ADC ?

[Mallardsr]

The following was found at the following link . http://www.greenscissors.org/agriculture/wshistory.html


Wildlife Services History

In 1914, under pressure from ranchers, Congress appropriated the first funds dedicated to "experiments and demonstrations of predator control." These appropriations expanded during World War I in an effort to increase meat production. Following the war, the USDA initiated an "Eradication Methods Laboratory" in New Mexico. The lab was moved to Denver in 1921 where it remains in operation today.

The Animal Damage Control Act

On March 2, 1931, Congress enacted the Animal Damage Control Act, which authorized the USDA to control damage to agricultural interests, including livestock, caused by animals. The law, signed by President Hoover, directed the Secretary of Agriculture to "determine, demonstrate, and promulgate the best methods of eradication, suppression, or bringing under control on national forests and other areas of public domain as well as on State, Territory or privately owned lands predators and other animals injurious to agriculture."

Investigations of Animal Damage Control

Throughout its history, the Animal Damage Control (ADC) program (renamed Wildlife Services in 1997) has been controversial. In 1930, after wolves had been extirpated from Yellowstone Park, the American Society of Mammalogists stated its opposition to Animal Damage Control. In 1963, Interior Secretary Stewart Udall appointed an advisory committee to investigate the killing of wildlife by Animal Damage Control. The committee condemned the ADC program, charging it with "indiscriminate, non-selective and excessive wildlife killing." Similar panels were appointed under Presidents Johnson, Nixon and Carter all of which were highly critical of the program. In 1972, President Nixon signed an executive order banning the use of toxicants for predator control by federal agencies or for use on federal lands. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency canceled registrations of the poisonous compound 1080, strychnine, sodium cyanide and thallium sulfate. The bans were short-lived. Under pressure from western livestock interests, Presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan lifted the restrictions on the toxicants, many of which are still used by Wildlife Services operators today.

Transfer of Animal Damage Control to U.S. Department of Agriculture

In 1985, at the bequest of the western livestock industry, Senator Jesse Helms and 19 western senators wrote to President Reagan requesting the transfer of Animal Damage Control from the U.S. Department of the Interior to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Economist Randal O'Toole, who conducted an audit of the program in 1994, speculates that the move made it harder to cut the program's budget as members of Congress who serve on agricultural committees are less "environmentally inclined" than those who serve on interior committees. The transfer was completed in 1986 as a result of an amendment to a 1986 continuing federal budget resolution.

As a result of the transfer, ADC was required to write a programmatic environmental impact statement covering its entire program. The agency spent nearly eight years preparing the programmatic EIS. During this time, ADC operated with no official program. In 1993, the national director of the Bureau of Land Management Jim Bacca ordered state offices to cease all ADC activities in districts where no current environmental assessment or ADC plan existed. Bacca made exceptions for cases of "emergency control." Thousands of animals were killed under the auspices of "emergency control" until 1995 when ADC announced its Record of Decision (ROD) at a Congressional Appropriations hearing. The ROD stated that local ADC personnel may utilize any of the methods discussed in the environmental impact statement at their discretion.

In 1995, a General Accounting Office study of the program reported that although written guidance instructs ADC field personnel to give preference to non-lethal methods of control for livestock predators, most personnel nevertheless relied exclusively on lethal control methods such as trapping and shooting. Moreover, the study reported, a livestock operator's use of nonlethal control methods is not a prerequisite for receiving assistance from the wildlife services program.

A new name and mission

In response to criticism and an attempt to change its image, the Animal Damage Control Program has expanded its mission to include such activities as protecting crops from blackbird damage and airplanes from geese. It also changed its name to Wildlife Services in 1997. Despite these changes, the largest portion of its resources are still dedicated to lethal predator control. In fiscal year 1998, Wildlife Services' livestock protection program accounted for 42% of the total Wildlife Services budget - three times more than the amount spent on human health and safety and seven times greater than the amount spent on natural resources.

Recent congressional reform attempts have been largely unsuccessful. In 1999, Congress successfully voted to end federal funding for lethal predator control, but the victory was reversed in a revote on the following day. In 2000, the Senate appropriated $1 million for four pilot studies on non-lethal methods of predator control.

Wildlife Services Operations

Operations are divided into four categories: agriculture (which includes livestock protection), human health and safety, property and natural resources.

Wildlife Services receives funding annually through the agriculture appropriations bill for both operations and research. In addition to federal funds, the program receives state, county and private sources of funding.

Wildlife Services is divided into two regions, an Eastern region and Western region. States comprising the Eastern region include: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

States comprising the western region include: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Guam, Hawaii, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

[Jimmie in Ky]

 A search of th USDA website will turn up the coyote study program based in Utah. That is where you can get th most up to date info on them. How to recognize a coyote kill and anything else you would want to know about coyotes is there. Jimmie

[ErictheRed]

Interesting stuff.  I heard in the east they spend more time on beavers than they do anything else.

[ohiobob]

THANK GOD Ohio is in the EAST,,how come there are a lot more states in the East then there is in the West?
because years ago there were a TON more Coyotes in the West and just in the last few years they have expanded into the East ?
Bob