Putting the Recovery Back in the ESA

August 4, 2025

While a name change for the Endangered Species Act may be primarily symbolic, two Wyoming lawmakers who call the change long overdue, have introduced a bill to rename the program the Endangered Species Recovery Act.

Arkansas Rep. Bruce Westerman, the chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources compared the Endangered Species Act to the Hotel California, where "you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.” Now, Wyoming Republicans Cynthia Lummis and Harriet Hageman want to rename the ESA the Endangered Species Recovery Act, bringing to the forefront the Act’s intention to delist recovered species.

Since its inception in the 1970s, only 54 species of the1,300 species listed have been removed from the ESA citing recovery.

In a statement sent to Western Ag Network, Hageman said, “For too long, the Endangered Species Act has been used to control land, not recover species, with only 3% ever delisted. The Endangered Species Recovery Act, which I introduced with Senator Lummis, reiterates the law’s true intent, actually recovering wildlife and returning management to the states. Wyoming leads in conservation, and it is time Washington stepped aside. We must put results over regulation and bring common sense back to environmental policy."

Lummis said the name change is a call for refocus and to better reflect the intent of the Act.

"Instead of celebrating recovery success by removing federal intervention, they've created a system that keeps species listed indefinitely. The Endangered Species Recovery Act refocuses this law on its original purpose: recovering species and then getting the federal government out of the way,” Lummis said.

Many producers across the West are relieved by the recent confirmation of Wyoming’s Brian Nesvick as the Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and are watching closely for news on potential delisting of gray wolves and grizzly bears.