Trumpeter Swan Advocates and Federal Government Reach Settlement Over Sport Hunting of Rare Birds

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Trumpeter Swan Advocates and Federal Government Reach

Settlement Over Sport Hunting of Rare Birds

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TO NATIONAL, SPORTS AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDITORS:

Trumpeter Swan Advocates and Federal Government Reach

Settlement Over Sport Hunting of Rare Birds

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, WASHINGTON, Mar. 27 -/E-Wire/-- The Fund for Animals, the Biodiversity Legal Foundation, the Utah Environmental Congress, and individual plaintiffs announced that they have reached a settlement with the federal government in their lawsuit challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS) highly controversial sport hunting season of rare trumpeter swans.

The trumpeter swan is the largest waterfowl species in the world, with a wingspan of seven to eight feet. The tri-state population of Rocky Mountain trumpeter swans is a distinct sub-population with only about 350 remaining birds and 70 breeding pairs, and is the subject of a pending emergency petition for listing under the Endangered Species Act. The imperiled trumpeter swan is already listed on the FWS's "Birds of Management Concern" list, a registry of bird species that "are likely to become candidates for listing under the Endangered Species Act."

Under a plan approved by the FWS last year, trumpeter swans could be killed by sport hunters in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming, despite the widespread scientific consensus among trumpeter swan experts that the hunt, in combination with other threats, posed a significant threat to the survival and recovery of the species. The hunting of similar-looking tundra swans also continued.

According to Andrea Lococo, Rocky Mountain coordinator for The Fund for Animals, "A sport hunting season on seriously imperiled trumpeter swans was biologically reckless and legally flawed. The federal government not only failed to list the trumpeter swan as endangered or threatened due to triage with agency funds, but then also decided to play Russian roulette with the last remaining trumpeter swans by allowing a sport hunting season."

In the settlement, the FWS agreed not to authorize the hunting of trumpeter swans in the Pacific Flyway until it has prepared a new Environmental Assessment, which will reconsider the biological issues of hunting trumpeter swans. The EA will be released by April 20, and the public will have 30 days to comment.

Added Jasper Carlton, executive director of the Biodiversity Legal Foundation, "The government's first EA was inadequate, and it should have never given hunters a license to hunt a population that is clearly biologically endangered. A new EA, and a new chance for public comments, is a victory for trumpeter swans and for the public."

The Fund for Animals

Andrea Lococo of The Fund for Animals, [REDACTED-PHONE]; or Jasper

Carlton of Biodiversity Legal Foundation, [REDACTED-PHONE]; or Jonathan Lovvorn,

Esq. of Meyer and Glitzenstein, [REDACTED-PHONE]

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