The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced it is taking action to stop the usage of M-44 devices that deliver sodium cyanide on public lands.
The action would build on existing restrictions in several Western states and extend across all public lands managed by the BLM. The agency has renewed a memorandum of understanding with USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services (APHIS) Wildlife Services. It will also modify internal guidelines, as needed, to explicitly prohibit the use of M-44 devices.
BLM said less than 1% of the M-44s used by APHIS Wildlife Services in 2022 were on BLM-managed lands.
There is ongoing legislation to ban M-44 use on all public lands, and their utilization is currently forbidden on national wildlife refuges and National Park Service lands.
M-44 cyanide devices have been implicated in various incidents, including one in Idaho in 2017, where a family dog was killed and a child was injured after accidentally triggering a device placed on public land 400 feet from their home.
