“Injurious Wildlife Under the Misunderstood Lacey Act" with Susan Jewell, Injurious Wildlife Listing Coordinator, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The NCTC Conservation Lecture Series will be hosting “Injurious Wildlife Under the Misunderstood Lacey Act" with Susan Jewell, Injurious Wildlife Listing Coordinator, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on January 5, 2023 at 1:00 – 2:00 pm ET. It will be online at: https://livestream.com/nctc.

What is the “Lacey Act” and how can it prevent invasions of injurious wildlife?

How can a conservation law from 1900 still be so relevant today?

The law commonly known as the “Lacey Act” has diverged over the years into two provisions, one of which is the Federal designation of injurious wildlife species. That purpose has always been to protect the United States from the introduction of invasive and otherwise harmful wildlife. Injurious listing prohibits the importation of wild vertebrates and some invertebrates that can cause harm to wildlife resources, humans, and other U.S. interests. However, most natural resource biologists and managers are more familiar with the more prominent provision of the “Lacey Act,” which tackles trafficking of wildlife and plants. What the “Lacey Act” is and isn’t and the difference between the injurious and trafficking provisions will be explained. The presentation will emphasize how the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service focuses on adding high-risk wildlife species to the Federal injurious list before they become established and how effective that has been in preventing the establishment of those injurious animals. Finally, the relevance of injurious wildlife listing to the COVID-19 pandemic may surprise you.

Susan (Su) Jewell is the Injurious Wildlife Listing Coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, based in the headquarters in northern Virginia. She coordinates the regulatory listing of harmful wildlife species as injurious, which prohibits their importation. She is an authority on the 122-year history of injurious wildlife listing, known as part of the “Lacey Act”. Prior to her 12 years working on injurious wildlife, she spent 11 years with the Service’s Endangered Species program, and 12 years in the Everglades studying alligators, wading birds, fisheries, and ecosystem health. Su holds a B.S. in Wildlife Biology from the University of Vermont and a M.S. in Systematics and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Connecticut.