Assabet River NWR Final CCP - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

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Appendix C: Responses to Substantive Comments
We worked hard to ensure consideration of the reasonable range of alternatives that were
presented in the draft CCP/EA. Each of the items mentioned was considered and the
majority are included in the final CCP. We analyzed the effects of continuing no-hunting
on Assabet River and Great Meadows NWR, along with maintaining the existing level of
hunting on Oxbow NWR as a part of Alternative A. Our current management plan is a
balance of consumptive and non-consumptive uses with a focus on non-consumptive uses
only for the majority of the year. All of our alternatives emphasize non-lethal approaches
to wildlife conflicts with lethal control only utilized when our managers and biologists have
determined that non-lethal controls have not been effective. Similarly, we will continue to
acquire land as dictated by Service policy and as outlined under the “land acquisition”
heading earlier in this section. Finally, removal of non-native invasive plant species is
included in our final CCP and will be outlined further in our Habitat Management Plan.
Support for each alternative [No response required]
A number of commentors expressed support for all or portions of specific alternatives
without citing specific reasons for doing so. The greatest number of such respondents
indicated support for Alternative B or variations of Alternative B.
Assabet River NWR