Defenders of Wildlife Opposes Congressional Attacks Seeking to Remove Lesser-Prairie Chicken and Northern Long-Eared Bat Protections

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries held a second hearing in as many months on bills sponsored by pro-extinction members  attacking the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Today’s hearing includes bills that would remove federal protections for lesser prairie-chicken and northern long-eared bat, two species on the edge of extinction. 

“It should be unfathomable that politicians would even consider introducing a bill that could lead to the complete loss of a species, yet here we are again,” said Robert Dewey, vice president of government relations for Defenders of Wildlife. “No special interest group or outdated fossil fuel industry should be worth letting a species disappear forever. Our nation’s natural legacy is being put on the chopping block and it cannot and should not be accepted by the American public.”

Currently, the southern population of lesser-prairie chicken is listed as endangered and the northern population of lesser-prairie chicken is currently listed as threatened. 

Northern long-eared bat populations have drastically plummeted by up to 99 percent over the last two decades, prompting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to uplist them from threatened to endangered just last year to prevent extinction. 

These two bills were introduced by Rep. Mann (R-KS) and Rep. Stauber (R-MN). 

A third bill introduced by Rep. Bentz (R-OR) would undermine the ESA and catalyze the escalating biodiversity crisis by blocking the Biden administration’s rescission of the harmful Trump habitat definition. Biden’s rescission allows for the designation of critical habitat based on areas that may support the species in the future even if they do not support them currently, which is a key need as our landscapes are altered by climate change. 

To date, at least 15 bills undermining the Endangered Species Act have been introduced in the House along with three in the Senate.

The ESA, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, is America’s most effective law for protecting wildlife in danger of extinction. It is effective largely because it is a science-based law. More than 95% of listed species have survived, and many more have been set on a path to recovery. At a time when scientists have warned that 1 million species are facing extinction, the bills under consideration would undermine the law and its science-based framework.