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COMMITTEE REPORT
January 24, 2002
H. 4522
S. Printed 1/24/02--H.
Read the first time January 16, 2002.
To whom was referred a Concurrent Resolution (H. 4522) to memorialize the Congress to require the United States Fish and Wildlife Service provide the State of South Carolina and the Atlantic Flyway States with the same waterfowl season framework afforded, etc., respectfully
That they have duly and carefully considered the same and recommend that the same do pass:
RONALD N. FLEMING for Committee.
TO MEMORIALIZE THE CONGRESS TO REQUIRE THE UNITED STATES FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE PROVIDE THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA AND THE ATLANTIC FLYWAY STATES WITH THE SAME WATERFOWL SEASON FRAMEWORK AFFORDED THE SIX STATES IN THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI FLYWAY, AND TO COMMEND THE SOUTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES FOR AGGRESSIVELY PURSUING THE REGULATORY OPTIONS NECESSARY TO PROVIDE HUNTERS IN SOUTH CAROLINA WITH THE SAME WATERFOWL HUNTING OPPORTUNITIES AFFORDED TO HUNTERS IN OTHER STATES.
Whereas, waterfowl hunting is a time-honored tradition enjoyed annually by approximately twenty-four thousand hunters in South Carolina each year; and
Whereas, a South Carolina survey of all 1998 waterfowl hunters indicated that those hunters who responded spent an average of $809 that year for equipment, transportation, lodging, food, dogs, and hunting related items, resulting in a minimum expenditure of $4.683 million, a very significant economic impact upon local and state economies; and
Whereas, the Flyway Council System, of which the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources is a participant as a member of the Atlantic Flyway Council, is the established and accepted method of scientifically setting waterfowl season frameworks through the coordinated efforts of state agencies and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and has been a reliable and trusted method for setting waterfowl regulations, balancing the dual interests of hunter opportunity, and sustainable waterfowl populations nationwide; and
Whereas, in 1998, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provided Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee, the lower-tier states of the Mississippi Flyway, with an option to extend their waterfowl season to January 31 if those states took a corresponding penalty by giving up the same number of days by which the season is extended at the front end of their waterfowl season; and
Whereas, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service action in granting the lower-tier states of the Mississippi Flyway an option to extend their waterfowl season deviated from the established method of managing waterfowl based on scientific criteria and did not follow the normal regulatory process through the Flyway Councils System; and
Whereas, the initiation of waterfowl season framework extensions by the service outside of the normal, long-established, and universally accepted regulatory process for only a few states in a single flyway undermines the stakeholder support for the process and increases the potential for damaging the integrity of the Flyway Council System; and
Whereas, to further exacerbate the problem of inequity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in a Federal Register Notice on October 11, 2001, considered allowing those same states in the lower Mississippi Flyway to extend their waterfowl season with no corresponding reduction in days at the front end of their waterfowl season, and without providing the same extension opportunity to states within the Atlantic Flyway; and
Whereas, the service's method of selectively providing the season extension option to only a few states as well as the method of amending existing inequities that bring disproportional hunting opportunities to only a few states is unacceptable to South Carolina, and is an injustice that must be corrected; and
Whereas, the State of South Carolina through its South Carolina Department of Natural Resources has been vigorously involved in working with our Congressional Delegation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Flyway Councils over the past three years to obtain equity in the allocation of waterfowl hunting opportunities for South Carolina and the other Atlantic Flyway states; and
Whereas, granting South Carolina and the other Atlantic Flyway states the same season extension option afforded the lower-tier Mississippi Flyway states should have no effect upon the overall harvest of waterfowl inasmuch as the service's own assessment of such a framework extension for the Atlantic Flyway indicated that the extension would have little or no effect on the overall harvest of mid-continent mallards. Now, therefore,
Be it resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring:
That the members of the South Carolina General Assembly, by this resolution, memorialize the Congress to require the United States Fish and Wildlife Service provide the State of South Carolina and the Atlantic Flyway states with the same waterfowl season framework afforded the six states in the lower Mississippi Flyway.
Be it further resolved that the members of the South Carolina General Assembly commend the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources for aggressively pursuing the regulatory options necessary to provide hunters in South Carolina with the same waterfowl hunting opportunities afforded to hunters in other states.
Be it further resolved that copies of this resolution be forwarded to the Honorable Richard G. Lugar, Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, the Honorable Larry Combest, Chairman, House Agriculture Committee, the Honorable Gale Norton, Secretary of the Interior, to members of the South Carolina Congressional Delegation, and the Honorable Paul A. Sanders, Ph.D., Director, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.
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