At CattleCon, in Nashville, TN, Tony St.James caught up with Garrett Edmonds, of NCBA and the Public Lands Council, to talk wolf depredation, the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and what producers want to see change.
In Edmonds’ view, the ESA, which was formed under the Nixon Administration, began with noble intent, but has in more recent years been twisted by environmentalist groups into a land-management tool wielded to the detriment of the very species it was designed to protect. He and his constituents are working on the ESA Amendments Act of 2025, sponsored by House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman, which would impose a 5-year stay on judicial review of any determinations on the part of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to de-list certain species from protection.
Edmonds says that reform efforts are taking a three-pronged approach: pursuing litigation where necessary, seeking to implement changes to existing rules, and pushing to implement new legislation, such as the proposed Pet and Livestock Protection Act, which would de-list the gray wolf from ESA.