Released: Thursday, April 28, 2022
Contact:
Joe Bushyhead, Guardians of WildEarth, 505-660-0284, [email protected]
Hawk Hammer, Defenders of Wildlife, 202-772-0295, [email protected]
Steve Holmer, American Bird Conservancy, 202-744-6459, [email protected]
Erik Molvar, Western Basin Project, 307-399-7910, [email protected]
Conservationists urge Congress to boost conservationists’ budgets
Letters to legislators raise alarm about habitat loss and significant population decline.
WASHINGTON, DC — Today, nearly 80 conservation organizations sent a letter to the House and Senate appropriations committees request that the upcoming 2023 budget bills exclude so-called “sage partridge riders,” a provision that prevents the Fish and Wildlife Service United States wildlife considers partridges more authoritative for protection under the Endangered Species Act.
Congress must pass annual spending bills to fund the Federal government. But too often, lawmakers associate controversial policymakers with this must-pass legislation.
The sage partridge rider is an example. Greater sage-grouse, found only in the shrinking sagebrush ecosystems of the West, has been steadily declining due to habitat fragmentation and degradation. Droughts, wildfires and donkey grass invasion – all made worse by climate change – pose a growing threat. 2010, Fish and Wildlife Service found that the sage partridge was given more protection under the Endangered Species Act. But the sage partridge mount, first introduced in 2014 and long championed by the oil and gas industry, has banned the agency from issuing a regulation listing the bird as threatened or endangered. strains.
“The sage partridge rider even eliminated the chance of being protected under the Endangered Species Act for the iconic and disappearing native bird“The letter reads.
Recent studies paint an alarming picture. A 2021 study by the United States Geological Survey found that populations of gentler partridges have decreased by 80% since 1965 and by nearly 40% since 2002. Bureau of Land Management population tracking. belt, the agency that manages millions of partridge samples. habitats, confirm declining population trends, and record a rapid increase in weed invasion. The Bureau is currently evaluating how to amend the land use plan to prevent population decline and habitat loss.
“Now more than ever – with new land-use planning efforts underway and sage partridge populations continuing to decline – Congress must allow the Endangered Species Act to serve its purpose. as an impetus for much-needed protections and a lifeline to stop this iconic behavior Western bird’s slide toward extinction,” wrote the Union.
A copy of the letter is available here: https://pdf.wildearthguardians.org/support_docs/Please-Oppos-Sage-Grouse-Rider-in-FY23-Interior-Bill.pdf
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