The Fish and Wildlife Service is ending annual rulemaking for migratory bird hunting seasons, and every commenter except two asked it not to move to a three-year cycle

Two documents reached public inspection at a quarter past four on Thursday afternoon. One ends the annual federal rulemaking that opens the migratory bird hunting season, and the other is the memorandum that replaces it.

The Fish and Wildlife Service currently publishes at least four documents in the Federal Register every year to authorise seasonal migratory game bird hunting: a preliminary proposed rule, a proposed rule setting the parameters, a final rule setting them, and a final rule entering each state's chosen seasons into subpart K of 50 CFR part 20. Thursday's final rule removes sections 20.100 to 20.107 and puts a Migratory Game Bird Hunting memorandum in their place, posted on the agency's own website and announced in the Federal Register once every three years, on or before 28 February. It takes effect on publication. That is Monday.

What the states said

The proposed rule appeared on 26 June and drew written comments from 28 individuals and organisations: all four Flyway Councils, the Alaska Migratory Bird Co-management Council, the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, 14 states, two non-governmental organisations, and seven individuals.

Two of the individuals opposed hunting altogether, except for subsistence harvest. The Service records that every other commenter supported the efficiency of the new process and objected to the three-year cycle, on the grounds that it had not been coordinated with the Flyway Councils or the Alaska council, and that its implications, its costs and benefits and its environmental compliance had not been assessed.

The response begins: no change was made.

The Service adds that it will keep making annual decisions on harvest levels, will update the memorandum in years two and three where its decision frameworks prescribe a change, and will keep coordinating with the councils on implementation.

The figure, and the year it comes from

Both documents put the nationwide economic activity generated by migratory game bird hunting at about $2.7bn. The companion notice says where that comes from, and the answer is the National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation for 2011 and 2016, the most recent years for which data are available.

Every annual rulemaking under the old process was an economically significant action under section 3(f)(1) of Executive Order 12866, which is why each one carried a regulatory impact analysis. Under the new process the Service intends to prepare one for the primary memorandum issued every three years, reasoning that annual changes to season lengths and bag limits do not measurably change how many days anyone hunts.

Set against that, the savings the rule claims for itself are about $80,000 a year in printing, a cut of at least 50 percent in staff workload, and 200 hours of managerial review. The rule is designated a deregulatory action under Executive Order 14192.

A state rule becomes a federal offence

Subpart H changes in the same document, and this part is not administrative. Sections 20.71 and 20.72 are revised so that a violation of any state or tribal law or regulation for migratory game bird hunting is a violation of federal law.

The margin

The reason the Service gives for all of it is the calendar. Seasons target 1 September, and across the 2018 to 2025 seasons the final rule published on average seven days before that. Meeting the deadline eight years running is described in the rule as undue strain on the states, the public and the Service.

The first memorandum under the new process is due no later than 31 August. The comment period on it runs 30 days from publication, and closes after the seasons it governs are already open.