Sponsors (5)
The bill gives states, tribes, and local managers legal, coordinated tools and monitoring to control damaging cormorant populations, improving local fisheries protection and regional consistency, while shifting costs and responsibilities to local actors and creating risks to wildlife tourism and potential conflicts with endangered‑species protections.
States, Tribes, and authorized lake/pond managers can legally control double‑crested cormorant damage to fisheries and vegetation through coordinated regional plans, enabling more direct local responses to protect fish stocks and aquatic vegetation.
State fishery managers and federal refuge staff will have clearer coordination with Regional Flyway Councils and Refuge managers, producing more consistent regional management and reducing conflicts between conservation and refuge missions.
State and Tribal wildlife managers will receive mandated five‑year population surveys to keep cormorant numbers at sustainable levels under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, improving evidence‑based management.
State agencies, private lake and pond managers, and taxpayers may bear increased costs and enforcement burdens because authority and responsibility for cormorant control are shifted toward state and private actors.
State and federal managers may face delays or restrictions where cormorant control actions intersect with protections for ESA‑listed species, complicating or limiting management and slowing responses to damage.
Rural communities, tribal-lands residents, and wildlife‑tourism operators may see reduced birdwatching and related tourism if authorized lethal or other 'take' reduces local cormorant numbers.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires Interior/USFWS to issue regional management frameworks for taking double‑crested cormorants within 180 days and to conduct 5‑year surveys and updates.
Introduced April 2, 2026 by Tim Walberg · Last progress April 2, 2026
Requires the Secretary 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 of enactment. The frameworks must set allowed methods and times for take, identify authorized takers (including State and Tribal agencies, State‑licensed hunters, lake and pond managers), require consideration of fisheries, vegetation, other migratory birds, human health and safety, water quality, and ESA‑listed species, and establish a cycle of population surveys and 5‑year reviews and updates. Also directs coordination on management actions affecting National Wildlife Refuge units, requires population surveys within 5 years and every 5 years thereafter, and provides definitions for key terms such as double‑crested cormorant, Regional Flyway Councils, Indian Tribe, lake/pond managers, migratory bird, Secretary, and take.