Wyoming Senators Fed up with Feds Managing Grizzlies

Earlier this week, Senator Barrasso joined Senator Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Senator Cynthia Lummis, and Representative Harriet Hageman, in sending a letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service urging them to delist the grizzly bear and return management to the states.

Sen. Barrasso’s remarks:

“I rise today to speak about improving and modernizing the Endangered Species Act. The Endangered Species Act became law in 1973 – 52 years ago. Since then, Washington bureaucrats have added 2,424 species of plants and animals to the list. Only 54 species have ever left the list. Just 54 species in 52 years.

“I’m a doctor. I’ve practiced orthopedic surgery in Casper, Wyoming, for over 20 years. As a doctor, if I had 100 patients on life support and only 3 recovered, I’d lose my medical license. And that’s what’s happening with the Endangered Species Act. Only 3 percent of those that have been put on the list have ever come off. Why do we accept this level of failure with the Endangered Species Act?

See his full statement here. The senator went on to say:

“Even the Washington Post Editorial Board agree. The Editorial Board argued this month, ‘It has become difficult to delist a species even after it has met its recovery goal due to threats of litigation.’ That’s what’s happening. The activist judges and activist environmental extremists do everything they can to prevent things from coming off the list, even species that are fully recovered."

In January the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Proposed an update to the Grizzly Bear Endangered Species Act for the lower 48 states. That update called for an assessment of the species using the "three Rs" to evaluate the current and future condition of the species: resiliency, redundancy, and representation.

You can sift through their 398-page prospectus here.

Congresswoman Harriet Hageman and Senator Cynthia Lummis reintroduced the Grizzly Bear State Management Act in January to delist the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem grizzly bear from the endangered species list. That act would remove federal protections from the GYE grizzly and return management authority to Wyoming and other affected states, like Montana.

Grizzly bear delisting has been a consistent priority for Rep. Hageman, who also included language to delist the grizzly in the recently passed Interior Appropriations Act.

“Federal officials at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service, influenced by wildlife lobbyists, have disregarded recovery data and the unique needs of states like Wyoming for far too long,” said Rep. Hageman.

“The Greater Yellowstone Grizzly has far exceeded its recovery goals, yet Washington bureaucrats continue to obstruct delisting with needless delays and politicized decisions. These desk activists aren’t the ones dealing with the realities of an overgrown grizzly population—Wyoming families are. With the grizzly population exploding, we’ve seen a troubling uptick in attacks on people, livestock, and property."

"Families shouldn’t have to live in fear of grizzly bears rummaging through their trash or endangering their children. My legislation addresses the concerns of the people of Wyoming that are being ignored by Washington.”