Today, House Committee on Natural Resources Ranking Member Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) and U.S. Reps. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.) and Pete Stauber (R-Minn.) led a letter to congressional appropriators, requesting that any year-end funding package prohibit federal funding for the listing of the northern long-eared bat (NLEB) as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In part, the members wrote:
"The restrictions that will accompany this up-listing of the NLEB as endangered could have significant negative economic and ecological impacts. Restrictions could include prohibiting timber harvesting in the summer months and creating buffer zones in certain areas. These restrictions would significantly harm timber producers and local economies and will result in worsened forest conditions..."
"Unfortunately, forest management activities are not the only actions that could be impacted by this up-listing. Restrictions could impact wind energy construction, mining activities, oil and gas development, agricultural practices including grazing, and more within the bats' range. Despite the possibility of significant restrictions on these activities being imposed as the result of an endangered listing, these activities are not significantly impacting the NLEB. In the [U.S. Fish and Wildlife] Service's March 2022 proposal to list the NLEB as endangered, it clearly explains how, '[White-nose syndrome] has been the foremost stressor on the northern long-eared bat for more than a decade."
Read the full letter here.
Original source can be found here
