Political Quotes

“I rise today to introduce the Grizzly Bear Review and Resource Restart Act. The grizzly bear was originally listed under the Endangered Species Act, ESA, in 1975 with the worthy intent to recover the species. The ESA has succeeded and grizzly bear populations have rebounded. However, the overly-broad listing, which covers all of the lower 48 States, has led courts to block the Fish and Wildlife Service from delisting populations which by all measures are recovered and no longer require strict ESA protections. This has prevented the ESA from being what it is meant to be, a temporary assistance for wildlife recovery. It was never intended to provide a permanent designation for robust species. If enacted, the Grizzly Bear Review and Resource Restart Act will remove the unreachable recovery targets based on the erroneous first listing and allow wildlife managers to focus on areas in the lower 48 which actually host grizzly bears, not the 30 States currently listed where bears never were in the first place. Giving the opportunity to ``delist and relist'' based on scientific and historic data rather than a panicked first plan from 1975 will help mitigate human-bear interactions, protect rural communities, and emphasize and recenter the role of science in grizzly bear recovery. It will also allow funding and focus to be given where it is needed most: to grizzly bear populations and other species actually at risk. ______”