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An emerging problem producers are seeing on the ground is the Biden administration ’ s proposed $ 31 million recovery plan for the Canada lynx , a predator that was deemed to have been recovered and no longer threatened less than five years ago . Unfortunately , litigious animal activist groups sued the Biden administration . In the settlement , the lynx kept their threatened status . Currently , U . S . lynx populations are already more than the 20-year goal outlined in this unscientific proposal . This is a snow-dependent wildcat species impacted by annual snowfall , not by cattle producers . Yet , this proposal has broad implications for producers who live in states where lynxes are present . This proposal would limit the ability to set traps to protect against large predators posing a real risk to the lives of producers and their cattle , along with recreationalists such as hikers , skiers and snowmobilers . Putting sweeping protections on an already-recovered population of predators has a host of negative consequences , some that can be anticipated but many that cannot be predicted .

For half a century , the pattern of ESA activity has followed a common theme . Animal activists unilaterally declare a species in a rural , usually Western part of the country , endangered as a test to see how damaging these species-specific fights can be to animal agriculture . With the sage grouse , they saw how many problems they created for producers in the West , even though cattle production helps grow grouse populations . Then they moved their targets east to larger population centers . The

listing battle over sage grouse in the West has now shifted to lesser prairie chickens in the Plains . The issue of gray wolves has now shifted to include other predators such as Canada lynx that have significant populations located in the North and Northwest . Species protections started more than 50 years ago to serve a real purpose . Now they are just another tool for activist groups to gain more power over working lands and producers who make their living on those landscapes , while ignoring all the benefits cattle production has for strengthening wildlife populations .

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