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Amodei: One-year sage hen delay is necessary and warranted

December 12, 2014

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Brian Baluta, 202-225-6155

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, language introduced by Congressman Mark Amodei (NV-2) to delay for one year any potential Endangered Species Act (ESA) listing of the sage hen was included in H.R. 83, the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2015, which passed the House 219 to 206. Amodei released the following statement:

“I would like to thank my House and Senate colleagues for acknowledging the following facts: As the largest land owner in the West, Federal government action regarding land use has a profound impact on the resources and economy of the West. Consequently, those actions ought to be well and objectively thought out and funded by the federal government.

“Our advocacy for a one-year delay in the sage hen listing is necessitated not by political agenda, but by the simple fact that over the course of 10 years, the Department of Interior has made essentially no funding requests for sage hen habitat protection or restoration. The delay is even more appropriate in view of the dual revelation by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) that they believe 1) multiple use of federal land in the West should end and 2) that fuels management to minimize wildland fire impact on habitat and habitat restoration are not effective solutions for habitat loss due to catastrophic wildland fire.

“Coming so late in the process, these revelations only give strength to the claims of those who from the beginning feared this is really about ending multiple use in the West. For example, in a state like Nevada where, during the last 25 years, 6.5 to seven million acres have burned, while we have permitted during the same time approximately 150,000 acres for mining. Multiple use is not the threat to sage hen habitat. The credibility factor of Interior agencies is further eroded by their laser-like focus on the range cattle industry while ignoring the presence of wild horses in sage hen habitat.

“For years, many of us have worked transparently in earnest to address the condition of sage hen habitat in the West and can put this delay to good use in doing the right thing for all habitat resources. However, I am unaware of the fact-based foundation for Interior’s drawing lines on maps and focusing on human activity when in our part of the country the threats are wildland fire and invasive species. If it is really about the habitat, the preoccupation with 15 percent of the threat while ignoring the other 85 percent is yet another example of forwarding political agendas ahead of dealing with environmental facts and solving the resource problem.”

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