Overview. This Act authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to adopt measures to aid in restoring game and other birds in parts of the U.S. where they have become scarce or extinct and to regulate the introduction of birds and animals in areas where they had not existed. All sections but one of the original 1900 Act have been repealed and either restated in or reenacted by other code provisions. This is a summary of the one remaining section of the original Lacey Act. The Lacey Act Amendments of 1981 are summarized separately.

Game and Wild Bird Preservation. The purposes of the Act are to aid in the restoration of game and other wild birds in parts of the U.S. where they have become scarce or extinct and to regulate the introduction of American or foreign birds or animals in localities where they have not previously existed. The duties and powers of the Department of the Interior include the preservation, distribution, introduction and restoration of game and other wild birds.

The Act directs the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) to collect and publish information regarding the propagation, uses and preservation of game and other wild birds and adopt rules and regulations to carry out the purposes of the Act. § 701.

Editor's Note. A related statute, 16 U.S.C. § 702, enacted in 1902, grants the Secretary the power to authorize the importation of game birds' eggs for propagation and directs the Secretary to adopt rules and regulations on importation for this purpose.