Oklahoma U.S. Sen. James Lankford has joined the call for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to delist the American Burying Beetle from the Endangered Species Act.
In a letter to Director Daniel Ashe, the Senator argued the presence of the beetle and its protected status has a “real impact on local economies and infrastructure projects.”
The beetle was first listed as an endangered species in 1989 when declining populations were found in Oklahoma and Rhode Island. But as the senator noted, the populations continue to grow in Oklahoma and Nebraska and reviews 17 years after the 1989 listing confirmed it.
“Today, the population of the American burying beetle in Nebraska, an aea with no known beetles at the original tie of listing is estimated to contain well over 3,000 beetles and the population has also grown in Oklahoma where the beetle now exists in 45 of its 77 counties,” wrote the Senator. “Beetle sightings are now commonplace in Oklahoma, but are dreaded by anyone developing land as they signal costly mitigation measures.”
He cited the case of one Oklahoma town working to expand a lake through construction of a dam but it encountered mitigation measures required under the Endangered Species Act for the American Buying Beetle. Sen. Lankford said those measures are “inflating project costs by millions of dollars.”
“It is time to delist the beetle so that we can put an end to land use restrictions that have and will continue to higher the ability for states with beetle populations to build roads, water resources, and energy infrastructure. Oklahomans are depending on it,” said the Senator.