Fisheries Working Group Applauds Creation of Open Rivers Initiative - Pushes for Adequate Funding
The TRCP Fisheries Working Group is calling for the newly announced Open Rivers Initiative (ORI), a much needed program designed to address the harms to marine resources caused by the more than 2 million derelict low-head dams and culverts across the nation, to be funded at a more adequate beginning level. In a published notice, the administration has indicated that it anticipates the Open Rivers Initiative to be funded at a level of $6 million annually. In a letter to President, the TRCP Fisheries Working Group thanked the administration for creating ORI and called for a minimum annual funding level of $10 million, stating that it fears anything less will not address the pent-up demand for the program or build sufficient momentum to sustain the program for future years.
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TRCP Board and Policy Council News - Latest conservation action from our partner organizations
American Sportfishing Association
The ASA reports that the number of fishing licenses sold nationwide in 2004 increased over 2003 levels. More>>
BASS/ESPN Outdoors
BASS/ESPN Outdoors is featuring a story about how a major fish kill was triggered by a federal agency's use of a toxic flame retardant when fighting a forest fire. More>>
Boone and Crockett Club
The Boone and Crockett Club is featuring a news story that documents and increase in nationwide sales of hunting licenses. More>>
Coastal Conservation Association
The CCA applauds a court decision overturning a federal closure of the grouper fishery. More>>
Ducks Unlimited
DU highlights several reasons to restore Louisiana's wetlands in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. More>>
International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies
IAFWA has signed an agreement with several federal agencies, including the United States Geological Survey, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management, to expand, combine and strengthen resources on common science and research issues. More>>
Izaak Walton League of America
The Izaak Walton League’s executive director has been tapped to serve on two panels, one examining the future of the Endangered Species Act and another considering roadless forest policy. More>>
The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy lauds an agreement with ranchers to preserve land adjacent to Zion National Park in Utah. More>>
North American Grouse Partnership
The North American Grouse Partnership, along with 16 other wildlife conservation organizations, has called on Congress to support the Federal Energy Natural Resources Enhancement Fund Act of 2005. More>>
Pheasants Forever/Quail Forever
The first Quail Forever chapters have formed in Kansas, Oklahoma, Michigan and Tennessee. More>>
Pure Fishing/Berkley Conservation Institute
The Berkley Conservation Institute has formed a Conservation Leaders Advisory Team that includes Tom Bedell, Chairman of the Board, Pure Fishing, Noreen Clough, National Conservation Director for BASS and Dr. Bill Taylor, Fisheries and Wildlife Department Head at Michigan State University and Chair of the Sportfishing and Boating Partnership Council. The team is planning its first meeting in February 2006 in conjunction with the BASSMASTER CLASSIC. More>>
Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation
The RMEF recently held a classroom workshop in Arizona to help students develop a conservation ethic. More>>
Trout Unlimited
TU has announced a new Home Rivers Initiative project designed to restore headwaters streams in the Potomac River system. More>>
Whitetails Unlimited
Whitetails Unlimited has recently posted the contents of the Winter 2005 edition of its magazine online. More>>
Wildlife Management Institute
The October 18, 2005 edition of the Wildlife Management Institute’s Outdoor News Bulletin includes articles on American woodcock conservation, impacts to the National Wildlife Refuge system from Hurricane Katrina, and cougar management. More>>
The Wildlife Society
The Wildlife Society features a status report on the evolution of the Rocky Mountain Front Conservation Plan. More>>
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News from the Nation’s Capital - Latest decisions and developments from Washington affecting sportsmen and women
From the White House:
In a formal statement, the Bush Administration responded strongly to dramatic Farm Bill conservation program cuts recently handed down by the Senate. One of the administration’s key stated concerns came in regards to the excessive cuts made to the largest, most effective Farm Bill conservation initiative, the Conservation Reserve Program, which has been responsible for improved management of more than 35 million acres of marginal and fragile land in its 20-year lifetime.
In its official response to budget reconciliation legislation, S. 1932, the Administration said it "opposes the limitations on and disproportionate reductions to the Conservation Reserve Program, and proposes instead that the Senate include other provisions from the Administration's original proposal that would achieve savings, while promoting more efficient commodity production decisions."
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From the Department of Interior:
Interior Names Acting Assistant Secretary of Interior for Land and Minerals
Minerals Management Service (MMS) Director Rejane "Johnnie" Burton has begun working as the Acting Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Land and Minerals Management following the departure of Assistant Secretary Rebecca Watson. She will serve in both capacities at the Department of Interior until a successor to Watson is nominated by President Bush and confirmed by the Senate. Burton has served as MMS Director since 2002.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:
Members of Congress joined leaders of the Service and conservation organizations recently in Washington, D.C. to celebrate a milestone for the National Wildlife Refuge System. Refuges in the Northeast Region now protect more than a half million acres of premiere habitats for migratory birds, threatened and endangered species, and other native wildlife.
These half million acres of land provide critically important breeding and feeding grounds for hundreds of thousands of ducks, geese and shorebirds migrating along the Atlantic Flyway. They support the recovery of the bald eagle and peregrine falcon, species that were nearly extinct 50 years ago. And, coastal refuges are playing a key role in the stabilization and recovery of the piping plover.
According to a USFWS statement, it took nearly 6,000 real estate transactions, more than 70 years, and innovative partnerships among government, the conservation community, and landowners to conserve the half million acres for refuges in the Northeast.
Bureau of Land Management:
In accordance with a final rule published in the Federal Register on October 7, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will begin charging cost recovery fees for several mineral extraction activities on public lands, effective November 7.
The BLM issued this final rule to amend its mineral resources regulations to increase certain fees and to impose new fees to cover BLM’s costs of processing documents relating to its minerals programs. The new fees include costs of actions such as environmental studies performed by BLM, lease applications, name changes, corporate mergers, lease consolidations and reinstatements, and other processing-related costs.
Such fees are already charged for mining claim recordation, but after the new rule takes effect, these cost recovery fees will extend to other processing fees, including those related to oil and gas, mining law administration, geothermal, coal, non-energy leasables sand and gravel permits, and other minerals extraction activities. The final rule provides for case-by-case fees, as well as fixed fees.
Copies of the final rule are available at local BLM offices, or may be accessed online through www.gpoaccess.gov.
National Park Service:
The National Park Service (NPS) has released for public comment a proposed update of NPS Management Policies, which provides park managers policy guidance to achieve the Service’s mission to conserve park resources while providing for their enjoyment by present and future generations.
NPS Management Policies have been reviewed and updated many times in the past, most recently in 2001. The current revision to the Management Policies was the product of a series of meetings among NPS and DOI officials. Nearly 100 NPS career professionals were involved in drafting or reviewing the changes over the past few months.
The revised management policies:- Provide clear definitions, for the first time ever, of "unacceptable impacts" to resources and "appropriate uses" of parks, enabling park managers to more clearly anticipate and articulate how impairment of resources can best be prevented.
- Provide more flexibility and tools to park managers and recognize that each park has unique needs.
- Recognize new challenges facing the NPS, such as Homeland Security.
- Encourage management excellence by using better baseline scientific data, cooperative conservation, civic engagement, and good business practices.
- Provide guidance in response to changing recreation uses and technology.
There will be a 90-day public review and comment period for the proposed management policies. The document is accessible for review and comment at http://parkplanning.nps.gov/waso.
U.S. Geological Survey
The U.S. Geological Survey has announced that it is among nine organizations that will share a $12.9 million award from the federal government’s Joint Fire Science Program for an interdisciplinary, 5-year research project that will explore ways to improve the health of sagebrush rangelands across the Great Basin in the western United States. The project, known as SageSTEP (Sagebrush Steppe Treatment Evaluation Project), is a collaboration among the U.S. Geological Survey, Oregon State University, University of Idaho, University of Reno-Nevada, Brigham Young University, USDA Forest Service, USDA Agriculture Research Service, and Bureau of Land Management.
"Healthy sagebrush rangelands in the Great Basin are rapidly diminishing," said Kate Kitchell, Deputy Director of the USGS Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center. "This is due to invasion of cheatgrass (a highly flammable, non-native weed), severe wildfires, and expansion of pinyon and juniper woodlands."
The sagebrush steppe, a type of land that features large, dry, open areas with few trees, is one of the most endangered in North America. Scientists say that as much as half of this land type already has been lost in the Great Basin, and the risk of wildfire continues to increase. The purpose of the SageSTEP project is to conduct research and provide land managers with improved information to make decisions about sustaining and restoring sagebrush rangelands. Land-management treatment options, including prescribed fire, mechanical thinning of shrubs and trees, and herbicide applications, will be used to learn how healthy and diverse plant communities can be created that will be more resistant and resilient to fire and weed invasion.
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From the Department of Agriculture:
Agriculture Deputy Secretary Chuck Conner in mid-October announced the release of nearly $1.7 billion in fiscal year 2006 funding for voluntary conservation farm bill programs on working lands. Fiscal year 2006 allocations include $1.345 billion in financial assistance and $337 million for technical assistance for NRCS voluntary conservation programs. States will receive additional money after Congress makes final funding decisions through the fiscal year 2006 appropriations process.
Key voluntary conservation programs and allocations include:
Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP): $1,017,000,000. EQIP assists farmers and ranchers to improve soil, air and water quality and other related resources on private working lands.
Ground and Surface Water Conservation (GSWC): $51,000,000. GSWC helps farmers and ranchers conserve our nation's ground and surface water resources. The funding will result in improving agricultural water use efficiency and result in a net savings to ground and surface water reserves.
Klamath Basin: $8,118,000. These funds will help farmers and ranchers enhance water quality, reduce water usage by increasing irrigation efficiencies, and improve habitat for affected fish and wildlife in the Klamath Basin.
Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP): $245,704,302. WRP is a voluntary program that helps landowners restore, enhance and conserve wetlands through permanent easements, 30-year easements and restoration cost-share agreements. The program maximizes wildlife habitat and wetland functions and values.
Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP): $73,500,000. FRPP is a voluntary program that provides matching funds to state and local governments and non-governmental organizations to purchase conservation easements on farm and ranch land. Since 1996, FRPP, in partnership with state and local governments and nongovernmental organizations, has protected over 440,000 acres.
Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP): $43,000,000. WHIP offers technical and financial assistance through long-term agreements to create, restore and enhance wildlife habitat for upland wildlife, wetland wildlife, threatened, endangered or at-risk species and fisheries as well as other types of wildlife.
Conservation Security Program (CSP): $245,000,000. CSP is a voluntary program that rewards conservation innovators. The program is offered nationally on working lands rewarding the nation's leading conservationists and providing incentives for them and others to do more. Environmental enhancement activities offered by applicants include improving soil quality, water quality, wildlife habitat management, nutrient and pest management, air quality management and on-farm energy management.
Additional information on conservation programs is available at: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs. Landowners who want specific information on program participation should contact their local USDA Service Center or NRCS office, located at: http://offices.sc.egov.usda.gov/locator/app.
Farm Service Agency:
Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns appointed Teresa Coarsey Lasseter as administrator of the Farm Service Agency (FSA). As FSA administrator, Lasseter will oversee farm programs, farm loans, commodity operations, conservation programs, disaster assistance and field operations at FSA offices in all fifty states.
Lasseter, a Georgia native, served at FSA from 2001 to 2003, first at state executive director in Georgia and later at associate administrator for farm programs in Washington, D.C. Previously, she served as executive director of the Georgia Agrirama Development Authority from 1993 to 1999 and also worked for the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, FSA's predecessor, in several positions from 1977 to 1993, culminating as a county executive director for Lee County.
Forest Service:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service announced in early November a new regulation for recreational motor vehicle use in national forests and grasslands. The new rule requires each national forest and grassland to identify and designate those roads, trails and areas that are open to motor vehicle use. Local units will seek public input and coordinate with federal, state, county and other local governmental entities as well as tribal governments before any decision is made on a particular road, trail or area. Unplanned, user-created routes will be considered at the local level during the designation process.
The agency expects that it will take up to four years to complete the designation process for all 155 national forests and 20 grasslands. Each unit will also publish a motor vehicle use map. The final rule addresses the more than 80,000 comments received on last year’s proposed rule. Most comments strongly supported the concept of designating routes and areas for motor vehicle use.
Once the designation process is complete, motor vehicle use off these routes and outside those areas (cross-country travel) will be prohibited. This prohibition will not affect over-snow vehicles, such as snowmobiles.
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Grassroots Report - feedback on current grassroots campaigns
Learn more about how your fellow Partners have weighed in on key TRCP issues and about ways you can help.
In November we asked our Partners to complete a survey to shape how TRCP will pursue future public support for programs like State Wildlife Grants and related dedicated funding initiatives for management of all wildlife species. We were looking to wildlife conservation advocates like our Partners to determine the messages most likely to inspire action in support of the State Wildlife Action Plans created as part of the State Wildlife Grants Program. Thank you to all of you who took the time to complete the survey. We had an overwhelming response, with more than 1,600 (nearly 9%) of our online Partners taking action.
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Affiliate News - latest action from the TRCP affiliates and new groups joining the network
We have had continued success and Affiliate growth thanks to the ongoing support of many of the nation's largest trade unions. To date, 90 individual locals representing trade unions across the country have signed up as Affiliates and agreed to support the TRCP and its mission. These 90 locals represent more than 110,000 individual members, a strong voice in the ongoing fight to protect the future of hunting and fishing. The support of these locals takes many forms: they have helped to spread word of the TRCP’s mission, offered direct financial contributions to the organization and held fundraising raffles to support TRCP's programs.
If you would like to find out more about signing up your club, organization or business as a TRCP Affiliate (for FREE!) click here.
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Featured Board of Directors/Policy Council Profile
Q & A with Marc Pierce, TRCP Board Member and Owner of Big Sky Carvers
Currently, Marc is a host of Ducks Unlimited Television on the Outdoor Life Network as well as the founder and owner of Big Sky Carvers in Manhattan, Montana. Marc and his father uprooted themselves from the Midwest and headed to Montana when the opportunity arose to start a new business that would allow them to pursue a mutual dream of embracing their love of collecting and fascination with all things wild. The upshot, in 1980, was the founding of Big Sky Carvers.
Who first took you into the field as a hunter?
The reason I hunt, pure and simple, is because of my Dad. He was and is a great outdoorsman; hunter, fisherman, trapper, the whole program. From the time I was old enough to walk, he started to include me in many of those outdoor activities and it’s been a big part of my life ever since.
When did you first begin to consider yourself a fully fledged sportsman?
I feel like I started to find deeper meanings in hunting and fishing when I stopped measuring success by whether I had caught or shot my limit, and focused instead on the experience. These days; there are other things that mean more to me, like the camaraderie with fellow hunters, teaching new outdoorsman what I have learned, enjoying the landscape and non-game animals in the scene and more.
What is your working definition of wildlife conservation?
Simple, it’s meeting the needs of wildlife. Often times that means habitat; other situations call for a change in public policy. Sometimes it means increased or decreased management and/or harvest. But the bottom line is always having the overall and long-term good of the resource be our compass.
When did you first become aware of the principles of and/or need for wildlife conservation?
I grew up about 40 miles west of Chicago in what was then farm country. The place I shot my first pheasants and ducks is now a high density housing development as it has been swallowed up by suburbia. In contrast, that same area is home to the Fox River which, through most of my childhood, was so polluted that we couldn’t swim in the water or eat the fish we caught. Through conservation and anti-pollution efforts the Fox now boasts clean water and a healthy population of smallmouth bass, crappie, northern pike and more. These outcomes made big impressions on me.
To your mind, what wildlife populations face the greatest challenges in years to come, and why do they face those challenges?
Certainly the wildlife most at risk in our country includes those that don’t adapt well to human encroachment. Canada geese, white-tail deer and more seem to have no problem living in close contact with us humans. In fact, the challenge with these species sometimes become managing a situation of overpopulation. On the other hand, Mule Deer, pintail ducks, bobwhite quail and certain species of trout don’t do well in the context of a landscape that includes people; which is a big problem in many areas of our county experiencing population sprawl and development. We should consider these very most sensitive species bellwethers of the larger wildlife community, knowing that if we serve them, we’re serving all the other wildlife in those ecosystems.
Why are you involved with the TRCP?
Learning about the outdoors from my Dad has translated into a great personal passion for hunting, fishing and more. This part of my life is so important to me that I want badly for my kids, their kids, and their kids’ kids to have the same opportunities that I’ve enjoyed. That’s what conservation is all about, and that’s what the TRCP is all about to me.
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New on the Reading List
The Complete Guide To Wing Shooting by Alex Brant
Wing shooting is an art and science all to itself. This book strives to be a complete primer on the sport, an all-encompassing guide to the subtleties that make shooting so addictive. Chapters cover shooting fundamentals, finding a gun that fits, hunting safety and etiquette, chokes, gun cleaning and more. With advice from experts like Tom Roster, Cliff Moller of Briley, Mike Rose, and Ken Eyster, The Complete Guide to Wing Shooting should be a good fit for the shelf of the shooter, hunter, and gun lover. For more information, click here.
Fishbugs by Thomas Ames Jr.
Following the success of his first book, hailed as "the most useful book for eastern fly fishers since Art Flick's Streamside Guide," author Thomas Ames Jr. lets his photographic skills take center stage. His bigger-than-life studies of mayflies, caddisflies, and other waterborne insects, captured in extraordinary detail, allow you see them as never before. Fly tyers will appreciate them as models for their imitations, while naturalists and other lovers of nature photography admire them for their intrinsic beauty. To learn more, click here.
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Your Photos - Check out the recent success of your fellow partners
Check out how your fellow TRCP Partners have been faring this fall!
This photo of a Frank Migliaccio, with the Ironworkers Union out of Washington, DC, was taken in Canada where Frank shot this extraordinary elk. View the rest of the TRCP Partner Photo gallery here.
We need your photos!!We are trying to expand our photo gallery on our new Web site and would love to include your photo. Please send the photo with information on how and where you got what’s in the shot. If we pick yours for our next newsletter, we’ll send you a TRCP hat too. Send photos to photos@trcp.org. Electronic photos only please.
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TRCP Staff News
Tom St. Hilaire is the TRCP’s new National Campaigns Director, a position designed to strategically connect TRCP’s many campaigns and to focus the hunting and angling community on effective conservation initiatives.
Tom honed his community organizing skills working on clean water and fish and wildlife protection in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and has since enjoyed 20 years in the political arena as an organizer, leader of national campaigns, grassroots legislative strategist, and coalition-builder. An avid hiker, Tom enjoys the brilliance of the western landscape with its mountains and lakes, but especially enjoys fishing in coastal rivers and beaches.
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Reminder of a Special Donation Opportunity
At the end of September, President Bush signed into law a measure that allows donors to take up to 100 percent of their income for cash donations they make through the end of this year. We encourage you to think of the victims of Hurricane Katrina in your end-of- the-year donation decisions, and to perhaps consider making a contribution to the TRCP.
The tax savings are significant because donors typically cannot deduct more than 50 percent of their adjusted gross income for cash charitable contributions.
Please click here for more information.
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Roosevelt Reflection - essays and historical tidbits on the man from whom the Partnership draws its name and inspiration
Although spoken nearly a century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt’s words often ring true in the contemporary public debate.
In May 1908, at the White House Conference on the Conservation of Natural Resources, he urged the nation to employ the same care to conserve the nation’s resources as a parent would employ in providing for offspring:
It is time for us now as a nation to exercise the same reasonable foresight in dealing with our great national resources that would be shown by any prudent man in conserving and wisely using the property which contains the assurance of well-being for himself and his children.
The need for prudence, coupled with that for inter-generational resource protection, guides much of the TRCP’s policy agenda. Specifically, ensuring that privately held landscapes are protected in perpetuity underscores the TRCP’s work to uphold and enhance conservation tax incentives.
The following sadly prophetic lines were embedded in President Theodore Roosevelt’s Fifth Annual Message to Congress, delivered December 5, 1905:
The National Government already does something in connection with the construction and maintenance of the great system of levees along the lower course of the Mississippi; in my judgment it should do much more.
To no one’s delight, we have in recent months seen where the failure to heed this warning can leave our country. Neither Roosevelt nor anyone else could have foreseen the entire scope of the devastation that fol