House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) released the following statement after the Interior Department released the final recovery plan for the Northern Spotted Owl: “This plan will cost jobs and deliver another blow to the economies of rural communities throughout the Pacific Northwest, while doing little to actually help increase Northern Spotted Owl… Read more »

On Monday, the Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular affairs held a field hearing in Shreveport, Louisiana on the giant salvinia - a free-floating aquatic invasive fern. It sits just below the water surface blocking out sunlight below and therefore killing everything beneath the water’s surface. It grows at a rapid rate by cloning itself and has been found to cover 40… Read more »

Today, the House Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs held a field hearing in Shreveport, Louisiana titled “Giant Salvinia: How Do We Protect Our Ecosystems?” Subcommittee Chairman John Fleming (LA-04) and Representative Louie Gohmert (TX-01) attended the hearing and heard from Administration, state and local experts on the status of the fight against giant… Read more »

On Monday, June 27, 2011 the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs will hold a Field Hearing in Shreveport, Louisiana on “Giant Salvinia: How Do We Protect Our Ecosystems?” The hearing will examine the impacts of giant salvinia, an aquatic invasive plant from Brazil that has been declared one of the world’s worst weeds. The giant salvinia… Read more »

Today, the House Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs held a hearing titled “Buying More Land When We Can’t Maintain What We Already Own: The National Wildlife Refuge System’s Operations and Maintenance Backlog Story.” Members heard from the Administration and associated parties on the current state of the System, the affects of the maintenance and operations… Read more »

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) released the following statement regarding announcement of the Administration’s efforts to make administrative changes to the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The Natural Resources Committee has jurisdiction over the ESA: "The Obama Administration is admitting that the ESA is failing to truly recover endangered species while it… Read more »

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) released the following statement applauding NOAA’s authorization to lethally remove California sea lions: “As Northwest residents spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year to protect salmon, California sea lions camp out at Bonneville Dam and other areas along the Columbia River and gorge themselves on endangered fish.… Read more »

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings issued the following statement on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announcement to delist biologically recovered gray wolf populations in the Western Great Lakes and the Northern Rocky Mountains. The areas affected by the Western Great Lakes proposal are Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin, and portions of adjoining states. The… Read more »

Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) agreed, following a letter from House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings and Reps. Greg Walden, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Jaime Herrera Beutler, Tom McClintock and Wally Herger, to re-open for an additional 30 days public comment on the controversial proposed habitat modeling related to the Northern Spotted Owl. The announcement… Read more »

While in Louisiana, Chairman Doc Hastings had the opportunity to visit the Mandalay National Wildlife Refuge in Southeast Louisiana. During the tour, U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials briefed the Chairman on wetland restoration activities currently underway, energy production activities taking place in the Wildlife Refuge, and other important… Read more »