skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Saturday, July 27, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Arson attacks paralyze French high-speed rail network hours before start of Olympics, the Obamas endorse Harris for President; A NY county creates facial recognition, privacy protections; Art breathes new life into pollution-ravaged MI community; 34 Years of the ADA.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Harris meets with Israeli PM Netanyahu and calls for a ceasefire. MI Rep. Rashida Tlaib faces backlash for a protest during Netanyahu's speech. And VA Sen. Mark Warner advocates for student debt relief.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

There's a gap between how rural and urban folks feel about the economy, Colorado's 'Rural is Rad' aims to connect outdoor businesses, more than a dozen of Maine's infrastructure sites face repeated flooding, and chocolate chip cookies rock August.

Congress Could Sidestep Endangered Species Act to Delist Grizzlies, Wolves

play audio
Play

Tuesday, March 28, 2023   

Congress is considering three bills that would sidestep the Endangered Species Act to de-list the Northern Continental Divide and Yellowstone grizzly bears, and all gray wolf populations.

Erik Molvar, executive director of the Western Watersheds Project said the measures would undermine the Endangered Species Act, which requires the federal government to make listing decisions solely based on the best available science.

"And what Congress is doing here is, it's trying to take away that decision-making authority from the scientists and give it to politicians in Congress who have no qualifications as biologists or scientists to make these kinds of decisions," he said.

Brian Nesvik, Wyoming Game and Fish Department director, testified in favor of the measures that would return management of the species to states and claimed that environmental groups have been holding farmers, ranchers and government agencies hostage to continue Endangered Species Act protections.

Conservationists warn, as human activity drives what has been called Earth's sixth mass-extinction event, now is not the time to weaken a key tool to maintain the biodiversity that people also depend on.

Molvar said while there are ecosystems with nearly full recovery 1,000 grizzly bears, full recovery will require deepening their gene pool by connecting populations that are currently isolated, and will require deepening their gene pool by connecting populations that are currently isolated.

"Which makes them vulnerable to random acts of ecological disruption - like major weather events, or disease outbreaks, or other unexpected declines in population - because they are so close to the minimum number that's needed to maintain their genetic diversity," he said.

In states where wolves have been delisted - Idaho, Montana and Wyoming - Molvar said state governments have enacted aggressive wolf-killing policies, and added this is what will continue to happen if wolves are delisted in states that have no interest in preserving and recovering at-risk carnivores.

"And in Wyoming, wolf killing is allowed in 85% of the state without a hunting license, without any kind of limitations on season, without any limitation on bag limit. You can hunt them with night-vision goggles. You can run them over with snowmobiles," Molvar said.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
According to the Tax Policy Center, for higher-income earners, sales taxes consume a lower share of their income than for other households. (Vitalii Vodolazskyi/Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

As Nebraska state lawmakers convene for a special session on property tax reform called by Gov. Jim Pillen, groups are weighing in on the details …


play sound

Traveling around rural Minnesota can be difficult but in more than half the state, nonprofit transit systems are helping people get where they need …

Social Issues

play sound

Student loan forgiveness took center stage on Thursday at the American Federation of Teachers conference. The Biden administration has canceled more …


Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has introduced legislation to codify the Chevron Deference into law. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Recent Supreme Court rulings on air pollution are affecting Virginia and the nation. Climate advocates said the court overstepped its bounds in …

Health and Wellness

play sound

World Hepatitis Day is this Sunday, and for the Oregon Health Authority, it's an opportunity to promote its plan to eliminate hepatitis across the …

The Gender Shades project revealed facial recognition performed poorest for darker-skinned women, and performed best for lighter-skinned men. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Columbia County, New York, is implementing new facial recognition and privacy policies, following new upgrades to the county's surveillance cameras…

Health and Wellness

play sound

New York disability-rights advocates are celebrating the 34th anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The 1990 …

Social Issues

play sound

As summer winds down and North Carolina students prepare to return to school, the focus shifts to the urgent need for better public education funding…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021