You asked if the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) must notify the public when it introduces wildlife into Connecticut.

The law authorizes the DEP commissioner to import fish and wildlife into the state, and to supervise the introduction, propagation, securing, and distribution of fish and wildlife adapted to state waters or lands (CGS § 26-3). There is no statutory requirement that she notify the public when she does so. Wildlife includes naturally wild invertebrates, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals (CGS § 26-1 (22)).

Although DEP is not required to notify the public when introducing a wildlife species, DEP Wildlife Division Director Dale May says the department did publicize its re-introduction of fishers in northwestern Connecticut in the late 1980s. (The fisher, a member of the weasel family native to Connecticut, had been driven from most of the state by trapping and habitat destruction. ) May said DEP has no plans to introduce any species at this time, and would publicize any such attempt. He said DEP would only consider re-introducing a species that had once been native to the state.

PF: dw