Summary

Description

As a result of a 2003 lawsuit filed by the Fund for Animals, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Service is addressing the cumulative impacts of hunting at 37 national wildlife refuges across the country which initiated new hunt programs from 19972003. Environmental assessments EAs prepared for these programs, as well as for the 30 refuges that were opened for hunting since the lawsuit was filed and seven additional refuges that proposed to establish new hunt programs in 20062007, are being amended or rewritten. A total of 74 refuges are affected by this decision. Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge NWR is one of the 30 refuges which established a hunt program after the 2003 lawsuit. Because the original analysis for the proposed hunt was completed as part of the Comprehensive Conservation Plan CCP process, it has been determined that an entirely new EA must be written to address the impact of hunt programs at Great Meadows NWR.