Republicans in the House of Representatives are taking action against a ruling that would relist gray wolves under the Endangered Species Act.
U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany and 15 of his Republican colleagues sent a letter to Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raul Grijalva and Ranking Member Bruce Westerman demanding that they schedule a hearing on the Managing Predators Act following the recent ruling by a U.S. District Court judge in Oakland, California to unilaterally relist the gray wolf under the ESA.
“Enough is enough – decisions about how to manage Wisconsin’s gray wolves ought to be made by people in Wisconsin, not by lawyers, judges, and bureaucrats thousands of miles away,” Tiffany says. “Wisconsin’s rural communities have been a ping-pong ball bouncing back and forth between listings and de-listings for years, and the recent court ruling out of California follows suit. We need a permanent legislative solution that gets Washington out of the wolf management business and puts Wisconsinites back in the driver’s seat.”
Tiffany joins Pam Jahnke on this morning’s show to explain his legislation that would remove the gray wolf from the endangered species list:
U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzergald also voiced opposition to the recent ruling to unilaterally re-enlist the gray wolf under the ESA. movement to relist the gray wolf.
“This decision was blindly made without taking into consideration individual circumstance, like in Wisconsin, where scientific evidence has proven that wolf populations are in a healthy condition,” Fitzgerald says. “The Managing Predators Act should be considered and passed quickly to ensure unelected administrators and judges are not determining the fate of Wisconsin.”
Wisconsin’s U.S. Reps. Bryan Steil and Mike Gallagher also oppose the effort to relist the wolf.
Tyler Wenzlaff, director of Government Relations for the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation says that legislation may be the only way to get some manageable, working parameters in place to manage this situation. He explains the strategy to Farm Director Pam Jahnke:
Last January, Tiffany introduced H.R. 286, the Managing Predators Act, to permanently remove the gray wolf from the list of federal endangered species and restore management authority to state lawmakers and state wildlife officials.
See the Managing Predators Act: https://tiffany.house.gov/media/press-releases/tiffany-introduces-bill-restore-gray-wolf-authority-states
See the letter: https://tiffany.house.gov/sites/tiffany.house.gov/files/Managing%20Predators%20Act%20Hearing%20Letter%20PDF.pdf
