Committee approves memorial urging Congress to delist grizzly bears and review Endangered Species Act

BOISE

The Resource and Conservation Committee voted to send House Joint Memorial 4 to the House floor with a do-pass recommendation, advancing a message to Congress and the president that Idaho supports returning grizzly-bear management to states and reviewing the Endangered Species Act.

Representative Raymond, sponsor of HJM4, said Idaho has "played a great role in making sure that grizzly is alive and well" and argued that "it is time that the species be delisted and that management of it be returned to the states." The memorial asks federal officials to consider delisting grizzlies in the lower 48 states and to reassess aspects of the Endangered Species Act.

Testimony at the hearing highlighted differing views on readiness for delisting. Steve Nadeau, a retired Idaho Department of Fish and Game employee and author on grizzly recovery, said two of the five delisting factors remain unaddressed in Idaho: curtailment of habitat or range and inadequate regulatory mechanisms. He noted a lack of a current state grizzly-bear management plan and warned that prior legislative actions had been used in court to argue state hostility to bear recovery. "The best thing, in my opinion, that you can do as a legislative body... is to do nothing," Nadeau said, urging lawmakers to support state biologists and interagency work instead of a memorial.

Representatives of agricultural and rural constituencies urged delisting and praised Idaho—s conservation role. Russ Hendricks of the Idaho Farm Bureau told the committee the state has exceeded recovery goals in some ecosystems and supported forwarding the memorial.

Committee members discussed whether Idaho has an adequate management plan in place if delisting occurs; some members said an interagency conservation strategy is under discussion among Idaho and neighboring states and federal agencies. Representative Church said she had not seen a current state plan and would vote no; other members said they believed sufficient planning or interagency work exists to move the memorial forward.

A motion to send HJM4 to the floor passed by voice vote; the transcript does not record a roll-call tally.

What happened next

House Joint Memorial 4 was sent to the House floor with a do-pass recommendation.

Actions

- Motion: Send House Joint Memorial 4 to the floor with a do-pass recommendation. Mover: Representative Souder. Outcome: approved by voice vote; no roll-call tally recorded in transcript.