The hearing on House Bill 1576 will be on Monday, August 26, at the Empire Beauty School, 396 Pottsville St. Clair Highway, in Pottsville.
Representative Jeff Pyle, R-Armstrong, is the sponsor of House Bill 1576. Senate President Pro Tem Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, is the sponsor of identical legislation in the Senate as Senate Bill 1047.
Here is what these bills would do:
- Severely restrict the ability of state agencies to designate any species as threatened or endangered unless those species are first listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. Part of the goal of state conservation efforts is to prevent species declines in regions and to head off a federal listing in the first place.
- Severely restricts the ability of the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission (PFBC) to designate a wild trout stream.
- Bring any action by the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the PFBC to designate threatened or endangered species, or a wild trout stream in the case of the PFBC, under the Regulatory Review Act. This action would result in significant delay for species listings and stream designations, and politicize decisions that should be made on the basis of sound science.
- Remove within two years of the effective date of the bill all species now listed as threatened or endangered at the state level in Pennsylvania, unless the agency is able to re-designate the species under the severe and difficult restrictions imposed by the act.
The Game Commission, the Fish & Boat Commission, and the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) are charged under law to conserve and manage the plants and animals of the Commonwealth. These bad bills would cripple the ability of these agencies to carry out their missions. Anyone who cares about the future of Penn's Woods, the diversity of life in our midst, and the natural inheritance we leave for our children, should be alarmed. Stay tuned.
