Harriet Hageman and Jared Huffman Debate Grizzly Bear Delisting

Wyoming's Grizzly Bear Management Plan

• 💡 Representative Hageman asserts that Wyoming's 2016 Grizzly Bear Management Plan includes tribal consultation.
• 📌 She states that the plan is designed to manage wildlife, including threatened and endangered species, with input from tribes.

Grizzly Bear Population and Conflicts

• 📊 According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the greater Yellowstone ecosystem is "saturated with grizzly bears".
• 📈 Wyoming Game and Fish Department has nine full-time staff dedicated to grizzly bears, supported by 51 scientific articles in the last 15 years.
• ⚠️ An average of 200 grizzlies are born annually in the ecosystem, and there are approximately 231 verified conflicts with grizzly bears each year in Wyoming, including human fatalities.
• 🎯 Hageman argues that the grizzly bear population far exceeds recovery goals, necessitating their delisting.

Tribal Consultation and Support

• ❓ Representative Huffman questioned whether tribal nations in the greater Yellowstone area support Hageman's bill and the devolution of management to the state.
• 🗣️ Hageman stated that tribal nations are involved in the management plan and that specific questions about their support should be directed to them.
• 🤝 Huffman claimed that tribes had opposed the bill in the previous Congress.

Conclusion on Delisting

• ✅ Hageman reiterated that the grizzly bear has recovered under the Endangered Species Act and should be delisted.
• 🎤 The debate occurred during a House Natural Resources Committee hearing.