Senator Lankford Says New GAO Report shows It’s Time to Delist American Burying Beetle

 

buryingbeetlerre

A Government Accountability Office report requested by Oklahoma U.S. Sen. James Lankford shows the U.S.Fish and Wildlife Service doesn’t have adequate financial controls in its conservation efforts to protect the American burying beetle. And its operations are full of errors and missing data.

“Years ago, to protect the American Burying beetle population, the Fish and Wildlife Service started requiring land developers in Oklahoma and other states to invest in Conservation Banks, commonly known as beetle farms,” said Lankford. “But in the past few years, the cost of Conservation Banks has skyrocketed, so the Fish and Wildlife Service has allowed “In-Lieu” fee payments to third party conservation organizations.”

Lankford requested the GAO study which found that for the In-Lieu payment mitigation option, the Fish and Wildlife Service records contained missing data and other errors.

He said those errors “led GAO to determine that the data was not sufficiently reliable for our purposes.”

The same study showed that some In-Lieu mitigation programs had taken payments but spent no money for the mitigation projects to date. Others had purchased land near existing Conservation Banks, but had made no specific mitigation work for the American burying beetle.

“This GAO investigation reinforces the need for more rigorous oversight of the Fish and Wildlife Service and the mitigation programs managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service. I also remain concerned about the rigor of scientific information used to continue to list the American burying beetle on the endangered species list. ”

Senator Lankford said it’s time to move past the beetle farms and In-Lieu payments and recognize that the growing beetle population demands review and the rapid delisting of the beetle.

The beetle was put on the endangered species list in 1989 when declining populations were found in Oklahoma and Rhode Island.