In a major win for sportsmen, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has officially withdrawn its proposed Biological Integrity, Diversity, and Environmental Health Rule (“BIDEH Rule”) that would have had sweeping impacts on National Wildlife Refuge management.
The Biden administration introduced the proposed BIDEH Rule in February 2024. To say the BIDEH Rule would have harmed sportsmen is an understatement. The rule plainly “prohibit[ed] predator control unless it is determined necessary to meet statutory requirements, fulfill refuge purposes, and ensure biological integrity, diversity, and environmental health.”
With this language, the service would only be able to authorize the taking of a predator if “all other feasible methods have been fully evaluated and such control is considered the only practical means of addressing a specific, significant conservation concern and ensuring biological integrity, diversity, and environmental health.”
Today, the Sportsmen’s Alliance is proud to announce the withdrawal of the rule and can rejoice that the service thought better of its major overstep and withdrew the rule.
“We are glad that the service agreed with our comments and withdrew the proposed BIDEH Rule,” said Michael Jean, Litigation Counsel for Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation. “Sportsmen’s dollars have always been the primary source of funding for the refuge system, and the system was designed to increase recreational opportunities for families, including hunting and fishing. Any action that severely limits those opportunities like the BIDEH Rule did is inconsistent with the refuge system’s purposes and congressional mandates.”
