HJR 32: Urging the United States Congress to remove wood bison from protection under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 and to grant control of wood bison in Alaska to the state.
00 HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 32 01 Urging the United States Congress to remove wood bison from protection under the 02 Endangered Species Act of 1973 and to grant control of wood bison in Alaska to the 03 state. 04 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 05 WHEREAS the purpose of 16 U.S.C. 1531 - 1544 (Endangered Species Act of 1973) 06 is to protect or restore a species to a condition where continued existence of the species is not 07 threatened or endangered; and 08 WHEREAS litigation pursued by numerous environmental and conservation groups 09 has significantly affected the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and, often, implementation of 10 the current law serves to defeat the original purpose of the Act; and 11 WHEREAS wood bison no longer exist in the United States but still exist in Canada; 12 and 13 WHEREAS the Department of Fish and Game would like to reintroduce wood bison 14 in the state; and 15 WHEREAS wood bison are an endangered species and cannot be hunted without
01 federal exemptions; and 02 WHEREAS, if wood bison were reintroduced in the state, resource development on 03 the land they occupy would be significantly affected; and 04 WHEREAS, in an effort to avoid the restrictions on hunting and resource 05 development, the Department of Fish and Game negotiated with the United States Fish and 06 Wildlife Service exemptions under 16 U.S.C. 1533(d) and 1539(j) (Endangered Species Act 07 of 1973) to allow hunting of wood bison and to allow resource development on land used by 08 wood bison; and 09 WHEREAS, just before the negotiated exemptions were to be signed and the wood 10 bison reintroduced into the wild, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service informed the 11 Department of Fish and Game that new litigation had been filed challenging whether 12 endangered species can ever be hunted and that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service is 13 no longer willing to proceed with the negotiated exemptions, as agreed; and 14 WHEREAS, because hunting wood bison, one of the main purposes for reintroducing 15 wood bison in the state, could be prohibited and other negotiated provisions are likely to be 16 challenged, the Department of Fish and Game is unwilling to release the wood bison; and 17 WHEREAS, after 20 years of protecting the gray wolf in other states, during which 18 time, all of the original goals were met or exceeded, the United States Fish and Wildlife 19 Service would not remove the gray wolf from the endangered species list and return control to 20 the states; and 21 WHEREAS, because numerous lawsuits have been filed in attempts to use the 22 Endangered Species Act for purposes other than to accomplish the stated goal, repeated 23 requests were made to the United States Congress to intervene; and 24 WHEREAS, in an unprecedented act, the United States Congress recently removed 25 the gray wolf from protection under the Endangered Species Act and returned control to the 26 respective states; and 27 WHEREAS, under the current situation, if wood bison were released in the state, their 28 habitat and any areas onto which they were to wander could become subject to the restrictive 29 provisions of the Endangered Species Act of 1973; and 30 WHEREAS significant resources in the state are at stake; and 31 WHEREAS the Donlin Creek mine is located well within wood bison traveling
01 distance, and, if wood bison were to wander to Donlin Creek, that $70,000,000,000 of 02 resources could easily be locked up, at a cost of $700,000,000 for each of the approximately 03 100 wood bison released; and 04 WHEREAS Canada, under the Species at Risk Act, has declared the wood bison 05 proposed to be sent to Alaska a surplus and has acknowledged that the loss of those wood 06 bison would not have a negative effect on the successful restoration of wood bison in Canada; 07 and 08 WHEREAS the Department of Fish and Game has successfully managed plains 09 bison, which are genetically similar to wood bison, and wood bison would prosper under 10 similar management; and 11 WHEREAS, if the wood bison proposed to be reintroduced to the state are to be 12 under the protection of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 and its accompanying restrictions 13 relating to land development and hunting, the Department of Fish and Game has stated that it 14 will not accept them; and 15 WHEREAS these facts serve to demonstrate that the wood bison's status on the list of 16 species protected under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 is what most endangers them; 17 BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the United States 18 Congress to remove wood bison from protection under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 19 and to grant control of wood bison in Alaska to the state. 20 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of 21 the United States; the Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Vice-President of the United States and 22 President of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Harry Reid, Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate; 23 the Honorable Mitch McConnell, Minority Leader of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable John 24 Boehner, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; the Honorable Nancy Pelosi, 25 Minority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives; the Honorable Ken Salazar, United 26 States Secretary of the Interior; and the Honorable Lisa Murkowski and the Honorable Mark 27 Begich, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the 28 Alaska delegation in Congress.