§ 3118 — Park And Park Monument Subsistence Resource Commissions

(a) Within one year from December 2, 1980, the Secretary and the Governor shall each appoint three members to a subsistence resources commission for each national park or park monument within which subsistence uses are permitted by this Act. The regional advisory council established pursuant to section 3115 of this title which has jurisdiction within the area in which the park or park monument is located shall appoint three members to the commission each of whom is a member of either the regional advisory council or a local advisory committee within the region and also engages in subsistence uses within the park or park monument. Within eighteen months from December 2, 1980, each commission shall devise and recommend to the Secretary and the Governor a program for subsistence hunting within the park or park monument. Such program shall be prepared using technical information and other pertinent data assembled or produced by necessary field studies or investigations conducted jointly or separately by the technical and administrative personnel of the State and the Department of the Interior, information submitted by, and after consultation with the appropriate local advisory committees and regional advisory councils, and any testimony received in a public hearing or hearings held by the commission prior to preparation of the plan at a convenient location or locations in the vicinity of the park or park monument. Each year thereafter, the commission, after consultation with the appropriate local committees and regional councils, considering all relevant data and holding one or more additional hearings in the vicinity of the park or park monument, shall make recommendations to the Secretary and the Governor for any changes in the program or its implementation which the commission deems necessary. (b) The Secretary shall promptly implement the program and recommendations submitted to him by each commission unless he finds in writing that such program or recommendations violates recognized principles of wildlife conservation, threatens the conservation of healthy populations of wildlife in the park or park monument, is contrary to the purposes for which the park or park monument is established, or would be detrimental to the satisfaction of subsistence needs of local residents. Upon notification by the Governor, the Secretary shall take no action on a submission of a commission for sixty days during which period he shall consider any proposed changes in the program or recommendations submitted by the commission which the Governor provides him. (c) Pending the implementation of a program under subsection (a) of this section, the Secretary shall permit subsistence uses by local residents in accordance with the provisions of this subchapter and other applicable Federal and State law.