The House Natural Resources Committee demanded answers Tuesday from the Fish and Wildlife Service over its ecogrief training for employees and warned a full investigation could ensue unless the agency cancels the course and uses the money for more important priorities like saving endangered animals.

Chairman Bruce Westerman led committee Republicans in denouncing the training as “extremely tone deaf” at a time when FWS is struggling to calibrate its mission of habitat and species conservation.

“We are deeply concerned that this kind of meaningless pandering is a colossal waste of taxpayer funding, does nothing to further the purpose of the USFWS and diverts important resources away from critical agency functions,” Mr. Westerman and the other lawmakers wrote to the agency.

The letter was first obtained exclusively by The Washington Times, which revealed the ecogrief training last month.

The agency begged employees to sign up for the class, saying it would offer them a chance to work through feelings of stress or despair at the changing environment, particularly climate change.

“The ever-changing challenges impacting our conservation work, our neighbors and the communities we live, work and recreate in including droughts, wildland fires, declines or loss of species, declining habitat and impacts to public outdoor recreation add up,” organizer Katherine Hill said in her email to employees last week ahead of one round of training in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

To Mr. Westerman, an Arkansas Republican, it sounded like bunk.

“We and many of our constituents are appalled to see our tax dollars funding ‘ecogrief’ workshops instead of science-based, environmentally sound policies,” he and his colleagues said in a letter to FWS Director Martha Williams.

They demanded documents and emails detailing why the agency decided to offer the training, including who gave the go-ahead. They also asked about the cost and where in FWS’ budget the money was coming from.

“The USFWS should immediately divert the funding for these workshops to activities that further the mission of the agency, like habitat conservation and species recovery,” the lawmakers wrote. “Anything beyond this goal will prompt swift oversight from the Republican House majority.”

A Times email Tuesday to Ms. Hill, the training organizer, was not immediately returned.

Ecogrief is part of a family of new terms to describe distress. It’s also been labeled climate grief or ecoanxiety.

The American Psychological Association 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.

The APA, in a 2020 article, acknowledged that “not much is known about climate grief” and said there were no clinical studies on how to treat it.

FWS’ current ecogrief training is being offered to employees in the Southwest, with one session last week and another scheduled for early April.

As of the middle of last week, 10 of the 35 seats for Friday’s session were still unfilled.

The agency told The Times that each session costs $4,000.

The course was previously offered in FWS’ Alaska and Southeast regions.

An FWS official said the class was being offered in response to “a request from employees,” but was unable to share any reaction from participants in those earlier sessions.

FWS employees have told The Times the ecogrief training is part of a broader push for a woke agenda.

They said a growing focus of the agency — and its budget — is conducting diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility training, or what practitioners call DEIA.

That includes sessions pushing employees to talk about their gender identity and preferred pronouns, and to confront social injustice ingrained in the culture.

One 2021 document warned against microaggressions and recommended use of the term Latinx to refer to people with roots in Latin America. It also urged employees to avoid terms like ecosystems and urban sprawl, substituting terms such as natural areas or poorly planned growth.

The agency is also in the middle of what it calls a Values Journey, with Values Jam sessions designed to get input about where FWS is headed in its “purpose, values and associated behaviors.”

“We must show our commitment by supporting employees’ leadership and participation in groups, initiatives and activities that support advancing DEIA and create welcoming workplaces,” Ms. Williams, the FWS director, said in a memo to employees.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.