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Greg Sheehan is a member of Safari Club International, an anti-environmental hunting group that has contributed “to the killing of lions, African elephants and other endangered species.”

Greg Sheehan is a member of Safari Club International, an organization that claims it is “the leader in protecting the freedom to hunt and in promoting wildlife conservation worldwide,” but that animal protection advocates have said is “behind the killings of tens of thousands of animals, ‘including those on the brink of extinction.’” Competitions run by SCI “contribute to the killing of lions, African elephants and other endangered species.” SCI has also had “strategic partnerships” with the oil and gas industry and has supported a variety of anti-environmental legislation.

[Press Release, Safari Club International, 06/08/17; “SCI Foundation: In Major Setback for Anti-Hunting Efforts; FWS Rejects Attempts to Stop Lion Hunting,” PR Newswire, 10/27/14; Kate Gibson, “Safari Club attacked for incentives to kill rare animals,” CBS; 09/30/15, Matt Lee-Ashley, “Oil and Gas Industry Investments in the National Rifle Association and Safari Club International: Reshaping American Energy, Land, and Wildlife Policy,” Center for American Progress, 04/14; Ben Long, “Beware of Wolves,” Tucson Weekly, 09/29/11, Dale Sunderlin, “Young hunters score big,” Star Beacon, 11/28/11, Elizabeth Miller, “Hunting for conservation: Legislation aims for hunting access, but would destroy wildlife populations,” Boulder Weekly, 10/11/12, and Talasi Brooks and Kevin Proescholdt, “Safari Club and the NRA aim to gut wilderness,” High Country News, 06/21/12]

In November 2017, Greg Sheehan, at a Safari Club International event, announced that the elephant trophy import ban had been lifted, a decision that SCI applauded. President Trump quickly reversed the lifting of the ban. Then, on March 1, 2018, just weeks after he attended the 2018 Safari Club International Convention, Sheehan issued a memo saying that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would assess elephant trophy imports “on a ‘case-by-case basis.'”

In November 2017, Greg Sheehan announced the reversal of an Obama-era policy, saying that now “the remains of elephants legally hunted in Zimbabwe and Zambia can now be imported to the United States as trophies.” Sheehan announced the lifting of the ban during the African Wildlife Consultative Forum in Tanzania, which was co-hosted by the Safari Club International Foundation. Safari Club International “broke the news of the rule change a day ahead of Fish and Wildlife.” While Safari Club International applauded the decision, the lifting of the ban “faced backlash from both conservatives and liberals.”

[Darryl Fears and Juliet Eilperin, “Trump administration reverses ban on importing trophies from elephant hunts in two African nations,” Washington Post, 11/16/17; Chris D’Angelo, “Group Lobbying To End Trophy Hunting Ban Is Alarmingly Close With Ryan Zinke,” Huffington Post, 11/23/17; Press Release, Safari Club International, 11/14/17; Emily Cochrane, “For Now, Trump to Keep Ban on Importing Elephant Trophies,” New York Times, 11/17/17]

However, President Trump reversed Sheehan’s the lifting of the ban shortly after in a tweet, announcing that he was putting the decision “on hold,” and “called elephant hunting a ‘horror show.'”

[Emily Cochrane, “For Now, Trump to Keep Ban on Importing Elephant Trophies,” New York Times, 11/17/17; Anne Gearan, “Trump calls elephant hunting a ‘horror show’ and suggests he’ll enforce a ban on trophy imports,” Washington Post, 11/19/17]

On March 1, 2018, Greg Sheehan issued a memo withdrawing “previous rulings on trophy hunting” that said that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service “would allow sport hunters to receive permits for the trophy items on a ‘case-by-case basis.'”

[Eli Rosenberg, “Trump administration quietly makes it legal to bring elephant parts to the U.S. as trophies,” Washington Post, 03/06/18]

Sheehan’s March 1st memo came just weeks after he attended the Safari Club International Convention in Las Vegas in February 2018. At the convention, he met “with delegates from Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia and South Africa.”

[Miranda Green and Timothy Cama, “High-ranking Trump official attends hunting convention,” The Hill, 02/03/18]

Greg Sheehan is currently working with Secretary Ryan Zinke’s International Wildlife Conservation Council, which is supposed to advise Secretary Zinke “on the benefits that international recreational hunting has on foreign wildlife and habitat conservation, anti-poaching and illegal wildlife trafficking programs.” Of the 16 members on the International Wildlife Conservation Council, “at least 10 have an affiliation with Safari Club International.”

On November 8, 2017, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced the creation of “the International Wildlife Conservation Council,” which will “focus on increased public awareness domestically regarding conservation, wildlife law enforcement, and economic benefits that result from U.S. citizens traveling abroad to hunt” and will “advise the Secretary of the Interior on the benefits that international recreational hunting has on foreign wildlife and habitat conservation, anti-poaching and illegal wildlife trafficking programs, and other ways in which international hunting benefits human populations in these areas.” The panel will be “stocked with up to 18 unpaid members” and “will examine issues from ‘recommending removal of barriers to the importation’ of legally hunted wildlife to reviewing the Endangered Species Act’s foreign listed species and streamlining import permits.”

[Department of Interior, Press Release, 11/08/17 and Michael Doyle, “Zinke launches panel to promote international hunting,” Greenwire, 11/08/17]

Greg Sheehan, in the Federal Register on March 2, 2018, announced the first public meeting of the International Wildlife Conservation Council, scheduled to take place on March 16, 2018. Greg Sheehan also spoke to the group at its first meeting.

[International Wildlife Conservation Council; Public Meeting, Federal Register, 03/03/18; Miranda C. Green, “Controversial Trump hunting group meets for first time,” The Hill, 03/16/18]

Of the 16 members on the International Wildlife Conservation Council, “at least 10 have an affiliation with Safari Club International,” including Paul Babaz, President of Safari Club International and Peter Horn, ex-Vice President of Safari Club International, and Bill Brewster, a lobbyist who served on Safari Club International’s board.

[Stephanie Mencimer, “Reality Stars, Trophy Hunters, and Gun Boosters: Meet the Trump Administration’s Wildlife Conservation Council,” Mother Jones, 03/16/18; Michael Biesecker, Jake Pearson, and Jeff Horwitz, “Trump wildlife protection board has many trophy hunters,” Washington Post, 03/16/18]

Greg Sheehan also helped the Independent Petroleum Association of America delay an Endangered Species listing for the Texas hornshell mussel.

On July 11 and 12, 2017, IPAA Director of Government Relations Samantha McDonald emailed Counselor for Energy Policy Vincent DeVito and Deputy Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Greg Sheehan, saying that IPAA “strongly oppose[d] the listing” of the Texas hornshell mussel “under the ESA as endangered, or threatened.” The Fish and Wildlife Service had been scheduled to issue an Endangered Species Act listing decision for the Texas hornshell mussel in August 2017. McDonald told DeVito that IPAA was “really hoping” he could “intervene” before the species was listed. On July 25 and August 1, McDonald sent emails to Sheehan thanking him for “looking into” the Hornshell issue. On August 10, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service delayed “a listing decision on the Texas hornshell for six months.” On August 17, McDonald emailed DeVito and Sheehan, thanking them for the “good call” to delay the decision, and saying that IPAA members were “most grateful.”

[OS-2017-001063 (Sage Grouse Comms from Industry), Pages 83-84, 104, 170, 205, 274, Daniel J. Chacón, “Feds put off decision on Texas hornshell’s status,” The New Mexican, 08/10/17; Adrian Hedden, “Blight on the banks: Officials hope saving a rare mussel could restore the Black River,” Carlsbad Current-Argus, 11/26/17]

Since he began serving in the Trump administration, Greg Sheehan has supported efforts to reform the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Greg Sheehan, in June 2017, said that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sought “‘to improve implementation of the [Endangered Species Act],'” and the Trump “‘administration [was] committed to making the ESA work for the American people.'”

When asked about “five bills targeting portions” of the Endangered Species Act, Sheehan said that “‘in general the administration supports them.'”

In particular, Sheehan supported part of a bill “that would remove current 90-day and 12-month deadlines for making decisions on species listing decisions” and part of another bill “that would require the Fish and Wildlife Service to consider all data submitted by state, local and tribal governments.”