{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://tipton.house.gov/press-release/tipton-takes-fish-and-wildlife-task-over-greater-sage-grouse", "Tipton Takes Fish and Wildlife to Task over Greater Sage Grouse", "2014-10-16", "2014", "2014-10", "Republican", "House", "CO", "Scott Tipton", "T000470", "tipton.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON\u2014Today, Congressman Scott Tipton (R-CO) and a number of his Western colleagues blasted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for shirking sound science and transparency as the agency rushes to meet a self-imposed, superficial listing deadline that could jeopardize the wellbeing of the Greater Sage Grouse.\nIn a letter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, Tipton and his colleagues wrote:\n \n\t\u201cWe write to express concerns with the lack of transparency of your Department\u2019s evaluation and use of \u2018best available scientific and commercial data\u2019 and lack of coordination with and assurances to affected states and other stakeholders relating to their extensive ongoing conservation efforts to avoid a listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of the Greater Sage Grouse.\u00a0\n\t\u201cWith less than a year to go before the Department\u2019s self-imposed September 2015 settlement deadline to determine whether to list the Greater Sage Grouse under the ESA, it appears that the Department is blatantly ignoring or downplaying significant flaws and gaps in its own sage grouse data and science, and failing to incorporate recent data that suggests sage grouse populations are stable and not declining.\u00a0 This undermines the Obama Administration\u2019s pledge to \u2018ensure the public trust\u00a0and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration.\u2019\n\t\u201cWe are also concerned that, at the same time, the Department has set in motion a process to mandate, through revisions to 98 resource management plans, mitigation requirements which have not been deemed necessary or helpful to sage grouse that would devastate state and local economies and severely impact private property owners\u2019 activities in portions of eleven western states.\u00a0 It is much more important that best available science and data, rather than mega-settlement deadlines negotiated behind closed-doors, guide this important ESA issue.\u201d\n \nThe letter raises concerns over an upcoming workshop between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) on October 22-23 in Fort Collins to \u201ccollect information from scientific experts\u201d on various questions regarding genetic differences of sage grouse.\n \n\t\u201cWithout question,\u00a0 the American public deserves and expects the Department and FWS to foster an open and transparent process on how it receives, evaluates and incorporates sage grouse data, and determines what is or isn\u2019t \u201cbest available,\u201d as ESA requires.\u00a0 Reversing itself in 2010, the FWS found that listing several populations of sage grouse found in portions of eleven states \u2018may be warranted,\u2019 allegedly due to population declines.\u00a0 However, rather than focus on actual sage grouse population data, the workshop apparently will consist of discussions of mere \u201cindividual opinions\u201d and queries of individual professional experience and opinion rather than sound science regarding sage grouse genetics, according to the invitation\u2026\n\t\u201cIn addition, the FWS recently confirmed that the few invited must meet rigid, somewhat exclusionary criteria to participate at the Fort Collins October workshop.\u00a0 As a result, participants will be comprised almost entirely of federal employees, federal grantees, or individuals who helped draft, were connected with, or have some interest in either the NTT or the COT reports or with FWS\u2019 research\u2026\n\t\u201cAdding insult to injury, the public would not be allowed to observe or obtain any information relating to this \u2018workshop\u2019 until well after the BLM and U.S. Forest Service finalize their resource management plan revisions and the FWS finalizes its listing decision.\u00a0 This runs counter to data transparency and ensuring use of best science that would benefit both the Greater Sage Grouse and millions of people in the affected area.\u201d\n \nThe letter also asks Jewell to respond to 17 questions about the workshop\u2019s function, structure and intent with regard to the overall listing decision for the Greater Sage Grouse.\nView the full letter pdf HERE.\nTipton has been a vocal advocate in Congress for scientifically supported locally-tailored species preservation efforts like those currently underway in Colorado. Such efforts have the flexibility to account for the specific ecological and geographic conditions of a region; ensuring more effective, targeted species preservation can take place. A broad federal ESA listing would disrupt these efforts in favor of a less-effective, one-size-fits all approach that would implement the same restrictions and requirements over a range of 186 million acres in eleven western states regardless of the local topographic and ecological conditions.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://tipton.house.gov/press-release/tipton-takes-fish-and-wildlife-task-over-greater-sage-grouse"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5417200047522783, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}