[Code of Federal Regulations]

[Title 50, Volume 6]

[Revised as of October 1, 2006]

From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access

[CITE: 50CFR21.61]



[Page 100-104]

 

                    TITLE 50--WILDLIFE AND FISHERIES

 

 CHAPTER I--UNITED STATES FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE 

                          INTERIOR (CONTINUED)

 

PART 21_MIGRATORY BIRD PERMITS--Table of Contents

 

      Subpart E_Control of Overabundant Migratory Bird Populations

 

Sec.  21.61  Population control of resident Canada geese.



    (a) Which Canada geese are covered by this regulation? This 

regulation addresses the population control of resident Canada geese, as 

defined in Sec.  21.3.

    (b) What is the resident Canada goose population control program, 

and what is its purpose? The resident Canada goose population control 

program is a managed take program implemented under the authority of the 

Migratory Bird Treaty Act to reduce and stabilize resident Canada goose 

populations when



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traditional and otherwise authorized management measures are 

unsuccessful, not feasible for dealing with, or applicable, in 

preventing injury to property, agricultural crops, public health, and 

other interests from resident Canada geese. The Director is authorized 

to allow States and Tribes to implement a population control, or managed 

take, program to remedy these injuries. When authorized by the Director, 

managed take allows additional methods of taking resident Canada geese, 

allows shooting hours for resident Canada geese to extend to one-half 

hour after sunset, and removes daily bag limits for resident Canada 

geese inside or outside the migratory bird hunting season frameworks as 

described in this section. The intent of the program is to reduce 

resident Canada goose populations in order to protect personal property 

and agricultural crops and other interests from injury and to resolve 

potential concerns about human health. The management and control 

activities allowed or conducted under the program are intended to 

relieve or prevent damage and injurious situations. No person should 

construe this program as opening, reopening, or extending any hunting 

season contrary to any regulations established under section 3 of the 

Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

    (c) What areas are eligible to participate in the program? When 

approved by the Director, the State and Tribal wildlife agencies of 

Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, 

Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, 

Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, 

Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North 

Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, 

South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West 

Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming may implement the resident Canada goose 

population control program components in the Atlantic, Central, and 

Mississippi Flyway portions of these States.

    (d) What is required in order for State governments to participate 

in a managed take program? Following the conclusion of the first full 

operational year of Sec. Sec.  21.49 through 21.52 of this part, any 

wildlife agency from a State listed in 21.61(c) may request approval for 

the population control program. A request must include a discussion of 

the State's or Tribe's efforts to address its injurious situations 

utilizing the methods approved in this rule or a discussion of the 

reasons why the methods authorized by these rules are not feasible for 

dealing with, or applicable to, the injurious situations that require 

further action. Discussions should be detailed and provide the Service 

with a clear understanding of the injuries that continue, why the 

authorized methods utilized have not worked, and why methods not 

utilized could not effectuate resolution of the injuries. A State's 

request for approval may be for an area or areas smaller than the entire 

State. Upon written approval by the Director, any State or Tribal 

government responsible for the management of wildlife and migratory 

birds may, without permit, kill or cause to be killed under its general 

supervision, resident Canada geese under the following conditions:

    (1) Activities conducted under the managed take program may not 

affect endangered or threatened species as designated under the 

Endangered Species Act.

    (2) Control activities may be conducted under this section only 

between August 1 and August 30.

    (3) Control measures employed through this section may be 

implemented only between the hours of one-half hour before sunrise to 

one-half hour after sunset.

    (4) Nothing in the program may limit or initiate management actions 

on Federal land without concurrence of the Federal agency with 

jurisdiction.

    (5) States and Tribes must designate participants who must operate 

under the conditions of the managed take program.

    (6) States and Tribes must inform participants of the requirements/

conditions of the program that apply.

    (7) States and Tribes must keep annual records of activities carried 

out under the authority of the program. Specifically, information must 

be collected on:



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    (i) The number of individuals participating in the program;

    (ii) The number of days individuals participated in the program;

    (iii) The total number of resident Canada geese shot and retrieved 

during the program; and

    (iv) The number of resident Canada geese shot but not retrieved. The 

States and Tribes must submit an annual report summarizing activities 

conducted under the program and an assessment of the continuation of the 

injuries on or before June 1 of each year to the Chief, Division of 

Migratory Bird Management, 4401 North Fairfax Drive, ms-MBSP-4107, 

Arlington, Virginia 22203.

    (e) What is required for individuals to participate in the program? 

Individual participants in State and Tribal programs covered by the 

managed take program must comply with the following requirements:

    (1) Participants must comply with all applicable State and Tribal 

laws or regulations including possession of whatever permit(s) or other 

authorization(s) may be required by the State or Tribal government 

concerned.

    (2) Participants who take resident Canada geese under the program 

may not sell or offer for sale those birds or their plumage, but may 

possess, transport, and otherwise properly use them.

    (3) Participants must permit at all reasonable times, including 

during actual operations, any Service special agent or refuge officer, 

State or Tribal wildlife or deputy wildlife agent, warden, protector, or 

other wildlife law enforcement officer free and unrestricted access over 

the premises on which such operations have been or are being conducted 

and must promptly furnish whatever information an officer requires 

concerning the operation.

    (4) Participants may take resident Canada geese by any method except 

those prohibited as follows:

    (i) With a trap, snare, net, rifle, pistol, swivel gun, shotgun 

larger than 10 gauge, punt gun, battery gun, machine gun, fish hook, 

poison, drug, explosive, or stupefying substance.

    (ii) From or by means, aid, or use of a sinkbox or any other type of 

low-floating device, having a depression affording the person a means of 

concealment beneath the surface of the water.

    (iii) From or by means, aid, or use of any motor vehicle, motor-

driven land conveyance, or aircraft of any kind, except that paraplegic 

persons and persons missing one or both legs may take from any 

stationary motor vehicle or stationary motor-driven land conveyance.

    (iv) From or by means of any motorboat or other craft having a motor 

attached, or any sailboat, unless the motor has been completely shut off 

and the sails furled, and its progress has ceased. A craft under power 

may be used only to retrieve dead or crippled birds; however, the craft 

may not be used under power to shoot any crippled birds.

    (v) By the use or aid of live birds as decoys. No person may take 

resident Canada geese on an area where tame or captive live geese are 

present unless such birds are, and have been for a period of 10 

consecutive days before the taking, confined within an enclosure that 

substantially reduces the audibility of their calls and totally conceals 

the birds from the sight of resident Canada geese.

    (vi) By means or aid of any motor-driven land, water, or air 

conveyance, or any sailboat used for the purpose of or resulting in the 

concentrating, driving, rallying, or stirring up of resident Canada 

geese.

    (vii) By the aid of baiting, or on or over any baited area, where a 

person knows or reasonably should know that the area is or has been 

baited as described in Sec.  20.11(j) and (k) of this part. Resident 

Canada geese may not be taken on or over lands or areas that are baited 

areas, and where grain or other feed has been distributed or scattered 

solely as the result of manipulation of an agricultural crop or other 

feed on the land where grown, or solely as the result of a normal 

agricultural operation as described in Sec.  20.11(h) and (l) of this 

part. However, nothing in this paragraph prohibits the taking of 

resident Canada geese on or over the following lands or areas that are 

not otherwise baited areas:

    (A) Standing crops or flooded standing crops (including aquatics); 

standing, flooded, or manipulated natural



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vegetation; flooded harvested croplands; or lands or areas where seeds 

or grains have been scattered solely as the result of a normal 

agricultural planting, harvesting, post-harvest manipulation or normal 

soil stabilization practice as described in Sec.  20.11(g), (i), (l), 

and (m) of this part;

    (B) From a blind or other place of concealment camouflaged with 

natural vegetation;

    (C) From a blind or other place of concealment camouflaged with 

vegetation from agricultural crops, as long as such camouflaging does 

not result in the exposing, depositing, distributing, or scattering of 

grain or other feed; or

    (D) Standing or flooded standing agricultural crops where grain is 

inadvertently scattered solely as a result of a hunter entering or 

exiting a hunting area, placing decoys, or retrieving downed birds.

    (E) Participants may not possess shot (either in shotshells or as 

loose shot for muzzleloading) other than steel shot, bismuth-tin, 

tungsten-iron, tungsten-polymer, tungsten-matrix, tungsten-nickel iron, 

or other shots that are authorized in Sec.  20.21(j) of this part.

    (f) Under what conditions would we suspend the managed take program? 

Following authorization by the Director, we will annually assess the 

overall impact and effectiveness of the program on resident Canada goose 

populations to ensure compatibility with long-term conservation of this 

resource. If at any time evidence is presented that clearly demonstrates 

that resident Canada geese populations no longer need to be reduced in 

order to allow resolution or prevention of injury to people, property, 

agricultural crops, or other interests, the Director, in writing, will 

suspend the program for the resident Canada goose population in 

question. However, resumption of injuries caused by growth of the 

population and not otherwise addressable by the methods available in 

part 21 may warrant reinstatement of such regulations. A State must 

reapply for approval, including the same information and discussions 

noted in 21.61(d). Depending on the location of the injury or threat or 

injury, the Director, in writing, may suspend or reinstate this 

authorization for one or more resident Canada goose populations, but not 

others.

    (g) What population information is the State or Tribe required to 

collect concerning the resident Canada goose managed take program? 

Participating States and Tribes must provide an annual estimate of the 

breeding population and distribution of resident Canada geese in their 

State. The States and Tribes must submit this estimate on or before 

August 1 of each year, to the Chief, Division of Migratory Bird 

Management, 4401 N. Fairfax Dr., MBSP-4107, Arlington, Virginia 22203.

    (h) What are the general program conditions and restrictions? The 

program is subject to the conditions elsewhere in this section, and, 

unless otherwise specifically authorized, the following conditions:

    (1) Nothing in this section applies to any Federal land within a 

State's or Tribe's boundaries without written permission of the Federal 

agency with jurisdiction.

    (2) States may not undertake any actions under this section if the 

activities adversely affect other migratory birds or species designated 

as endangered or threatened under the authority of the Endangered 

Species Act. Persons operating under this section must immediately 

report the take of any species protected under the Endangered Species 

Act to the Service. Further, to protect certain species from being 

adversely affected by management actions, States must:

    (i) Follow the Federal State Contingency Plan for the whooping 

crane;

    (ii) Conduct no activities within 300 meters of a whooping crane or 

Mississippi sandhill crane nest; and

    (iii) Follow all Regional (or National when available) Bald Eagle 

Nesting Management guidelines for all management activities.

    (i) Has the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approved the 

information collection requirements of the program? OMB has approved the 

information collection and recordkeeping requirements of the program 

under OMB control number 1018-0133. We may not conduct or sponsor, and 

you are not required to respond to, a collection of information unless 

it displays a currently valid OMB control number. You



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may send comments on the information collection and recordkeeping 

requirements to the Service's Information Collection Clearance Officer, 

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, MS 222--ARLSQ, 1849 C Street, NW., 

Washington, DC 20240.



[71 FR 45992, Aug. 10, 2006]