Wayne Gilchrest: “This bill will go far to preserve and restore Blackwater Refuge on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and to provide a base…”

“This bill will go far to preserve and restore Blackwater Refuge on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and to provide a base of information and experience to help other States devise ways to deal with this little critter we call nutria. The Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1933 to protect habitat for migrating and wintering birds. The refuge is currently home to more than 250 species of birds, including bald and golden eagles, cormorants, great blue herons, northern loons, ospreys, and 20 different varieties of ducks. It is also home to the Delmarva fox squirrel, a critically endangered species that is found almost exclusively in only 4 counties in my district. Of the 20,000 acres protected by the refuge, almost 17,000 acres are or were marshland. Seven thousand of those marshland acres have been lost to erosion. One of the reasons for the loss is the reason for the bill we are discussing today, the rabid appetite of this little critter from South America known as the nutria. Nutria are large, semi-aquatic rodents native to South America, and were introduced to Maryland in the 1950s to support the fur industry. As demand for nutria fur dropped off, and with no natural predators, nutria populations took off. From far less than 150 animals in 1968, today we have between 35,000 and 50,000 of them.”