Assessing the Impact of Interior Department Turnover
08/01/2006

International hunting interests are bound to be impacted by the turnover of leadership within the US Department of Interior. We view it as a setback for administrative reform of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and for improvements in trophy importation and relief from excessive trophy seizures.

It all began with the exodus of Secretary Gale Norton. That was followed by the departure of Judge Craig Manson who served as Assistant Secretary of Interior over Parks and Wildlife, i.e., parks and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The Director of USF&WS, Steve Williams, also resigned to head the Wildlife Management Institute.

Matt Hogan became the Acting Director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service until David Hall was appointed. Then, Matt became Acting Assistant Secretary of Interior to replace Judge Craig Manson. Now Matt Hogan has left the Department of Interior. He recently agreed to head the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, which has changed it’s name from the “International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.”

David Smith, the Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Interior over Parks and the US Fish and Wildlife Service has now resigned.

These people had promised reform of the restrictions on importation of hunting trophies so that tourist hunting could more fully serve the conservation of listed game animals. Of course, game animals have an added chance for survival because of their game animal status if licensed, regulated hunting can be utilized as a tool to proactively support them.

The leaders have left office without getting any ESA administrative reform completed at all. David Smith was the so-called “point man” spearheading ESA trophy importation reform in the Bush Administration. Those in the US Fish and Wildlife Service including the Director had deferred ESA trophy importation reform to David from the time of his appointment at the beginning of the Bush Administration. He had also promised to provide Conservation Force with a draft Memorandum of Understanding to make trophy import permitting more customer friendly and conservation responsible and accountable. That promise grew out of the Whitehouse Conference on Cooperation Conservation at which federal agencies offered to work cooperatively with NGOs for common conservation causes, but was focused inwardly or domestically. We prevailed upon David to include import permitting. David has departed without completing any of those important promises.

Significant turnover continues at the USF&WS staff level as well. Javier Alvarez resigned from his position as Branch Chief for non-detriment findings and trade monitoring in the Division of Scientific Authority. He is expected to be replaced by Rosemary Gham that has been in the International Office in the past.

The impact of these changes in leadership and staff are significant. The relationship building and education process must start all over again with new appointees and staff. Literally, everyone that we have relied upon for nearly six years has bailed-out.

So what is the status quo? Despite promises from the Department of Interior and unprecedented efforts on the part of Conservation Force, no trophy import permits for new species or new destinations of any kind have been issued for more than six years! Importation of those “threatened” species that have been stalled in limbo include Mozambique elephant trophy import permits pending back to the year 2000 when that country adopted its elephant management plan and reopened elephant hunting. It includes polar bear from the Gulf of Boothia region that Conservation Force petitioned the USF&WS to begin permitting when the long awaited state of the art population study demonstrated its increasing population. It includes trophy importation of game species listed as “endangered” such as Markhor in the Torghar Project in Pakistan, captive bred black faced impala in Namibia, wood bison in the Yukon, and cheetah in Namibia.

Our experience confirms that the USF&WS treats trophy import permitting as a “low priority” (low and not a priority) that is not to be favored. There is a prevalent bias against permitting, i.e., an unfavorable attitude. The Service has had the habit of growing its responsibilities without a corresponding budget or competent personnel. They even have a record of hiring staff from the Humane Society of the United States, HSUS, and permitting personnel offended at the very sight of a mounted trophy.

To top it off, the Service has become more unforgiving of permitting errors and mistakes. Seizures of trophies at time of import have worsened. The Solicitors treat trophies as “illegal contraband” when there is any CITES or ESA error whatsoever which wholly deprives the importing hunter of any equitable remedy, i.e., the Solicitors turn a legal deaf ear to claims that the seizure is excessive or that the technical error should be forgiven or that the hunter is personally innocent of any fault. If this were not bad enough, Judge Craig Manson authorized the publication of the proposal to adopt new restrictive CITES trophy regulations before he left office and Matt Hogan and David Smith bailed-out before these proposed new regulations were resolved. That proposal wholly rejects the quota and non-detriment resolutions adopted more than a decade ago by CITES to address the obstructive practices and policies of the USF&WS. That proposal would follow the suggestions of anti-hunting interests that the term “trophy” no longer includes “functional” items made of animal parts such as elephant feet and bone jewelry and that donations to charitable museums be made a criminal offense. Those that have bailed out have left us facing the prospect of the worse CITES importing regulations and practices ever to be proposed and no ESA reform.

In summary, we have not moved forward. We have stalled over the past six years with dire consequences for our range nation conservation partners. Many conservationists in foreign countries have understandably lost their faith to continue. The empty promises have frustrated Conservation Force leadership and wasted our energy and resources as well. There have been positive domestic developments in the past six-years but they have not been relevant to hunters that travel and the conservation programs dependent upon those tourist hunters. Now those that promised reform are gone. There is still time for this Administration to help us, but it probably has to be ordered and policed from the very top down, not from the bottom up.

Conservation Force has forged a new partnership with the U.S. Sportsmen Alliance (USAA) to better represent hunters on some of these issues such as the proposed CITES regulations. All contributions to Conservation Force are tax deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law. Send your contribution online or print the form and send to Conservation Force at 3240 S. I-10 Service Rd., W. Suite 200, Metairie, LA, 70001-6911. We need your help now.
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