WHITEFISH — Members of the Congressional Western Caucus and the Trump Administration were in Whitefish on Tuesday for a discussion about wildfires, the Endangered Species Act and more.
United States Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz, the keynote speaker at Tuesday’s panel, spoke on a variety of topics.
Those topics included increasing Timber production and reducing wildfire risks.
“We got to make sure we protect rural America from wildfires, and that’s through forest management, that’s also through aggressive fire suppression, but there’s got to be that certainty, and we have to have good communication,” said Schultz.
Watch: Congressional Western Caucus members meet in the Flathead
Representatives in Congress from across the country attended the caucus and participated in back-and-forth sessions with panel members.
Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis led a discussion on endangered species and talked about delisting the grizzly bear.
“The situation with the grizzly bear is an example of how recovery has no longer been the goal,” said Lummis.
Senior Advisor to the Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Joshua Coursey was part of the panel.
“It is fully recovered, and we are working to provide durability to that moving forward to have this delisted,” said Coursey.
Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks Director Christy Clark spoke during the panel and talked about the importance of reducing grizzly bear and human conflict.
“We just have too many bears and now we have too many bear conflicts and so we need to find a solution that allows people to recreate, protect their livestock, and allow us to manage those high-density populations where there is so much conflict,” said Clark.
