The Trump administration and a Republican-held Congress appear poised to unravel the nation’s bedrock environmental laws and programs, including the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The ESA is one of our most effective environmental laws, proven to be vital to protecting species such as the iconic grizzly bear.
Just last week, Wyoming Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) held a hearing on “Modernizing the ESA,” a euphemism for weakening the Act to accommodate those interested in making a buck without being held accountable for the damage they cause. Last Congress, over 200 bills were introduced that would have undermined the ESA. A similar torrent is expected this Congress.
Among these, bills to strip protections for wolves in the Great Lakes and Wyoming have already been re-introduced. Not only would wolves be harmed if these bills pass, a terrible precedent would be set by allowing Congressmen to circumvent the Act in the service of their cronies. This has already happened once with wolves in Montana and Idaho, which were delisted by regressive Congressmen in 2011. If it happens again, no endangered species will be safe from congressional shenanigans.
Grizzly bears in Yellowstone, and possibly Glacier, could also be targets for delisting by Congress in a move that would be disastrous for bear recovery throughout the lower-48 states.
The ESA in Brief
When Congress passed the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1973, it recognized that our rich natural heritage is of…