"A controversial Interior Department pro-hunting panel has ended with a whimper instead of a bang.

In a remarkably anti-climactic conclusion to a heated clash over the costs and benefits of trophy hunting, the Justice Department disclosed in a legal filing Friday that Interior had let the International Wildlife Conservation Council expire.

"The Council will not meet or conduct any business again, it can no longer be renewed, and there [is] no plan to establish another committee with a similar mission or scope in the future," the Justice Department advised a federal judge.

The 16-member advisory panel "ceased to exist" on Dec. 21 because its authority expired and had not been renewed, according to the DOJ filing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York."

Michael Doyle reports for Greenwire February 10, 2020. [2]