Last week, Utah representative Rob Bishop added a rider to the National Defense Authorization Act that would delay the listing of the greater sage grouse as an endangered species. The bill says listing the bird could endanger the country by placing restrictions on how military property can be used.
The White House disputed this in a statement Tuesday, saying “such delays …effectively suspend unprecedented collaborative conservation efforts that have been developed with extensive public input.” President Obama threatened to veto the bill, saying, “such unprecedented delays undermine science-based decision-making.”
National Wildlife Federation spokesman Judi Kohler says it would also undermine all Wyoming’s hard work to save the bird.
“The state, in conjunction with private land owners and federal land managers, are really at the forefront of trying to save this bird. It would be really too bad to see all that just kind of put on hold and not go anywhere. And meanwhile, we’ll probably continue to see sage grouse decline.”
Kohler says the Defense Department has already been working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife to protect the bird.
“I guess we have to question why this provision has been introduced as part of the National Defense Authorization Act," Kohler says. "It has nothing to do with military readiness. The Defense Department has made it clear that they don’t see a conflict.”
Kohler says the U.S. Fish and Wildlife is under a court mandate to make a decision on the listing by this fall and, if the bill passed, it would conflict with that order, and that could send the decision back to courts to decide.