Defenders of Wildlife Blog

Holland Lake Lodge is located in a "Grizzly Corridor." The business depends on the area's wildlife to succeed.

Guest blog post by Christian Wohlfeil, owner of the Holland Lake Lodge in Swan Valley, Montana. Christian was one of the 27 wildlife advocates and experts from 17 states who last week flew to DC to highlight the importance of funding for wildlife programs and deliver the message to our policymakers what the real impacts cutting these programs will have.

Let me tell you a little bit about my business. Holland Lake Lodge is an authentic “old Montana” guest lodge, situated between the Mission Mountain and Bob Marshall Wilderness areas.  The property is located in a “Grizzly Corridor”— a large swath used by the bears to intermingle with each other between the two wilderness areas. The lake and surrounding Swan Valley is home to bald and golden eagles, moose, elk, whitetail and mule deer, grizzly and black bears, mountain lions, wolves, beaver, lynx and various trout species. Needless to say, it’s a pretty spectacular place.

In order for Holland Lake Lodge to succeed—and the other small businesses throughout Montana that cater to the out-of-state tourist—it is critical to have a healthy respect and understanding of the local wildlife. Our guests come to experience Montana in its most natural state. They seek the quiet, tranquil setting and talk with excitement when they are able to view the nearby wildlife. And yet things like urban expansion, land development and the sale of large tracts of Plum Creek Timber lands threaten those very animals.

I found it fulfilling to find that my elected officials would spend the time to listen to my concerns about the critical need for funding wildlife programs, which in turn strengthen both the Montana tourism industry and small businesses.

It’s up to agencies like the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service  to find and maintain a balance between man and animal. Last week, I came to DC so I could speak with my Representative and Senators about the funding dangers that these agencies face. It was wonderful to visit Capitol Hill and have my voice heard by Senators Tester and Baucus, Representative Rehberg, and their aides. I found it fulfilling to find that my elected officials would spend the time to listen to my concerns about the critical need for funding wildlife programs, which in turn strengthen both the Montana tourism industry and small businesses.  They understand that tourism is a major economic driver that thousands of people like me depend on. I learned that everyone has voice and it is crucial our elected officials hear our stories so they can understand why these wildlife and habitat programs are so vital.

Wildlife-related recreation is a major economic driver in Montana and rural areas across the country.

Note from Defenders:

Wildlife-related recreation is a $122 billion-a-year economic engine that is especially important for our rural communities. Many local communities thrive on wildlife recreation and tourism as well as the jobs required to conserve wildlife and to restore and manage its habitat. And yet funding for vital wildlife conservation programs is under assault these days more than at any time in recent memory. Despite the peril, wildlife programs have not received nearly the visibility of many other natural resource programs.

Last week, Defenders and our allies in the environmental community  were happy to honor those working to protect conservation programs and the federal agencies who keep them running. In addition to citizen activists like Christian, we were joined at an event on Capitol Hill Wednesday night to celebrate the effort by Representatives Michael Fitzpatrick (R-PA),  Jim Moran (D-VA), and Martin Heinrich (D-NM),  Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Dan Ashe, and other officials from the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service.  We also were honored to have the support of Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Susan Collins (R-ME). Together, we will  work to keep these programs funded and moving, and keep our wildlife and natural places thriving for generations to come. 

Attacks on endangered species lurking around the corner

A (seemingly) modest proposal

Late Friday, the Senate Interior and Environment Appropriations subcommittee released a draft of their 2012 funding proposal for federal programs that provide clean air and water and protect endangered species. Missing from the proposal are the pernicious anti-wildlife provisions attached to the companion bill already approved by the House this past summer.

Read our report on pending ESA attacks.

If only it would stay that way.

Unfortunately, subcommittee chairman Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and ranking member Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) are signaling that the proposal is merely a starting point for what are likely to become some very nasty negotiations. In fact, the funding bill may never come up for a vote for fear that members on both sides of the aisle will try to tack on amendments and exceptions to flout environmental laws for short-term political gain. (read more on E&E News, subscription only).

But avoiding public debate over the controversial provisions won’t be enough to keep anti-wildlife voices at bay. Several senators are already advancing legislation to rollback protections for particular animals in particular areas (e.g., grizzlies in Idaho, prairie dogs in Utah). And any bill that clears the Senate will need to be reconciled with the House version, which has more anti-ESA riders attached to it than any other appropriations bill in recent history.

As we documented in our comprehensive report on more than a dozen attacks on endangered species protections, some members of Congress have not been shy about doing the bidding of their corporate backers. A small handful of the most adamant anti-wildlife legislators have taken a combined total of nearly $6 million from the oil and gas and agribusiness industries. In exchange, these politicians are peddling provisions that would prohibit protections for animals on the brink of extinction, make it easier to poison our waterways with toxic pesticides, and reverse decades of work to restore imperiled wolves.

Anti-ESA hearing shows Congress’s true colors

The assault on America’s native wildlife and natural resources is far from over. Just last week, the House science oversight subcommittee held a hearing titled, “The Endangered Species Act: Reviewing the Nexus of Science and Policy.” The committee invited a series of experts to testify about the Act, most of whom used the opportunity to criticize our nation’s pre-eminent wildlife conservation law for being ineffective or inimical to economic development and private property rights.

Humpback whales are among the hundreds of species that are making a comeback because of the success of the Endangered Species Act..

What these supposed experts failed to mention is that the Endangered Species Act has successfully saved 99 percent of protected species from disappearing. Only about 10 species have gone extinct in the United States out of nearly 2,000 since the Act went into effect in 1973, and many of those species were already well beyond the point of no return.

In less than four decades, the Endangered Species Act has halted the decline and even restored hundreds of species, including iconic American animals like the bald eagle, grizzly bear and gray wolf. Amazingly, it has done so while the United States added about 100 million people to its roll call and created the highest standard of living in human history.

A fight we cannot lose

Preventing plants and animals from going extinct is a daunting challenge and the stakes are high. The world’s top biologists estimate that we are currently losing species 10,000 times faster than the normal rate. Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson has predicted that half of all species worldwide will go extinct in the next century at the current rate.

With that incredible loss of biodiversity as the backdrop, we should be doing everything in our power to protect all forms of life on the planet, beginning with the ones right here in our backyard. Slashing funding for wildlife and making it easier for businesses to bulldoze prime wildlife habitat is clearly a step in the wrong direction.

In the coming weeks and months, Defenders will be confronting Congress with a simple message: the fight to protect America’s endangered species is one we simply cannot afford to lose. We will need the help of all wildlife supporters to make sure our elected representatives hear us loud and clear.

Grizzly bears are just one species that could be impacted by the so-called riders.

The vitality of America’s wild landscapes, such as those found in the majestic 20-million-acre Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, depends on budgets passed by Congress.

But the U.S. House of Representatives’ funding proposal contains dozens of non-spending related, anti-environmental policy provisions that could bankrupt citizens of their right to weigh in on decisions that affect public lands and wildlife.

Two of these so-called “riders” aim to make it difficult for concerned citizens and member-based conservation groups, like Defenders, to be involved in critical public lands decisions that affect wildlife and wild lands.

These riders would severely limit the public’s ability to have a say on how national forest lands, which belong to the American people, are managed.

One provision (in section 118) impacts Bureau of Land Management lands — some 253 million acres throughout the West, including millions in the Greater Yellowstone area such as the Bighorn Basin. It would require the public to engage in time consuming bureaucratic reviews before having the opportunity to get a fair court hearing on environmentally damaging actions.

Public lands offer world-class mountain biking.

The legislation would let the BLM move forward with harmful oil and gas drilling in places such as the Bighorn Basin without the benefit of reasonable pubic and judicial oversight.

The other (in section 437) targets the National Forest System — 193 million acres in 155 forests across the country, including seven national forests within the Greater Yellowstone region. This provision would block the public from legally challenging potentially harmful Forest Service activities such as logging and road-building. And instead of having 45 days to object to a final decision on a harmful project, the public would be forced to protest prior to a final decision. But even then the agency would have the power to ignore public concerns and exempt some projects from any appeal.

These riders would severely limit the public’s ability to have a say on how national forest lands, which belong to the American people, are managed. In a Democracy, it is critical that the public be allowed to participate in decision-making regarding the future of public lands.

Do these proposals blocking the people from having a say in the management of their own public lands sound American to you?

Contact your Representative today and tell them to put people ahead of special interests — vote against this bad bill!

House Interior Department appropriations bill blocks new endangered species listings

The Interior Appropriations bill includes a provision to prohibit any legal challenge to delisting gray wolves in Wyoming or the western Great Lakes region.

WASHINGTON (July 6, 2011) – The following is a statement from Defenders of Wildlife President Rodger Schlickeisen on the bill to fund the Department of the Interior just released by the Chairman of the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Mike Simpson (R-ID).

“No new plants or animals can be added to the list of endangered species if the chairman of the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee gets his way. That’s how radical the agenda of some in the House has become.

“The Interior Department funding bill put forth today by Rep. Simpson is nothing short of a special interest wish list. It takes an ax to countless environmental provisions aimed at protecting our public lands, water, and wildlife. Even critical efforts to protect the air we breathe by regulating greenhouse gas emissions are on the chopping block.  But the prime example of just how far some in the House, including key leaders, are willing to go in their anti-regulatory zeal is what they are proposing to do to the Endangered Species Act.

“The Act is one of our nation’s most successful conservation laws and a prime example of good stewardship at work. Working with local communities and stakeholders, the Act has successfully saved animals like the bald eagle and grizzly bear from extinction and protected countless other species for future generations. But it has always been despised by oil companies, big developers, and corporate polluters.  Now, Rep. Simpson’s bill is doing the bidding of these special interests and essentially blocking new protections for any additional imperiled species and halting the designation of new critical habitat protections for those already on the endangered list.

“The American people want their leaders to act responsibly as good stewards of our natural resources. And they want plants and animals that are facing possible extinction to be protected. Sadly today, this bill places the special interests above the desires of the American people and the interests of future generations.”

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Links:
Read the working draft of the House Interior Appropriations bill.

See Defenders’ analysis of several of the anti-environmental provisions.
(NOTE: page will be updated as additional information becomes available)