Harriet Hageman: 'The ESA Has Become A Zoning Mechanism' For Interest Groups To Control Land

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During a House Natural Resources Committee markup meeting before the Congressional recess, Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) spoke about abuse of the Endangered Species Act.

Transcript

00:00Does any member wish to be recognized for purpose of debate on the bill?

00:04Yes, I do, Mr. Chairman.

00:06I'm not shocked. Ms. Hagerman, you're recognized for five minutes.

00:10Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:11Today the committee is considering my bill, H.R. 281, the Grizzly Bearer State Management Act.

00:17This bill would require the Department of Interior to reissue the 2017 final rule entitled

00:23Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants,

00:26Removing the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem Population of Grizzly Bears

00:30from the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife.

00:34The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, or GYE, Grizzly Bear,

00:37was first listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1975

00:42after population declines in the 19th and 20th centuries.

00:47The Fish and Wildlife Service set a recovery goal of at least 500 grizzlies

00:51or to maintain an average of 674 bears.

00:54The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem Grizzly Bear crossed the 500 bear threshold in 1997

01:03and the population continues to grow and is now over 1,100 bears.

01:09The GYE grizzly population has exceeded the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's recovery goals

01:14for over two decades.

01:17Mr. Chairman, since a mere 3% of species listed under the ESA have ever been delisted,

01:22the ESA desperately needs a success story like the GYE grizzly bear.

01:27The grizzly is in fact the poster child for how the ESA has failed

01:31in terms of what it was intended to do and how it has actually been implemented.

01:36The purpose of the ESA was to identify threatened or endangered species,

01:41develop an effective recovery plan,

01:43provide for state involvement in managing and protecting such species,

01:47and delisting when recovery goals were met.

01:50While the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been successful at listing species,

01:55delisting, as per the statute, has been an exercise in futility,

01:59regardless of whether a particular species has recovered or not.

02:03To put it bluntly, the ESA has become a zoning mechanism,

02:06whereby the health and well-being of these species is secondary

02:09to environmental groups' desire to control vast swaths of land and water,

02:15and the grizzly is no exception.

02:17The Wyoming grizzly bear management plan was first issued in 2002,

02:20and it has been updated and amended at various times since.

02:24It is a robust document based on sound science,

02:27and the state of Wyoming is fully capable of immediately implementing it

02:31to protect and maintain a recovered GYE grizzly population.

02:34The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is, in other words,

02:38more than capable of and prepared to manage this species,

02:41just as it does the thousands of other species that we have in our great state.

02:46In fact, the state of Wyoming has spent over $1 million on grizzly recovery,

02:51with the Fish and Wildlife Service spending literally pennies on the dollar in comparison.

02:57The point being that Wyoming is responsible for the success of the grizzly recovery efforts,

03:01not the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,

03:04and that fact alone compels delisting.

03:07Keeping the status quo in place and depriving Wyoming of the ability to manage the species

03:11as part of the broader ecosystem will only continue to exacerbate numerous issues

03:16we have experienced with the unchecked and growing bear population.

03:20From 1990 to 2022, the occupied range of the bear population has increased steadily

03:26at a rate of 3.65% per year, with a high of 27,208 square miles being occupied by grizzly bears.

03:35This expansion has resulted in increased bear encounters, both deadly and life-altering attacks

03:41on our citizens, depredation of livestock, negative impacts on other wildlife species, and more.

03:47Both the previous and Trump administrations recognized the success of the GYE recovery program and delisted the bear.

03:55Such delisting would have stuck, except for the actions of radical environmental organizations and activist judges.

04:02The grizzly bear has been recovered for going on 30 years,

04:05and the population has continued to expand, having grown larger since these previous delisting efforts.

04:12Keeping the GYE grizzly bear listed under the ESA is not only a violation of the letter and spirit of the ESA,

04:19but has allowed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to implement bad policy and horrible management decisions.

04:25This is made most obvious by the Biden administration's parting gift in its waning days.

04:29The Biden administration issued a proposed rule where it rejected Wyoming's petition to delist

04:36after several years of refusing to issue any kind of a decision at all.

04:40But they didn't reject Wyoming's petition to delist because the grizzly isn't recovered,

04:47and not because the state management plan is insufficient to protect and maintain a recovered population.

04:52But they refused to delist the grizzly bear so that the agency could again move the goalposts

04:57to link the GYE delisting to the recovery of other bear populations outside of our state,

05:04outside of our state, which is not only unfair, but illegal.

05:08The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has thus attempted to punish Wyoming for our success in protecting the grizzly,

05:14trying to make us the nursery for bear populations in other states.

05:18The GYE grizzly bear has recovered, and it is time for Washington to return management to the state.

05:24Otherwise, its recovery will remain subject to lawsuits and shifting recovery standards.

05:29I urge all my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back.

05:32I urge all my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back.

05:42Ladies and gentlemen,

05:44I'll see you next time.

05:45I'll see you next time.

05:46Bye.

05:47Bye.

05:49Bye.

05:51Bye.

05:53Bye.

05:55Bye.

05:57Bye.

05:59Bye.

06:01Bye.

06:02Bye.

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