The TRCP remains ready to seize opportunities and explore new ideas that can benefit fish, wildlife and their habitat. Photo courtesy of U.S. Department of Defense.
Following a State of the Union address during which the president focused heavily on jobs, economics and natural resources, the TRCP released its TRCP 2012 Conservation Policy Agenda, highlighting federal funding challenges and key policy issues central to the nation’s hunting and angling traditions.
Ensuring strong funding for conservation programs – many of which face cuts or elimination in budget proposals being considered by Congress – led the list of the sportsmen’s policy priorities.
“Federal funding for crucial conservation programs, responsible management of both public and privately owned lands, judicious administration of our aquatic and marine resources … all while sustaining the fish and wildlife populations that sportsmen prize. These form the core of the TRCP’s policy objectives over the year to come,” said TRCP President and CEO Whit Fosburgh.
“We remain ready to seize opportunities and explore new ideas that can benefit fish, wildlife and their habitats, all while ensuring a brighter future for the American outdoor way of life,” continued Fosburgh.
Issues highlighted in the TRCP 2012 Conservation Policy Agenda include the following:
Read the complete TRCP 2012 Conservation Policy Agenda.
Review a one-page summary of the TRCP 2012 Conservation Policy Agenda.
Feral pigs alter habitat for native fish and wildlife species important to sportsmen. Watch the latest episode to learn more.
Check out the latest episode of "TRCP’s Conservation Field Notes" featuring Steven Rinella of the hit TV show “MeatEater.” In this episode, Steven addresses the widespread problems created by exotic and invasive wild pig populations across the United States – and showcases some amazing footage of hogs in the wild.
Be sure to tune in Sundays at 9 p.m. E/P on the Sportsman Channel to catch the latest episode of Rinella’s TV show, “MeatEater.” You won’t want to miss it.
Sign up as a TRCP partner to get involved and learn more.
Jim was an avid, lifelong outdoorsman and steadfast advocate for the conservation of habitat for the country’s fish and wildlife populations. Photo by Dusan Smetana.
The late Jim Range, co-founder of the TRCP, was recently elected for enshrinement into the 2012 class of the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame.
A prominent figure in natural resource conservation, Range was known in Washington, D.C., and throughout the United States as a skilled policy strategist with an extraordinary bipartisan network of friends and contacts. Along with his political adeptness, Jim possessed an oratorical gift and always spoke from his heart with passionate conviction.
Jim was an avid, lifelong outdoorsman who was a steadfast advocate for the conservation of habitat for the country’s fish and wildlife populations. Jim was well known for his work as chief counsel for Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker between 1980 and 1984. In addition to co-founding the TRCP in 2002 and chairing the TRCP board of directors, Range was a key figure in founding the Bipartisan Policy Center, where he worked as an advisor.
Jim grew up and developed his outdoor skills in the mountains of Tennessee, where he was an Eagle Scout. He attended Science Hill High School and later Tulane University. He received his M.S. in fisheries biology from Tennessee Tech and his J.D. from the University of Miami School of Law.
“TRCP’s Native Trout Adventures” also was honored by the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame with its Organizational/Governmental Award. The award considers organizations or governmental entities that have demonstrated and performed a valuable service or act to benefit fresh water sport fishing within its jurisdiction or the boundaries of its organization whether local, regional, or national.
In “TRCP’s Native Trout Adventures,” the TRCP and our partner organizations seek out native trout that rely heavily on strong public land management and funding. The series documents the pursuit of these wild fish across the American West.
Watch "TRCP's Native Trout Adventures."
Learn more about Jim Range and support the Jim Range Conservation Fund.
What a catch! Clockwise from top left: Eric Petlock, Kendra Bailey, Tim Kizer and Mia Sheppard.
Say hello to the newest additions to the TRCP team!
Mia Sheppard
First Day at the TRCP: Nov. 14, 2011
Title: Oregon Field Representative
Mia Sheppard's love for the outdoors started at an early age when she began hiking and fishing in the Great Smoky Mountains. Her passion for fish and wildlife led to her field work in fisheries for both the U.S. Forest Service and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
In the late '90s, she moved to Alaska, where she worked in commercial fishing. In 2003, Mia and her husband Marty purchased Little Creek Outfitters, a successful fly-fishing guide service in Oregon.
Mia relishes teaching spey-casting, guiding for steelhead, and educating sportsmen and -women about the importance of safeguarding the beautiful places where we hunt and fish. Mia’s passion for conservation led her to a position as a John Day River steward for the Native Fish Society in 2007. She volunteers for an educational program called Salmon Watch. Mia is also a mom to a beautiful girl, Tegan, and is an avid chukar hunter.
Kendra Bailey
First Day at the TRCP: Jan. 3, 2012
Title: Grants Manager
After graduating from Vermont’s Middlebury College in 2006, Kendra moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked at Trout Unlimited. Kendra worked at TU for four years, first from the organization’s D.C. headquarters and later from Portland, Maine.
Kendra’s affinity for the outdoors stems from her childhood in the Adirondacks. Her family spent summers camping and winters skiing. Both Kendra and her brother Lowell have competed in Nordic skiing and biathlons. Kendra plays piano, guitar and banjo and enjoys time spent with family and friends. She currently resides in Portland, Maine.
Tim Kizer
First Day at the TRCP: Jan. 3, 2012
Title: Private Lands Field Representative
Tim Kizer is a returning member of the TRCP team. He previously worked with the TRCP through his consulting company Sundog Inc., an Arkansas-based business-development firm focused on alternative energy and green products. Tim has a diverse background in project development, corporate strategy and entrepreneurial endeavors, including four years as a director of a publicly traded company manufacturing building materials from recycled raw materials. He is an outdoorsman and conservationist with a lifelong love for bird dogs, duck hunting and fly-fishing.
Tim joined the TRCP Center for Agricultural and Private Lands to help build outreach and communications capacity in the important Mississippi River Corridor. Tim will be working to recruit farmers, hunters, anglers and local decision-makers to support the TRCP’s Farm Bill recommendations and use their knowledge to help craft those recommendations in ways that can help achieve meaningful fish and wildlife habitat conservation on the ground.
Eric Petlock
First Day at the TRCP: Jan. 3, 2012
Title: Nevada Field Representative
Eric Petlock grew up chasing ducks and black-tailed deer in California and lives along the Nevada/California border. He has worked on sportsmen's and public lands issues in Nevada since 2008, where he has strong relationships within the community.
Eric began working in the conservation field on Upper Snake River salmon and steelhead policy, focusing on Nevada's historic salmon and steelhead runs. More recently, he worked on energy policy and renewable energy siting on public lands in Nevada. When he's not up to his elbows in policy work, you might run into him in a remote river canyon, in a marsh hunting waterfowl, or chasing chukar with his trusty Labrador, Scooby.
Eric is working as part of a partnership between the TRCP and Nevada Bighorns Unlimited to advance BLM backcountry and build an active constituency of sportsmen in Nevada to ensure that renewable and conventional energy development projects are done responsibly.
Recent guidelines aim to balance mule deer management with energy development – a good thing for sportsmen. Photo by John Webster.
Mule deer hunters from across the country have reason to applaud the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies’ recent approval of new guidelines for balancing mule deer management with energy development. Prepared by WAFWA's Mule Deer Working Group, the “Energy Development Guidelines for Mule Deer” are intended to help resource managers conserve mule deer populations during energy development.
“If followed, these new guidelines will play a key role in sustaining mule deer populations during energy development activities,” said Miles Moretti, president and CEO of the Mule Deer Foundation, a TRCP partner organization. “Bringing together all the stakeholders before an energy project is initiated will reduce conflicts later during the development phase.”
Based on the best available science and real world experience relating to energy development and mule deer, the guidelines are set to mitigate mule deer declines seen in recent years due to habitat loss and degradation and displacement in part to certain energy development practices. The report was authored by state biologists and reviewed by the energy industry, federal agencies and several non-governmental organizations.
In 2011, the TRCP released a report, “Mule Deer and Energy: Federal Policy and Planning in the Greater Green River Basin,” examining collaborative efforts in mule deer management between federal land agencies and state wildlife agencies. The report offers insight into federal management of the species and its habitat during public lands energy development.
The Sportsman Channel recently aired “Mule Deer: Saving the Icon of the West,” highlighting the challenges facing mule deer. Watch it now.
Millions of Americans rely on water from the Colorado River for recreation, drinking and irrigation purposes. Photo by Mark Lellouch
In a decision widely acclaimed by sportsmen, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar recently announced a moratorium on new mining claims on public lands surrounding the Grand Canyon. More than 1 million acres of Bureau of Land Management and U.S Forest Service lands to the north and south of the Grand Canyon are being withdrawn from new mining projects. The decision follows a temporary ban and is a huge victory for hunters and anglers who enjoy the area’s diverse and abundant wildlife.
By withdrawing these vast public land holdings from new mining projects, valuable habitat is secured for sought after big-game species like elk and mule deer. These areas are among the most productive habitats in the country for these species, and Salazar’s announcement represents a great stride forward in conserving this culturally significant region.
“Sportsmen from all over the country vie for the permits issued by the Arizona Game and Fish Department to hunt elk and mule deer each year,” said Dr. Bennett Brown, a TRCP field representative and avid big-game hunter. “These hunters spend millions of dollars annually pursuing their quarry in one of the most spectacular landscapes remaining in North America.”
The mining moratorium also works to secure clean drinking water, which can be threatened by irresponsible mining practices that contaminate aquifers. Millions of Americans rely on water from the Colorado River for drinking and irrigation purposes. Risk of contamination is significantly reduced by the decision, which also protects habitat for native fish species such as the endangered razorback sucker and humpback chub.
President Theodore Roosevelt said of the Grand Canyon, “Leave it as it is. You cannot improve upon it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it.”
Learn more about the TRCP’s work to ensure responsible mining on America's public lands.
With more than seven decades of wildlife conservation and quality outdoor recreation opportunities under its belt, the WSFR program has reason to celebrate.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service joined the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and other partners at the 2012 SHOT Show in January to announce a celebration marking the 75th anniversary of the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program, one of the most significant and successful partnership approaches to fish and wildlife conservation in U.S. history.
The celebration, known as “WSFR 75 – It’s Your Nature,” unites federal and state wildlife agencies; the hunting, shooting, angling and boating industries; and conservation organizations to mark an important milestone in a conservation success story that relies on collaboration and partnerships to ensure quality outdoor recreation.
“The service is proud to join our partners in recognizing more than seven decades of wildlife conservation and quality outdoor recreation opportunities,” said USFWS Director Dan Ashe. “With our nation’s support and our partnership’s renewed commitment, WSFR will help more Americans enjoy wildlife and our great outdoors for many years to come.”
In its 75-year history, the WSFR program has administered several crucial conservation agendas. Among the most fruitful was the 1937 Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which raised funds for conservation and wildlife programs through an excise tax on ammunition and sporting firearms. The 1950 Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration Act was enacted to raise funds for fish conservation and boating and fishing recreational programs in each state.
Learn more about the WSFR 75th anniversary celebration.
Send your answers to info@trcp.org. We'll send the winner a TRCP hat. Congratulations to Lowell Baier for answering last month's T.R.ivia question correctly. The question: What was the name of T.R.’s rustic retreat in the hills of Virginia? The answer: Pine Knot.
Scott and his wife Nicki on a recent trip to Bristol Bay, Alaska. Photo courtesy of Scott Hed.
In this issue of the Square Dealer, we are highlighting a TRCP friend and fellow sportsman, Scott Hed, director of the Sportsman's Alliance for Alaska. This article originally appeared in "The Drake" magazine and is written by Geoff Mueller.
Severed by North Dakota, the Saskatchewan plains, Alberta tar sands and British Columbia’s snow-covered Coast Mountains, Gaylord, Minn., is far removed from a proposed large-scale Alaskan mining operation and the toll it would take on anadromous fish runs. But it’s in Gaylord that Sportsman’s Alliance for Alaska Director Scott Hed had lived a quintessential Midwestern life – playing football and baseball, hunting, fishing and anxiously awaiting annual pilgrimages to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area – before he started down a path to spearheading the 49th state’s highest-profile environmental standoff in recent memory.
Hed attended Minnesota’s St. Olaf College, where the aspiring economics and accounting major crunched, chewed and digested meaty numbers and the intricacies of gain, loss and risk. Money, it was clear to Hed, made the world spin. And while Oliver Stone’s Wall Street was hitting pay dirt in the late ’80s, an aspiring Bud Fox was born.
“When ‘Wall Street’ came out I was going to school, getting my degree in economics, and I’m thinking, ‘this is sweet, this is what I want to do,’” Hed says. After graduation, he landed in Marshall, Minn., working in the finance industry. It wasn’t quite fast cars and fast women, but it was a respectable living that allowed Hed to taste the nine-to-five grind. When his branch expanded to Sioux Falls, S.D., Hed followed. It was a busy few years of work and relocation, ascending the corporate escalator, and dreaming of someplace else: Alaska.
Fantasizing about The Last Frontier is a popular office antidote for desk-bound outdoorsmen the world over. But with Hed, it sparked his imagination. Next to work and family life, Alaska became Hed’s top distraction. He acquainted himself with the state as a wide-eyed tourist, exploring Denali and the Kenai Peninsula, returning again and again.
“I’d always been good at what I did, and I got paid well to do it,” Hed says. “But I wasn’t able to get up in the morning, look in the mirror, and say, ‘I really have a passion for, and care about, what I’m going to do at work today.’”
Hed’s next move came when his Sioux Falls office went bust and handed him a serendipitous10-month severance package. As Bud Fox states, “Life all comes down to a few moments. This is one of them.”
Hed took the cue and headed north to the coast of the Arctic Ocean for a month-long raft trip under a midnight sun. A timely and fortuitous soul cleanse, the trip also opened a door when, upon returning home that summer, a message on the answering machine awaited. It was the Alaska Coalition, with an opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C., and speak on behalf of Alaska as a citizen lobbyist.
“It sounded extremely daunting,” Hed says. But he was sold on the message; so much so that one month later he donned a suit and tie, marched up the stairs on Capitol Hill, and let the words pour. D.C. led to more public presentations, touring the upper Midwest for the Coalition and defending the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil drilling and development.
Hed spoke to whomever had an open ear: church groups, bird gazers, garden hosers, and hunting and fishing advocates from all walks of life. He shined in his new capacity, receiving an expanded territory and a full-time paycheck. Life was good, and the gig was rewarding – even easy, considering Alaska’s broad appeal. But black clouds were brewing, with whispers of something massive on the horizon: “This thing called Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay,” Hed says.
The year was 2006, well before the word “Pebble” had become emblematic of a cancer so big it could devour two of the most prolific sockeye-bearing rivers in the world: the Kvichak and Nushagak. Located at the headwaters of Bristol Bay, Pebble would be the largest gold and copper mine ever built in North America—a gaping open pit, miles wide and several thousand feet deep. If developed, resulting toxins could threaten not only the area’s salmon runs but also the health of an entire ecosystem. Six years after Hed began tunneling for answers to life’s proverbial questions, he found his calling in the form of a ticking ecological time bomb.
In October, Hed was at the Jet Hotel in Denver’s trendy LoDo district – a hipster receptacle with a full-service bar in the lobby and heavily promoting a Playboy-sponsored “Fantasy Hotel Party.” Dressed in a “Save Bristol Bay” ball cap, muted fleece and jeans, he was quick to explain he was there for the fight, not the party.
The Save Bristol Bay Road Show had just closed curtains in Seattle, Portland, Corvallis, San Francisco and Santa Fe. After Denver, the grassroots outreach and advocacy effort would hold one last private event in New York City, but the drain of a multi-city slog was not evident in Hed’s demeanor. Upbeat, gregarious, and less slickster D.C. lobbyist than one might expect, the cautiously optimistic Midwesterner says we are now entering decision-making time in the Pebble Mine slugfest. In February 2011, the EPA announced the beginning of its watershed assessment for the region, investigating ecological, cultural and economic values related to the Kvichak and Nushagak and the potential risks brought forth by large-scale mineral development there. Essentially, if a project like Pebble is deemed detrimental to (a) municipal water supplies, (b) fisheries, (c) wildlife or (d) recreational interests, the EPA under the Clean Water Act holds the power to tank it.
The good news, according to the anti-mine movement, is that the EPA’s decision, slated for fall 2012, is a relative no-brainer. “In the case of Bristol Bay,” Hed says, “It’s easy to argue that all four criteria would be adversely impacted by Pebble or any large-scale mineral developments.” (There are currently 1,000 square miles of claims in the region, in addition to Pebble’s.)
But the reality is that the EPA taking that level of action under the Clean Water Act would be unprecedented and would undoubtedly lead to lawsuits from deep-pocketed developers as well as the heavily pro-development state of Alaska.
Ultimately, Pebble Mine might go down as one of the greatest fisheries conservation victories of our time, thanks in large part to people like Hed. Or, as the scrappy Midwestern economics major put it: “If the world’s largest wild salmon fishery and one of the planet’s top sport-fishing and hunting destinations could be lost to something like Pebble, then everything is on the table.”
Learn more about the Sportsman's Alliance for Alaska.
"The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased, and not impaired, in value."
-Theodore Roosevelt, speech before Colorado Livestock Association, Denver, Colo., Aug. 29, 1910.
Steve Kline with a beauty of a bass. Photo by Geoff Mullins.
TRCP's Center for Agricultural and Private Lands Director Steve Kline reeled in this largemouth on a recent trip to Arkansas. Senior Director of Policy Initiatives and Communications Geoff Mullins, who took this photo, had no such luck. You'll get 'em next time, Mullins!
We want to see how you TRCP! Submit your photos to info@trcp.org or on the TRCP Facebook page.
Learn about the local and state level clubs and organizations that work with the TRCP to guarantee all Americans a place to hunt and fish. Learn More
