Graves’ Nutria Eradication Bill Passes U.S. House

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U.S. Congressman Garret Graves, a member of the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee, released the following statement today after a bill he cosponsored passed the U.S. House of Representatives. The legislation, H.R. 3399 – To amend the Nutria Eradication and Control Act of 2003 to include California in the program, and for other purposes, provides funding for a nutria bounty program and restoration funds to nutria related damage. U.S. Congressman Josh Harder (D-CA) is the sponsor of the legislation.


 

Graves spoke about the bill on the House Floor: “I have come here many times to describe the coastal challenges we have in Louisiana. We have lost 2,800 square miles of our coast, and the 20 million invasive nutria infesting our state are part of the problem. Think about this: nearly 4.5 million people live in Louisiana, yet we have an estimated 20 million nutria…20 million!  It’s an extraordinary figure. If we could count them in the census, Louisiana would pick up an additional 27 members of Congress. We’re having infestation without representation and we need to do something about it…”

 

“Nutria threaten farmers, indigenous wildlife, and our water infrastructure – it’s time to bring in the cavalry and drive them out of the Valley – that’s just what my bill would do,” said Harder. “This is a bipartisan concern and today’s unanimous vote proves that Washington can, in fact, get something done.”

 

The current Louisiana Coastwide Nutria Control Program is funded through 2022.  The 2018-2019 Nutria Control Program facts are:


• 223,155 nutria tails worth $1,115,775 in incentive payments were collected from 241 active participants
• Terrebonne Parish turned in the most tails (51,960), followed by Plaquemines (39,657), and St. Mary (19,458) Parishes
• 86 (36%) participants turned in less than 200 tails, 49 (20%) turned in 200-499 tails, 28 (12%) turned in 500-799 tails, and 78 (32%) turned in >800 tails
• 55% of the nutria were harvested by rifle, 27% trapped, and 18% with a shotgun
• The 2019 Nutria Herbivory Survey was completed May 23rd, there were 3,907 acres damaged along transect lines, which extrapolates to 14,652 acres coastwide

 

Watch Graves’ full speech here: