President Trump’s nominee for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director
is considered by Senate Committee
For Immediate Release: March 26, 2025
Contacts:
Jewel Tomasula [email protected]
Susan Holmes [email protected]
Kristin Combs [email protected]
Washington, D.C. – The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will consider President Trump’s nominee for the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today. Brian Nesvick, former director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, who would administer the Endangered Species Act, brings a history of opposition to federal protections for wildlife.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is the federal agency charged with protecting threatened and endangered species. The stated mission of FWS is to “conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats…” The agency manages nearly 860 million acres of national wildlife refuges.
Throughout his career, Nesvik has pushed to eliminate federal protections for grizzly bears and defended a “shoot-on-sight” for gray wolves. On 85% of the land in Wyoming, gray wolves can be killed with no bag limit, license, or other sustainable hunting measure in place. Last year, Nesvik’s agency received global condemnation for imposing only a minimal fine when a Wyoming man used a snowmobile to run down and brutally torture a young female wolf. Gray wolves are among the top reasons tourists visit Wyoming, but outside of the federally-managed Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks they have little to no protections.
Nesvik has been hostile to the Endangered Species Act and science-based wildlife protections. In 2020, Mr. Nesvik co-wrote an editorial stating the Endangered Species Act “must be pruned” to allow states to make their own rules on conservation. Yet, Wyoming is one of only three states that does not have a state Endangered Species Act. Nesvik’s position on the Endangered Species Act is out of touch with the Wyoming people; recent polling shows that 53% of Wyoming residents oppose reducing federal Endangered Species Act protections.
“Nesvik has been a disaster for Wyoming wildlife, neglecting science and democracy while putting the wealthiest interests first,” said executive director of Wyoming Wildlife Advocates Kristin Combs. “If not for the federal government stepping in to protect imperiled species, Wyoming wouldn’t have wolves, grizzlies, lynx, wolverine, and the black-footed ferret.”
“There is no doubt that if confirmed as Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Nesvik will do the Trump Administration’s bidding to advance unchecked drilling, mining, and logging of fragile wildlife habitats,” said Susan Holmes, Executive Director, Endangered Species Coalition. “Nesvik will sacrifice our precious endangered species for industry profits at every turn. It will be a war on wildlife that will wreak havoc on the protection and recovery of species from grizzlies to sea turtles to monarch butterflies,” she said.
###
