New Mexico sportsmen rally to “keep their public lands public”
Photo courtesy of John Hamil.
There is a growing movement across nine Western states to pass legislation that would demand the transfer of federal public lands to the states. On January 29, 2015, TRCP staff and members participated in a rally at the New Mexico State Capitol to oppose this very bad idea. The rally was attended by over 250 New Mexicans, some of whom traveled over 300 miles to let their governor and State legislators know that they are opposed to the idea of spending state tax dollars to even study this idea.
Unlike many of the proponents of the land transfers these weren’t paid lobbyists or special interests – they were hunters, anglers, horsemen, wood cutters, campers, Native Americans, and veterans—real Americans who depend on public lands for recreation and spiritual renewal.
While some are frustrated with current Federal land management practices and policies, they recognize that the State of New Mexico doesn’t have the funds or the multiple-use mandates to responsibly manage public lands (e.g., maintain roads/recreation facilities, prevent or fight wildfires, restore areas that are damaged by wildfires, prevent abuses, etc.).
They fear that the State would simply use the lands to promote development and/or sell them to raise the money needed to manage them. They recognize transferring ownership of public lands to the State poses a significant threat to many of their closely held traditions and core values.
Photo courtesy of John Hamill.
At a time when many American’s feel disenfranchised by our government and political leadership, at least for one afternoon at the New Mexico State Capitol, common citizens showed up to express their support for something they are passionate about: keeping their public lands public.
The transfer of federal public lands to the states poses a threat to hunting and fishing as we know it today. Sportsmen need to continue to fight to maintain control and access to our most precious resource, our public lands. To make you voice heard, go to www.sportsmensaccess.org and sign the petition to stop the seizure of your public lands. Finally, consider attending public land rallies that are being planned in Denver, Colorado and in Boise, Idaho. This is the time for action not complacency!
Victory for sportsmen and fish and wildlife in America’s first national forest
The U.S. Forest Service recently issued instructions for the Shoshone National Forest to manage the Francs Peak and Wood River areas, near the town of Cody, to maintain their intact and undeveloped character. This action is in response to objections that were filed by the TRCP and other organizations in March 2014 – objections that prompted a national level review.
Earlier in 2014, last-minute changes were made to the Shoshone’s revised forest plan to create motorized trails in an area that is known to provide valuable wildlife habitat and high quality hunting and fishing. This change would have negatively impacted fish and wildlife as well as the sportsmen and -women who utilize the Francs Peak and Wood River areas. The Forest Service itself identified these areas as containing high fish and wildlife values – the region is home to many species including mule deer, elk, bighorn sheep, grizzly bears and black bears. In particular, the Shoshone hosts the largest native population of bighorn sheep in the U.S. forest system, and these areas are important to their sustainability.
During the revision of the Shoshone’s forest plan, the TRCP remained focused on ensuring that science-based analysis is used to conserve valuable fish and wildlife habitats as well as uphold hunter and angler interests. While providing public access to these areas is important, new motorized routes through the key habitat on Francs Peak and Wood River would have diminished fish and wildlife – and ultimately hurt sportsmen.
The TRCP appreciates the U.S. Forest Service’s consideration of our concerns during this review and decision making process. Thanks also are in order to others that were deeply involved, such as our partners at Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, Trout Unlimited, Wild Sheep Foundation and Wyoming Wildlife Federation. Without the engagement of a committed group of sportsmen, this decision to conserve fish and wildlife – and further sportsmen’s interests – may never have come to pass.
Yet the president’s emphasis on increased investment in conservation programs represents a positive start to the federal budget process and certainly suggests an increased urgency by the administration to contribute more toward natural resource conservation. While a complete rollback of sequestration cuts is unlikely, these proposals enable us to see the reference points in the debate between the administration and Congress.
Many of the TRCP’s priorities received level funding or sizeable increases in the president’s budget request:
The Land and Water Conservation Fund, a program that has historically been raided by Congress, received full funding – $900 million – for the coming fiscal year.
The State and Tribal Wildlife Grants Program received $70 million, an approximate $12 million increase from FY15.
WaterSMART, a program that invests in collaborative efforts to better manage watersheds and preserve water for instream flow and wildlife habitat, received $58 million, a $7.5 million increase.
An additional $78 million was provided for the conservation of sage steppe landscapes. This funding will be critical in joint state/federal efforts to prevent the listing of the sage grouse and reverse declines in other game species like mule deer.
The U.S. Forest Service would receive an increase of $30 million for the road and trail maintenance backlog, thereby helping provide public access to public lands. The budget would create a new pilot program, called the Integrated Resource Restoration Program, to address urgently needed road decommissioning, trail repair and removal of fish passage barriers, especially in areas where Forest Service roads may contribute to water quality problems in streams and water bodies. Decommissioned roads often cause blowouts and prevent access to the most popular recreation sites. This program is important for both sportsmen’s access and habitat restoration and enhancement. The budget also prioritizes “the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP) to foster collaborative, science-based restoration on priority forest landscapes across the Nation.” The CFLRP would support jobs, provide a reliable wood supply, restore forest health and reduce the costs of fire suppression.
The proposed budget moves to end fire borrowing.
In addition, the president’s budget includes a vital provision to end wildfire borrowing. This reflects stipulations in the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act, legislation re-introduced in Congress this year that would classify the most extreme wildfires as natural disasters, enabling the use of federal emergency dollars to fund their suppression. This provision calls for wildfires whose suppression costs exceed 70 percent of the 10-year suppression cost average to be funded similarly to other natural disasters, restoring upwards of $400 million to the U.S. Forest Service budget. The TRCP strongly supports this bill.
Unfortunately, the president’s budget request would compound the injury Congress inflicted when it cut $402 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Stewardship Program in last year’s “CRomnibus” funding bill. The president’s budget would cut the CSP by $54 million annually beginning in 2017, or $486 million over the next 10 years. Thankfully however, two priority programs at USDA would be well funded by the president: the celebrated new Regional Conservation Partnership Program would receive $330 million; the Voluntary Public Access and Habitat Incentive Program, which encourages private land owners to voluntarily open their land to hunters and anglers, has retained $40 million through 2018 as authorized by the Farm Bill.
Sportsmen should consider this budget a victory and sign of renewed interest by the president in conservation investments. This is only the beginning of the debate. Congress will rightly scrutinize the president’s budget request and advance its own plan. As Congress begins this process, the TRCP is ready to make the case that conservation is always a good investment.
From the good news desk: Sportsmen, farmers and feds team up on local solutions that make healthy watersheds
The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announced close to $800 million in federal funding for locally led solutions to regional conservation challenges via its Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP). The five-year, $1.2 billion federal program was authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill to award funds to projects that improve soil health, water quality, water use efficiency, and wildlife habitat, as well as activities that otherwise support natural resources on private lands. In 2015, USDA has awarded $370 million to 115 high-impact projects across all 50 states and Puerto Rico, which will be bolstered by approximately $400 million from stakeholders. TRCP is a proud partner of the following 2015 RCPP project leads: Ducks Unlimited, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, and Trout Unlimited.
To read more about RCPP projects improving working lands and wildlife habitat, click here.
Image by Michael Misurek.
Water is deeply personal. We tend to take it for granted until something happens to the water we drink or fish in. Even when a chemical spill shut off water to hundreds of thousands of West Virginians, most of us probably looked at it as a tragic news story rather than as motivation to examine whether our drinking water source is vulnerable, if our favorite trout stream is impaired or if our local wetland is at risk of destruction.
That’s why solutions to our water challenges are most successful when driven by local participation: those closest to the water know it best and have the greatest interest in fixing it the right way. However, because local leaders often do not have sufficient financial or technical resources available, locally-driven solutions work best when integrated with resources from a variety of stakeholders, including federal agencies.
Recognizing this federal role in water conservation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture just announced nearly $800 million in funding through its Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) for 115 locally-led solutions to regional conservation challenges. This effort will take $370 million in federal funds and match it with $400 million in funds committed by project partners. Many of these projects will be led by sportsmen’s organizations working together with local farmers and ranchers to protect our working landscapes and fish and wildlife habitat.
The Verde River in Arizona. Image courtesy of the National Wild and Scenic River System.
Take, for instance, the Verde River Flow and Habitat Restoration Initiative led by TRCP partner The Nature Conservancy (TNC). With $2.8 million in support from RCPP, The Nature Conservancy and five other partners in the Verde River Valley of Arizona will improve irrigation water management and irrigation water delivery on 1,000 acres of working lands, enhance 6,000 acres of riparian habitat, and protect 400 acres of agricultural lands through conservation easements over five years. Easements will be focused on lands that already have significant investment in on-farm conservation practices and are critical to ensure long-term investments are protected. TNC has been working in the Verde Valley for three years already to improve water conveyance infrastructure; now, their efforts will be supercharged with a greater on-farm focus.
As another example, the Colorado River Water Conservation District, along with 31 partners, is receiving $8 million from RCPP to modernize water management for agricultural uses in the Lower Gunnison River Basin. Many local efforts are underway already to improve conveyance and delivery of water as well as improve on-farm irrigation practices. With this grant, project participants will be able to integrate limited, disparate efforts under a coordinated leadership team, including local producers, to achieve greater water efficiency results and multiply environmental benefits. In addition, the partners will target areas with high selenium levels to reduce pollutant levels in the basin, producing water quality as well as water quantity benefits. This project will accelerate progress towards water users’ common goal: utilizing water resources wisely while ensuring healthy fish and wildlife populations and agricultural sustainability.
Both of these examples are localized so it may not be obvious why this new federal effort is so important to anyone outside the chosen project areas. But there are at least two reasons why we all should take note of this new conservation program. First, though the most direct benefits of river and habitat improvements will be felt in the project areas, these benefits accrue downstream, whether it’s through more water being left in the river for fish or fewer pollutants entering the watershed. Second, this model of locally-driven solutions coupled with broad stakeholder support should set the tone for conservation in the future, and the novel solutions it will produce will be replicated nationwide. Even if your favorite hunting and fishing grounds didn’t benefit from this first round of projects selected, the lessons learned from them should be coming to a watershed near you soon.
Want more on RCPP? Check out this handy USDA infographic here.
Better together: Wildlife & working lands benefit from USDA partnerships
The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announced close to $800 million in funding for locally led solutions to regional conservation challenges via its Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP). The five-year, $1.2 billion federal program was authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill to award funds to projects that improve soil health, water quality, water use efficiency, and wildlife habitat, as well as activities that otherwise support natural resources on private lands. In 2015, USDA has awarded $370 million to 115 high-impact projects across all 50 states and Puerto Rico, which will be bolstered by approximately $400 million from stakeholders. TRCP is a proud partner of the following 2015 RCPP project leads: Ducks Unlimited, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, and Trout Unlimited.
To read more about RCPP projects improving water use efficiency, click here.
RCPP projects from around the country. Is something happening in your state? Image courtesy of USDA.
When presented with 115 high-impact projects of all shapes and sizes, funneling about $800 million entirely into conservation…it’s difficult to name favorites. Thankfully, many of the just-announced Regional Conservation Partnership Program projects, such as the three examples below, stand out by their effort to balance the needs of production agriculture with the needs of fish and wildlife. RCPP shows that farming and conservation work better together.
Minnesota Agricultural Water Quality Certification Program National Demonstration Project
Image from Minnesota’s prairie potholes.
USDA has awarded $9 million to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture to help roll out to other states an innovative new pilot program. MAWQCP provides regulatory certainty to farmers who voluntarily enroll every single acre—crop and non-crop—of their farm operation in comprehensive water quality conservation planning for 10 years. In other words, program participants will automatically be declared in compliance with all new state water quality laws and rules that take effect during the next decade.
The idea of regulatory certainty might seem like “inside baseball,” but farmers and sportsmen alike should pay attention. If successful, Agricultural Water Quality Certification will be lauded as a win-win solution and held up as a model program for conservation on private lands. It will surely please those who champion working lands and tight government budgets; certification offers landowners freedom from increased regulation rather than the financial incentives usually offered for single-site, single-practice conservation. On the other hand, those who love fish and wildlife will have assurance that their state’s farmers are working long-term on a large scale for healthy soils and clean waters. These decade-long, whole-farm solutions could inspire creative new opportunities for conservation.
Delaware River Watershed Working Lands Conservation Protection Partnership
Here is a perfect example of the public-private partnership RCPP was intended to foster. USDA awarded $13 million to help restore the Delaware River, matching an $18 million private-sector investment in the long term health of the watershed. That’s $31 million for working lands conservation in the region—far more than either the government or private actors would be able to commit alone. Experts will provide over 1,200 farmers and forest landowners with technical assistance to restore fish and wildlife habitat and funds to protect working agricultural and forest lands from development.
Therein lies the key theme that runs throughout the new RCPP: while much of USDA’s past conservation focus has been on individual farms, RCPP enables multiple actors to rally around landscape-scale programs to achieve greater impact. That’s an organizational model that TRCP can stand behind.
Rice Stewardship Partnership—Sustaining the Future of Rice
Lastly, we shine a spotlight on “Sustaining the Future of Rice” for its ambitious scope: this project will span six states from California to Mississippi, involve more than 40 partners, and employ $10 million in RCPP funds to help 800 rice producers conserve waterfowl habitat.
A recent Ducks Unlimited study found that rice lands in the project regions provide more than 35 percent of the food resources available to wintering dabbling ducks, and that over 50 percent of all dabbling ducks that winter in the U.S. do so in the project regions. (These statistics don’t even count the benefits that these working wetlands provide to geese and other animals and fish.) Unfortunately, rice landscapes are threatened by limited water in drought-stricken California, changing agricultural practices, and long-term declines in rice acreage on the Gulf Coast. The key to observing and hunting waterfowl across the continent may depend on the future of rice, and we salute the Rice Stewardship Partnership for taking up the challenge.
* * * * *
Over two-thirds of our nation’s land—including some of the most important fish and wildlife habitat—is in private hands, and the downstream effects of conservation practices on those lands can be profound. Through initiatives such as the RCPP, farmers and foresters are every day enhancing opportunities for hunters, anglers, and wildlife enthusiasts of all stripes. We look forward to enjoying the results.
Want more on RCPP? Check out this handy USDA infographic here.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
CHEERS TO CONSERVATION
Theodore Roosevelt’s experiences hunting and fishing certainly fueled his passion for conservation, but it seems that a passion for coffee may have powered his mornings. In fact, Roosevelt’s son once said that his father’s coffee cup was “more in the nature of a bathtub.” TRCP has partnered with Afuera Coffee Co. to bring together his two loves: a strong morning brew and a dedication to conservation. With your purchase, you’ll not only enjoy waking up to the rich aroma of this bolder roast—you’ll be supporting the important work of preserving hunting and fishing opportunities for all.
