toward minimizing the critical role hunters have played in establishing and maintaining refuges across the country

A sign posted at a national wildlife refuge that reads “Waterfowl production area … Purchased with Duck Stamp Dollars.” Photo by USFWS

By Andrew McKean – Outdoor Life

In the pantheon of federal agencies, where acronyms massacre clarity and where layers of bureaucracy disguise intent, BIDEH seems especially sleepy and unremarkable.

Those letters stand for Biological Integrity, Diversity, and Environmental Health of the National Wildlife Refuge System, but what they represent is anything but sleepy. The federal rules, proposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, have whipped hook-and-bullet conservation groups into a froth during the past weeks. That’s because, depending on how you interpret the application of BIDEH to the nation’s nearly 600 national wildlife refuges, it’s a first step to minimizing the role of hunters on these public properties.

But for the federal wildlife managers who oversee refuges, the blowback to BIDEH’s intent is itself surprising, because they claim it simply emphasizes management tools that have guided the refuge system for decades but which are being revisited in the context of climate change and human-caused habitat stress. Besides, they say, the goals of BIDEH should be widely shared by groups committed to healthy wildlife habitat since federal refuges are specifically managed for wildlife above all other purposes. CONTINUE READING