‘Wolf-gate’ Killing Dogs Trump’s Fish and Wildlife Nominee

WASHINGTON— President Trump today nominated Brian Nesvik to be the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Nesvik, the former director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, has an extreme record on wildlife issues.

Nesvik faced major national blowback in 2024 after his agency failed to take strong action against a man who captured a juvenile wolf by running her down with a snowmobile. A published photo showed the man posing with the injured animal, who had her muzzle taped shut. The man, who ultimately killed the wolf, received a $250 fine.

“Trump is declaring war on wolves, grizzly bears and imperiled wildlife across America by picking Nesvik to run the Fish and Wildlife Service,” said Stephanie Kurose, the Center for Biological Diversity’s deputy director of government affairs. “In Wyoming Nesvik led one of the most anti-conservation wildlife agencies in the country, and it’s glaringly obvious that he wants to destroy the Endangered Species Act and with it our best chance of fighting the extinction crisis. You only put a guy like this in charge of protecting endangered animals if you want them wiped out.”

In 2020 Nesvik joined the Wyoming Stock Growers Association in stating that the Endangered Species Act “must be pruned.” The Stock Growers Association is a trade organization that represents the interests of cattle ranchers in Wyoming and has long opposed protections for endangered species, as well as some of the nation’s most prized public lands like Grand Teton National Park.

During the Obama administration, Nesvik supported former Wyoming Governor Mead’s efforts to weaken the Endangered Species Act, which called for weaker protections for all species listed as “threatened,” ignoring climate change’s threats to endangered species, prematurely ending the Act’s protections for wildlife and transferring management to states, and increasing “regulatory flexibility” for extractive industries to harm endangered species.

More recently, Nesvik vocally opposed efforts to protect and conserve sage grouse populations from threats to their habitat from the oil and gas industry, as well as grazing, after the first Trump administration weakened protections for the bird.

“Nesvik’s lackadaisical response to the tormenting of that young Wyoming wolf speaks volumes about his lack of care for wildlife,” Kurose said. “But his larger record truly underscores how deeply he despises the Fish and Wildlife Service’s fundamental mission. Most Americans want our imperiled wildlife protected, but we can’t count on Nesvik to lift a finger to prevent extinction.”

Cover photo: By Biological Diversity