House Natural Resources Committee

Water, Wildlife and Fisheries Subcommittee

The Endangered Species Act At 50 Years

1324 Longworth
Tue, 18 Jul 2023 18:00:00 GMT

The Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries will hold an oversight hearing on “ESA at 50: The Destructive Cost of the ESA,” on Tuesday, July 18, 2023, at 2:00 p.m. EDT in room 1324 Longworth House Office Building.

Hearing memo


Witnesses:
  • Janet Coit, Deputy Administrator, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, D.C.
  • Martha Williams, Director, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S., Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C.
  • Justin Jahnz, Chief Executive Officer, East Central Energy, Braham, MN
  • Sean Vibbert, Owner, Obsidian Seed Company, Madras, OR
  • Jonathan Wood, Vice President of Law and Policy, Property and Environment Research Center, Bozeman, MT
  • Dan Ashe, President and CEO, Association of Zoos and Aquariums, Silver Spring, MD

The Endangered Species Act (P.L. 93-205 or the Act) was enacted in 1973: “…to provide a means whereby the ecosystems upon which endangered species and threatened species depend may be conserved, to provide a program for the conservation of such endangered species and threatened species, and to take such steps as may be appropriate to achieve the purposes of the treaties and conventions set forth” in the Act.”

Under the current framework, Section 4 of the ESA charges the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to review and act on petitions to list species as threatened or endangered and to designate their critical habitat. Private lands play a significant role in managing and recovery endangered and threatened species. As environmentalist Aldo Leopold put it, “conservation will ultimately boil down to rewarding the private landowner who conserves the public interest.” In February 2023, the USFWS reported that “two-thirds of federally listed species have at least some habitat on private land, and some species have most of their remaining habitat on private land.” For example, according to the Audubon Society more than 80 percent of the grassland and wetlands that provide essential bird habitat are in private ownership.