President Trump is “declaring war” on wolves, grizzlies, and other imperiled wildlife with his nominee for Fish and Wildlife Service, warns leading conservation group
The nominee Brian Nesvik is described as having an “extreme record” on wildlife issues with a history of “anti-conservation” decisions.
A leading conservation group has warned that a proposed nominee who is set to lead the US wildlife department has an “extreme record” on wildlife issues and a history of “anti-conservation” decisions.
On February 12 President Trump announced that Brian Nesvik, the former director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, has been nominated to be the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
News of the nomination quickly drew criticism from the Center for Biological Diversity, as Nesvik is already known to conservationists and wildlife experts due to past controversies during his previous role at the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.
Nesvik faced national public anger last year after his agency failed to take appropriate action in a high profile case where a man was accused of the torture and horrific killing of a juvenile wolf in Wyoming. The wolf’s killer, Cody Roberts, is said to have hit the wolf with a snowmobile, before dragging the injured animal to a local bar, and later shooting the animal dead at the back of the establishment.
In an infamous viral photo of the incident, Roberts was seen smiling and posing alongside the injured wolf, while the animal had their mouth taped shut.
Petitions calling for justice for the wolf’s suffering were aiming for Nesvik, the then-director of the state’s wildlife department, to take strong action against the animal’s killer. However, the accused only received a $250 fine over the incident.
“Nesvik’s lackadaisical response to the tormenting of that young Wyoming wolf speaks volumes about his lack of care for wildlife,” said Stephanie Kurose, the Center for Biological Diversity’s deputy director of government affairs.
Under Nesvik’s authority and guidance, the wolf killing scandal brought renewed attention to the state’s wider laws on killing wolves and other wildlife.
This includes Wyoming’s laws that permit hunters to legally hit and run over wolves and coyotes with snowmobiles. The controversial and violent practise is colloquially referred to as “wolf whacking”, and is the focus of an ongoing Species Unite petition calling for the state to outlaw the cruel activity.
Nesvik led “one of the most anti-conservation wildlife agencies in the country”, according to the Center’s Kurose, who says that his nomination to run the Fish and Wildlife Service means that “Trump is declaring war on wolves, grizzly bears and imperiled wildlife across America.”
Kurose points to Nesvik’s “extreme record” on wildlife issues that also includes sustained efforts to weaken the Endangered Species Act. In 2020, Nesvik joined the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, which represents the interests of cattle ranchers in Wyoming and opposes protections for endangered species, and said the Endangered Species Act “must be pruned.”
Advocates for imperiled wildlife in the US say that the Endangered Species Act helps protect endangered species and their habitats from extinction, and as such can limit or outright ban the hunting of at-risk species.
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