U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department to Host Waterfowl Forum

July 25, 2005

Spencer Vaa, SDGFP, 605-688-4786

Barb Perkins, FWS 303-236-4588

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks Department to Host Waterfowl Forum

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks Department are hosting a Waterfowl Forum to discuss how waterfowl regulations and seasons are set each year; and solicit community input to ensure better communications during the regulation-setting process.

Topics for discussion will include waterfowl ecology and management; and the regulation setting process. Attendees will have ample time to ask questions and provide comments.

“This Forum is intended to facilitate an exchange of information and ideas between the agencies responsible for waterfowl management and the interested public,” said Ralph Morgenweck, Regional Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Mountain-Prairie Region.

Game, Fish and Parks Waterfowl Biologist Spencer Vaa of Brookings encourages waterfowl hunters to mark their calendars for August 10, as this is a unique opportunity to meet with federal and state waterfowl biologists.

When: Wednesday, August 10, 2005
7 pm – 9 pm

Where:         The Best Western Event Center
                       1901 9^th Avenue, SW
                        Watertown, South Dakota

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal Federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System which encompasses nearly 545 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resource offices and 81 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces Federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Aid program that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.

For more information about the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
visit our home page at www.fws.gov


	The Mountain-Prairie Region