Hageman Seeks to End “Eco-Grief” Counseling Program for Distraught FWS Employees

A Horse with Cow

by Mark Heinz, Outdoors Reporter, Cowboy State Daily

Acounseling program for federal wildlife employees supposedly suffering from “eco-grief” isn’t just a sham, its part of a wider campaign of “wokeism” bent on destroying the energy economy, Wyoming Republican Congresswoman Harriet Hageman claimed.

During a speech in the U.S. House chamber, she called the counseling program available to some U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) employees “another instance of the insanity of wokeism.”

She said it’s being foisted by “an elitist cabal of ecowarriors who are paid to destroy the very standard of living that allows them to focus on made-up crises, rather than focus on the jobs they are paid for doing.”

She was referencing four-hour seminars offered to USFWS employees in the agency’s southwest region, to help them cope with the effects of eco-grief – or anxiety caused by the perception of an existential environmental crisis. The southwest region includes Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma.

In Wyoming and throughout the West, the FWS has a strong presence. Among other things, it’s the lead agency in charge of managing grizzly bears, which remain under federal Endangered Species Act protection in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. The agency also manages Mexican wolves in New Mexico and Arizona, lesser prairie chickens in New Mexico, Texas and other states. The list of species is too numerous to capture here.

APA Says Eco-Grief Is Real

Despite Hageman’s scathing dismissal, the American Psychological Association (APA) says that “eco-grief,” “eco-anxiety” and similar mental maladies are real conditions that are affecting increasing numbers of people in the face of climate change and environmental destruction.

“More than two-thirds (68 percent) of the adults APA surveyed said they had ‘at least a little ‘eco-anxiety,’ or anxiety or worry about climate change and its effects,” according to an APA report. “Nearly half (48 percent) of young adults ages 18 to 34 said they felt stress over climate change in their daily lives.”

Stealth Attack on Energy Sector

Hageman said the eco-grief counseling sessions might seem inconsequential. But she claimed they’re part of a wider pattern of the administration of President Joe Biden and others to undermine and ultimately destroy the fossil fuel economy upon which Wyoming and other states depend.

“Eco-grief is admittedly a smaller budget item than many other woke programs,” she said during her speech. “That, however, is no reason to ignore what it portends, or the real underlying agenda being pushed by this federal agency.”

Undermining the energy sector has driven up the costs of gasoline, natural gas for heating and other fossil fuel products, she said. That’s hurt Americans, particularly the poor, she said.

“I believe there truly is a special place in Hell for people who adopt policies that create energy poverty,” she said.

Get Rid Of

It, Hageman

Says Hageman said the eco-grief counseling program is a waste of time and taxpayer money and addressed USFWS employees directly toward the end of her speech.

“For our friends at the Fish and Wildlife Service, who may be watching this speech, you may want to take that eco grief seminar now, before we legislate it out of existence,” she said. ▫

by Frank Dubois

with those feelings.” This was in a memo to the employees of the Southwest region, where the training is offered.

A spokesman for the agency says, ““This 4-hour workshop seeks to normalize the wide range of emotional responses that conservationists experience while empowering participants to act while taking care of themselves. The workshop is intended for those experiencing ecological grief and for those who wish to support them.”

Ecogrief, they say, is in a series of terms to describe stress. Other labels used are “climate grief” and “ecoanxiety”.

Ecogrief

This is almost beyond belief. The Washington Times is reporting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will provide “ecogrief” training to employees who are “struggling with a sense of trauma or loss as they witness a changing environment.”

The article says this class “will give staffers a chance to define what they mean by ecological grief, space to examine their emotional reactions and tools to grapple

The author even contacted the American Psychological Association which says, “it can manifest as a sense of being overwhelmed by the immensity of changes to the environment, or even a sense of ‘anticipated loss’ — essentially mourning what someone believes to be inevitable, particularly with climate change.”

So there you have it. These people are supposedly sitting in their offices and experiencing “ecogrief”, “climate grief” and “ecoanxiety”.

If you feel you must grieve, then do so for:

—The ranching family that has to pack up and leave because a certain endangered plant is on their allotment.

—The ranching family that was tried twice for the same offense and labeled as terrorists

—The folks who worked in local timber mills that have been shut down

---The rural property owners who have seen their property and facilities burned to the ground as a result of federal policy and mismanagement.

That’s just a short list of the things that bring me grief. Call it ESAgrief, 30x30grief, NEPAanxiety, climatecrying or whatever you want, those are things that are worth grieving over.

Chickens

Looks like the lesser prairie is trying to flee the coop again, with the help of those poor folks suffering from ecogrief.

Four months ago those grieving folks in the US Fish & Wildlife Service recovered long enough to designate the lesser prairie chicken as threatened and endangered. How can it be both threatened and endangered? Because they designated two distinct populations. A northern population in the Texas panhandle, Kansas, Oklahoma and Colorado, which will be listed as threatened, and a southern distinct population in west Texas and New Mexico where the chicken will be classified as endangered.

The effective date for the designations was to be January 24, but those poor suffering souls have decided to extend that to March 27. Was this because of ecogrief? Nope, more likely it was because of a lawsuit.

The Western Livestock Journal reports the NCBA and other entities have filed suit to delay the listing. The NCBA says, “The science has proven repeatedly that healthy, diverse rangelands—like those cultivated by livestock grazing—are where the lesser prairie chicken thrives. There are numerous places where this listing goes seriously wrong and we are defending cattle producers against this overreaching, unscientific rule.”

The American Farm Bureau Federation has done an analysis that says the value of ag production in those states affected is “nearly $55 billion, or 15 percent of total U.S. production by value.” Now that is certainly enough to make you grieve.

Recall this is the Biden Administration’s initiative to protect 30 percent of the land and water across the entire globe. First proposed in 2020 by the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People, it originally got 50 nations, including the US, to sign on to the program. By 2021 100 nations were participants. And by the end of 2022 190 nations had signed on. For Brian O’Donnell, the director of the Campaign for Nature, 30×30 should be considered a “floor not a ceiling.”

What does this mean for the U.S.? It would take an area twice the size of Texas to be set aside and protected. That definitely has me grieving again.

Until next time, be a nuisance to the devil and don’t forget to check that cinch.

Frank DuBois was the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003, is the author of a blog: The Westerner (www.thewesterner.blogspot.com) and is the founder of The DuBois Rodeo Scholarship and The DuBois Western Heritage Foundation ▫