Failure of the Endangered Species Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BAIRD. Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from the State of Washington for allowing me to have the opportunity to participate in this Special Order.

Madam Speaker, I rise today on behalf of the communities and the residents of west central Indiana to share our experience with the Endangered Species Act.

As an animal scientist and a farmer, I am a lifelong conservationist. I value the well-intentioned effort of the ESA to protect and conserve our Nation's most iconic species that define our landscapes and have shaped our heritage. Instead, however, I have repeatedly found myself discouraged with the implementation of this important act.

As I shared here on the House floor a few weeks ago, Lakes Freeman and Shafer, near Monticello, Indiana, have been a popular tourist destination. It has been home to many small businesses, attractions, and a vibrant local economy for generations of Hoosiers. Unfortunately, though, a series of droughts and a tangle of bureaucratic red tape involving the ESA has made a devastating impact on this community.

Following a listing on the endangered species list more than a decade ago of mussels found in the Tippecanoe River, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service subsequently ordered a new higher volume of water to consistently flow out of the Oakdale Dam that forms Lake Freeman, in an effort to preserve these now-protected mussels. This executive action by unelected bureaucrats has crippled our once-thriving community.

Businesses like the Tall Timbers Marina, local resorts, and the Madam Carroll cruise boat, as seen here, report catastrophic losses to revenue and depleted financial reserves.

Homeowners along the lake report ruined seawalls, dried-up wells, and slashed resale values, even during this hottest real estate market of our lifetime.

With zero regard for the economic and environmental catastrophe created, the Fish and Wildlife Service refuses to negotiate and continues to enforce a mandate designed to protect a population of mussels that have likely already died from the bacterial overload created when this 1,500-acre lake was reduced to a puddle, killing practically all the wildlife that used to call Lake Freeman home.

Due to years of misinterpretation of the law, unchecked actions by unelected bureaucrats, and radical environmentalism, this once valuable law, designed to conserve America's natural beauty, has instead proved time and time again to be a death knell to actual ecosystems and the nearby communities.

The Service consistently hides behind its ability to point fingers at other agencies, whose compliance is obligated by the ESA as a means to avoid rational management of the act and the species it protects.

As thought leaders and policymakers, we have an important responsibility to preserve the natural beauty that God has bestowed on our land. The Endangered Species Act was established with that mission at heart but has gone frightfully astray.

It has been 40 years since the enactment of the ESA. Now more than ever, it is time to modernize this important law, to fix its broken parts to better serve its purpose and to allow for responsible solutions to disasters like Lake Freeman.

I hope my colleagues will join me in this valuable effort.

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