ABSTRACT
Cooperation between the federal land agencies, state agencies, and local and tribal governments requires a balance between the Constitutional supremacy enjoyed by the federal agencies and their real need for local cooperation in implementing policies. This chapter reviews wildlife policy from 1960 to the present, with attention focused on the national wildlife refuges; US Fish and Wildlife Service; Endangered Species Act of 1973; and wildlife provisions of policies governing the two multiple use agencies, the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. Laws affecting wildlife policy on the public lands have changed substantially since 1960, when the Multiple Use and Sustained Yield Act directed the Forest Service to manage lands for wildlife and recreation needs in addition to the traditional timber, grazing, and water supply activities. Ecosystem management offers a way to address the problem of separate management plans for individual endangered and threatened species that share the same basic ecosystem.
