Opinion ID: 2824567
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Predator Damage Control Activities in Nevada

Text: APHIS and the Nevada Department of Wildlife currently share responsibility for predator damage control in Nevada. Together, the two form the Nevada Wildlife Services Program (“NWSP”). NWSP has been conducting predator damage management in Nevada for over eighty years. APHIS provides significant funding, staffing, and supervision for NWSP’s activities. Nevada also provides some funding and personnel. In 2010, the then-Director of the Nevada Department of Wildlife, Kenneth Mayer, wrote a letter to APHIS (the “Mayer Letter”) stating that, if APHIS stopped conducting predator damage management in Nevada, the Nevada Department of Wildlife would retain statutory responsibility for wildlife control and would either “carry out the management of wildlife with existing personnel or contract the work to other capable entities.” In June 2011, APHIS issued an environmental assessment for NWSP’s ongoing predator damage management program in Nevada. The 2011 environmental assessment incorporated by reference APHIS’s 1994/1997 PEIS. The assessment considered five alternatives for predator management in Nevada, including ending federal involvement. The assessment stated that, if federal 8 WILDEARTH GUARDIANS V. USDA involvement ceased, Nevada likely would engage in some predator damage management, but that it was “unlikely” that Nevada would conduct predator control at the level of the current program. The assessment noted that the effects on the environment of ceasing federal involvement were uncertain because they would depend on the actions of private individuals, who might attempt predator management on their own. The assessment nevertheless made some predictions about the likely rates of certain methods of predator control. Specifically, the assessment stated that the killing of ravens (a Nevada predator) “would be likely to decrease substantially” because Nevada would not have access to the same avicide used by APHIS. The assessment further hypothesized that ending federal involvement would greatly reduce aerial hunting of predator species, but would increase other forms of predator hunting. Ultimately, the 2011 environmental assessment concluded that continuing the joint APHIS-Nevada predator damage management program would not have significant environmental impacts, but that monitoring of the program’s impacts on wildlife populations should continue. APHIS issued a finding of no significant impact and therefore did not order a Nevada-specific EIS.