Duck and goose hunters have a great opportunity to let the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) know what they think about migratory bird management in the United States. During the next 34 days, USFWS will hold 12 public meetings around the country to hear what you have to say. It’s all part of a process that will result in drafting a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) on the hunting of migratory birds.

The SEIS will consider a range of management alternatives for addressing sport hunting of migratory birds under the authority of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. You can also send comments directly to the USFWS.

Under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Fish and Wildlife Improvement Act, the secretary of the interior has the authority to determine whether migratory bird hunting can take place and issue regulations to guide management.

Ducks Unlimited, a world leader in wetland and waterfowl conservation, supports sustainable use and harvest of renewable resources based on sound science. We support migratory bird hunting, when conducted in an ethical and sustainable manner, as a legitimate and acceptable use of a renewable resource and encourage our supporters to make comments to the USFWS in support of migratory bird hunting.

The SEIS will update the 1975 EIS and 1988 SEIS for issuing annual hunting regulations.

Written comments from the public are due by May 30, 2006. Send comments to: Chief, Division of Migratory Bird Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior, MS MBSP-4107-ARLSQ, 1849 C Street, NW, Washington, DC 20240. Or fax your comments to (703) 358-2217 or e-mail huntingseis@fws.gov.

For more information, please see http://www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/fedreg/MGBHR.HTML

The 12 public meetings are listed below.

March 24, 2006: Columbus , Ohio, at the Hyatt Regency Columbus, 350 North High Street; 1 p.m.

March 28, 2006: Memphis , Tenn., at the Holiday Inn Select Downtown, 160 Union Avenue; 7 p.m.

March 30, 2006: Rosenburg , Texas, at the Texas Agricultural Extension Service Education Center, 1402 Band Road, Suite 100, Highway 36; 7 p.m.

April 5, 2006: Anchorage , Alaska, at the Howard Johnson Motel, 239 North 4th Avenue; 7 p.m.

April 6, 2006: Denver, Colo., at the Colorado Department of Wildlife, Northeast Region Service Center, Hunter Education Building, 6060 Broadway; 7 p.m.

April 10, 2006: Hadley , Mass., at the Northeast Regional Office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 300 Westgate Center Drive; 7 p.m.

April 12, 2006: Charleston, S. C., at the Fort Johnson Marine Laboratory, 217 Fort Johnson Road, James Island; 7 p.m.

April 19, 2006: Fargo , N. D., at the Best Western Doublewood Inn, 3333 13th Avenue South; 7 p.m.

April 20, 2006: Bloomington , Minnesota, at the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge Visitors Center, 3815 East 80th Street; 7 p.m.

April 24, 2006: Salt Lake City , Utah, at the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, 1594 West North Temple; 7 p.m.

April 26, 2006: Arlington , Virginia, at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 4401 North Fairfax Drive, Room 200; 1 p.m.

April 26, 2006: Sacramento, California, at the California Department of Fish and Game, Auditorium, Resource Building, 1416 Ninth Street; 7 p.m.

With more than a million supporters, Ducks Unlimited is the world’s largest and most effective wetland and waterfowl conservation organization. The United States alone has lost more than half of its original wetlands ­− nature’s most productive ecosystem − and continues to lose more than 100,000 wetland acres each year.