Harriet Hageman Makes The Case For Removing Endangered Species Act Protections For Grey Wolves

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During a House Natural Resources Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) spoke about the recovery of the Grey Wolf population in the United States.

Transcript

00:00Lady from Wyoming for five minutes. You know, I've been involved in these wolf issues for

00:05several decades now, and to say that states are fully capable of managing this apex predator

00:13and maintaining recovered wolf populations is really an understatement. All we need to do is

00:19look at Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho, and you can see the success story that has happened over the

00:26last 20-some years as those states have taken over management. The recovery goals in those three

00:32states was initially 100 wolves in each, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. That eventually changed to 150

00:40wolves to, as always happens with the Endangered Species Act, to provide a buffer above what the

00:47recovery goals were. Wyoming reached the recovery goals in, I believe it was about 2002, Montana and

00:55Idaho have a similar history. Over the next 15 years, I fought to delist the wolves in Wyoming

01:03and forced the Fish and Wildlife Service to actually manage them in the way that they indicated that

01:09they would when they did the recovery plan starting in the mid-1990s. The Fish and Wildlife Service

01:15failed in so many ways of actually managing these wolves and protecting our other wildlife populations,

01:21protecting our livestock producers, etc., and our communities. But again, Wyoming stepping up to the

01:28plate as we typically do when it comes to wildlife management, we have maintained over 350 wolves in

01:35the state of Wyoming for the last many years. Finally, in 2017, we were successful with the Circuit Court of

01:42Appeals in Washington, D.C., of all places, finding that we had met the recovery goals and that Wyoming's

01:49wolf management plan provided an adequate regulatory mechanism under the Endangered Species Act so that

01:55the state of Wyoming could manage pursuant to our wolf management plan as adopted by our legislature.

02:02In Montana and Wyoming, they each have well over 1,000 wolves. And again, I'm going to repeat that.

02:08The recovery goal is 150. In each of those states, they have over 1,000 wolves, demonstrating that, yes,

02:15the states are fully capable of managing these resources and have historically done so. The problem

02:21with the Endangered Species Act and the idea that we can never delist species is it is actually

02:26demonstrating that the act itself is the failure. It's not the states that are failing. The states do a

02:33very, very good job of managing almost all of our wildlife resources, whether it is elk or moose or

02:40antelope or mule deer or whitetail or wild turkeys or duck or geese. You can go on and on and on and go

02:48through all of the species. It's the states that manage these resources, not the federal government,

02:53not the Fish and Wildlife Service. And in fact, even when you're talking about a species that is on the

02:58Endangered Species List, it is often the state that is responsible for the management. Just as an example,

03:05the state of Wyoming has spent over a million dollars recovering and managing the grizzly bear,

03:11whereas the Fish and Wildlife Service has spent just a minimal amount of money, not even comparable.

03:16What does that mean? What does that demonstrate? Wyoming's the one that is responsible for the

03:21recovery of the grizzly bear, not the Fish and Wildlife Service and really not even the Endangered

03:26Species Act. It's the fact that we have really good managers and professionals in the state of Wyoming

03:31who know how to do this. So whenever we get into these debates as to whether a particular species

03:36that is fully recovered should be delisted, what I find so interesting is that when you argue against

03:41it despite the numbers that we're talking about, when anyone argues against it, what they're really

03:46saying is that the Endangered Species Act itself has failed, not the state managers, not the people

03:51who are responsible for these species. So when you look at the gray wolf, whether it's in Minnesota,

03:56and we've done a hearing in Minnesota. I've had an opportunity to go and visit with the people who

04:01are impacted there. They've lost almost their entire sheep industry in the state of Minnesota

04:06because of wolf depredation. You look at their deer population. If you want to talk about wildlife

04:11management, the reality is you have to have a balance. You have to have a balance between these,

04:16and especially when you're talking about an apex predator such as a grizzly bear or a gray wolf.

04:22I commend the folks who brought this incredibly important bill for bringing it forward. I think

04:27again this is something to celebrate. The wolf population in the United States has recovered. It

04:33is not on the brink of extinction. It is not endangered. It is not threatened. It has been fully recovered

04:41in a substantial part of its historical range, including in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Great Lakes,

04:49Michigan. And so congratulations on bringing this bill. I look forward to supporting it.

04:54Thank you for bringing it forward. With that I yield.

04:56I yield.

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