Sponsors (5)
Requires Interior/FWS to develop regional management frameworks for taking double‑crested cormorants and to conduct 5‑year population surveys and updates.
The bill gives States, Tribes, and local managers stronger, coordinated tools to reduce cormorant damage and monitor populations, at the cost of shifting management burdens to state/local actors and creating localized impacts on wildlife tourism and potential conflicts with endangered‑species protections.
State governments, Tribes, and authorized lake/pond managers can legally control double‑crested cormorant damage under coordinated regional plans, enabling direct protection of fisheries and vegetation on their waters.
State governments and Tribal communities will get regular population surveys every five years to keep cormorant numbers at sustainable levels under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, supporting long‑term ecosystem balance and informed management.
State governments and federal refuge managers will have improved coordination through Regional Flyway Councils and refuge engagement, promoting consistent regional management and reducing conflicts between conservation goals and refuge missions.
State governments, private lake/pond managers, and local jurisdictions may bear shifted costs and enforcement responsibilities for implementing cormorant control, increasing budgetary and administrative burdens at the state and local level.
Rural communities, tribal communities, and local wildlife-tourism operators could lose birdwatching and wildlife‑tourism revenue where authorized lethal or other 'take' reduces local cormorant numbers.
State governments and federal managers may face delays or restrictions where cormorant control actions conflict with protections for ESA-listed species, complicating or limiting some management options.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Official title: To require the Secretary of the Interior to develop regional management frameworks for the take of double-crested cormorants.
Introduced April 2, 2026 by Tim Walberg · Last progress April 2, 2026
Requires the Department of the Interior, through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and in coordination with Regional Flyway Councils, to create regional management frameworks for the take of double‑crested cormorants within 180 days. Frameworks must use existing information, protect sustainable breeding populations under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, identify authorized takers and allowed methods/timing, account for effects on fish, vegetation, other migratory birds, human health, water quality, and ESA‑listed species, and be updated on a 5‑year cycle tied to population surveys.