| TRCP News- Major Victories for Two Special Places
- Passing the SALT: Coastal Fisheries Bill Emerges from Congress
- As The Hill Turns
- Proven: Conservation Tax Incentives Necessary, Working
- Wetlands Bill, Applauded by Sportsmen, Passes
- Urging Interior to Better Conserve the Intermountain West
- Meadows to the Field for TRCP
- TRCP Welcomes Ridder as Director of Development
- Mitchell to Help Run Nashville Office
- Assisting the Anadromous
- TRCP TV
- Major Victories for Two Special Places
In a major victory for hunters and anglers, President Bush this week signed into law a measure that places New Mexico’s Valle Vidal off-limits to energy development. The Valle Vidal is treasured by hunters for its robust populations of elk, pronghorn and mule deer, and today is largely pristine. For months, the TRCP has been working in conjunction with the Coalition for the Valle Vidal to advance protections for the area, and is loudly applauding this latest move. "Not only have 100,000 acres of the best wildlife habitat in New Mexico just been conserved, but we as a nation have begun to recognize that some places in this country are just too important for fish and wildlife resources to drill for oil and gas," said Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership Vice President Dr. Terry Riley, who lives in Tijeras, NM.  Another special place that the TRCP Fish, Wildlife and Energy Working Group (more information below) believes should remain undeveloped is Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front, which spans from Glacier National Park to Rogers Pass. Legislation that would restrict future oil and gas development and encourage companies already holding leases in the area to abdicate them passed the 109th Congress in the final minutes of its final session.
"They’re not an overly giddy group, but right now Montana’s hunters and anglers are thrilled that this area is being protected," said TRCP Chairman James D. Range, who spent the weekend hunting in the Front’s shadow. "Sportsmen have learned something in this whole process, namely that by partnering with other people and groups - including some they might not have thought of as friends at the beginning of this push - they can get things done." "The Coalition to Protect the Rocky Mountain Front deserves a lot of credit for maintaining the political momentum to turn the idea of protection into law," said Steve Belinda, who manages the TRCP’s efforts to promote a better balance between our nation’s energy needs and the needs of fish and wildlife. "With their efforts and those of the Coalition for the Valle Vidal in New Mexico, we’re seeing broad coalitions begin to bring positive change to the country’s special landscapes." | Back to Top | | Go to TRCP Home Page | - Passing the SALT: Coastal Fisheries Bill Emerges from Congress
In the final seconds of its final session, the 109th Congress passed an update of the nation’s primary fisheries law, the Magnuson-Stevens Act. The rewrite of the act, which has not been updated in 10 years, contains strong new provisions for improved science-based marine fisheries management that had been supported by the sportfishing and conservation community. Pushing together for several of those new provisions this past year was a coalition facilitated by the TRCP that represents recreational anglers, the sportfishing industry and conservation groups. The TRCP Marine Fisheries Working Group (MCWG) came together in 2005 to establish its joint "SALT Principles," which outlined consensus-based recommendations for addressing marine fishery problems and opportunities. The Magnuson-Stevens Act reauthorization passed by Congress and expected to be signed into law by President Bush addresses all of the group’s SALT Principles. It is a landmark victory for saltwater anglers and all Americans who care about conservation of our marine resources. "Saltwater anglers made their voices heard in the months of debate that led to passage of this bill and they have helped ensure our oceans will provide more sustainable fish populations and better fishing for all Americans," said Bob Hayes, who co-chairs the MCWG and represents the Coastal Conservation Association and the American Sportfishing Association. | 
The Magnuson-Stevens Act has profound implications for both commercial and recreational anglers. Photo courtesy NOAA. |
The SALT Principles stand for Science, Allocation, Licensing and Tackle. For an extended analysis of the act and its inclusion of the SALT principles, please click here. | Back to Top | | Go to TRCP Home Page | - As The Hill Turns
 The November mid-term elections have re-shaped the political landscape in Washington. For hunters and anglers, the new Democratic majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives mean a spate of turnover in key committees that are entrusted with stewarding our natural resources. This has changed how we will need to approach issues on which the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership works.
A new Farm Bill with huge implications for the sporting community is likely to emerge in 2007. Programs like the wildly successful Conservation Reserve Program are being eyed for cuts, meaning that millions of acres of vital habitat are in the balance. We will need to take a fresh approach to ensuring that the "Open Fields" access legislation is incorporated in the Farm Bill. It also appears that there will be a new examination of energy development on public lands, promising an opportunity to advance our FACTS campaign (see below). There is also now an opportunity to take decisive steps toward changing key laws affecting our nation’s wetlands. The TRCP will engage policymakers in Washington and elsewhere on behalf of those who hunt, fish and enjoy the outdoors as these and other issues move forward. A complete overview of the issues on which we will be focusing our efforts in the coming year will be released in early January. It will be extremely important as the new Congress begins for sportsmen to speak up loudly and make sure our priorities are being given the attention they deserve. | Back to Top | | Go to TRCP Home Page | - Proven: Conservation Tax Incentives Necessary, Working
A new report by the Land Trust Alliance shows that efforts to conserve fish and wildlife habitat on private land through conservation tax incentives has saved more land in the last five years than has been lost to suburban development. This success in the face of accelerating development underlines the need to expand the availability of conservation tax incentives, as was done by the recently enacted Pensions Bill. "The bad news the report delivers is that more than 2.2 million acres of fields and woodlands are succumbing to development every year, meaning that fish and game populations are being hit and hunters and anglers are losing places to hunt and fish," said TRCP President and CEO Matthew B. Connolly Jr. "The good news in the report is that locally led conservation strategies - especially those using conservation easements - are saving some 2.6 million acres each year from current and future development." The LTA report found that acres protected by conservation easements have increased in the last five years by 148 percent. These private, voluntary agreements saved 6.2 million acres in 2005, versus 2.5 million acres just five years ago. A legislative provision passed in August expanded the availability and attractiveness of conservation tax incentives, but did so for only two years. Hunters, anglers and conservationists are calling for those provisions to be made permanent. | 
Land like this along Montana’s Hoyt Creek is protected by conservation easements. Photo courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
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Many of the nation’s 40 million sportsmen are intimately familiar with the benefits of conservation tax incentives, including easements, and the way the groups they belong to have used them to benefit fish and game species. Hunting- and fishing-oriented conservation groups like Ducks Unlimited, Pheasants Forever, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and Trout Unlimited have used a host of conservation tax incentives, including easements, to implement arrangements with landowners that benefit not only ducks, pheasants, elk, and trout, but a wide variety of other species. | Back to Top | | Go to TRCP Home Page | - Wetlands Bill, Applauded by Sportsmen, Passes
The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership applauded President Bush’s signing of H.R. 5539, which reauthorized the North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA), in late October. A robust NAWCA means more wetlands and more wildfowl. NAWCA provides annual federal funding for the North American Waterfowl Management Plan,  which promotes waterfowl conservation management in North America. It supports partnerships among federal and state agencies and others to protect, restore, enhance and manage wetlands for migratory fish and wildlife. Of the president’s signing of NAWCA, Scott Sutherland, Director of Governmental Affairs for Ducks Unlimited and TRCP Policy Council member, said, "This is a tremendous victory for wetlands, waterfowl and other wildlife. The renewal of NAWCA is an important step to continue on-the-ground conservation work in key habitat areas across the continent." Wood duck on a restored wetland. Photo courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service. | Back to Top | | Go to TRCP Home Page | - Urging Interior to Better Conserve the Intermountain West
Beyond the Valle Vidal and Rocky Mountain Front, publicly owned landscapes important to sportsmen continue to feel intense pressure from the energy development industry. The TRCP and its partners are pushing hard to make sure that development occurs with much more adequate protections for fish and wildlife. After meeting with Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne earlier this fall, members of the TRCP Fish, Wildlife and Energy Working Group have redoubled their efforts to make certain the FACTS for Fish and Wildlife recommendations are being implemented. One key place the working group believes that this needs to happen is near Pinedale, Wyoming, where winter wildlife habitat - and therefore wildlife itself - is being threatened by development. The TRCP has called for an immediate end to the liberal granting of exceptions to winter-drilling prohibitions by the Bureau of Land Management. "Those who best know this landscape, including hunters, anglers and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, are now calling for an immediate end to this practice," said Dr. Rollin Sparrowe, Chair of the Fish, Wildlife and Energy Working Group. Rapidly proliferating energy development is also a major issue confronting Colorado’s fish and wildlife populations. Members of the TRCP staff and working group recently toured Colorado’s Roan Plateau and surrounding Piceance Basin and spoke directly with those BLM field staff members tasked with creating new resource management plans for this currently undeveloped haven for sportsmen high above the Colorado River. The TRCP is strongly advocating the use of a comprehensive conservation strategy that precedes leasing and development to better conserve renewable fish and wildlife resources in this area. 
Standing atop the currently undeveloped Roan Plateau, BLM staffers explain the proliferation of oil and gas development in the Colorado River Valley below. The black dots on the map represent current and future development sites. If agency plans proceed, the ground atop the plateau also will soon be dotted.
| Back to Top | | Go to TRCP Home Page | - Meadows to the Field for TRCP
The TRCP also has added a foot soldier to assist its responsible energy development campaign. Dwayne Meadows joined TRCP in October as a Field Representative. He recently was awarded a Masters Degree in American Studies and Environment and Natural Resources from the University of Wyoming. He has worked for the Forest Service in Alaska’s Misty Fjord Monument, the Park Service at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, and The National Elk Refuge in Wyoming. He interned as preservation advocate for Historic Seattle and has contributed historical research to numerous National Register nominations. Dwayne also has worked as a trout fishing guide on the Upper North Platte River, part of a life spent hunting, fishing, and wandering around the mountains of the West. He was born in Michigan and grew up in Saratoga, Wyoming. | 
Dwayne Meadows |
| Back to Top | | Go to TRCP Home Page | - TRCP Welcomes Ridder as Director of Development
 The TRCP is pleased to announce the addition of our new Development Director, Cary Ridder, who joined our team in November. Cary’s focus at the TRCP will be to increase funding for our important policy initiatives through expanded relationships with foundations and individual donors. She will also be growing our Rough Riders program, devoted to those partners contributing to the TRCP at the highest levels. Cary has most recently worked as a consultant for organizations such as the Earth Conservation Corps and Georgetown’s University Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership. She currently sits on the Board of the Potomac Conservancy. When not working, Cary is very active in her neighborhood community and enjoys getting into the out-of-doors. If you would like to learn more about the TRCP’s Rough Riders program or any level of giving to the TRCP, please contact Cary at cridder@trcp.org.
While We’re Talking Development, Please Note: Federal workers can now donate to the TRCP through the Combined Federal Campaign. Our CFC number is 9365.  The campaign is operated by the Office of Personnel Management and allows government employees, such as civilian, postal and military workers, to allocate a part of their wages to selected non-profit organizations. It is the largest workplace giving campaign in the country, providing funding to organizations to provide health and human services benefits throughout the world.
If you are interested in donating through the Combined Federal Campaign, please visit http://www.opm.gov/cfc/. If you’re not a federal employee but would like to donate to the TRCP, please visit our secure donation page. | Back to Top | | Go to TRCP Home Page |  Mitchell to Help Run Nashville Office
The TRCP also welcomes Kim Mitchell to our staff as Executive Assistant. Kim brings more than 10 years of experience in providing support to upper management positions and we are thrilled she has joined the team. Kim will be working closely with Fred Myers, our Vice President for Corporate Relations, and the TRCP’s Union Liaison staff. She also will be helping to oversee the opening of the TRCP’s new office in Nashville, Tennessee, where both she and Fred are based.
At right: Kim Mitchell, with husband, Mike, and son, Casey
| Back to Top | | Go to TRCP Home Page | - Assisting the Anadromous
TRCP has joined the effort to bring Atlantic salmon, shad and river herring back to where they belong in the New Hampshire watersheds of the Merrimack and Connecticut rivers and the Seacoast region. Along with partner organizations like the Coastal Conservation Association and Trout Unlimited, the TRCP contributed funds to buy a new, or at least mostly new, "anadromous fish transport vehicle." With its tanks carved off of a deceased hatchery truck and a new cab, power train and chassis, the fish transport vehicle (truck) will carry migratory fish around dams and other blockages to fish passage. 
Leaders of the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department recently celebrated the arrival of a new truck that will be used to transport migratory fish around dams and other blockages to fish passage.
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| Back to Top | | Go to TRCP Home Page | - TRCP TV
 Soon after Ken Barrett, the host of TRCP’s Life in the Open, walks off the South Dakota grasslands in the show’s final new episode of season two, he’ll knows what he’ll be doing.
"I’m going to settle into an easy chair and watch Escape to the Wild," Barrett laughs, referring to a new TRCP-affiliated show that will take American workers on dream sporting adventures. Hosted by Marc Pierce, Escape to the Wild will launch its inaugural full season in January. Pierce will begin guiding hunters, fishermen and viewers to locations from Saskatchewan to South Africa. We’ll keep you informed of the latest information regarding the show in the weeks to come. | Back to Top | | Go to TRCP Home Page |
Updates from TRCP Partner Organizations - News from the National Conservation CommunityAmerican Sportfishing Association
The FishAmerica Foundation has announced the availability of $800,000 in grant monies available for sportfish habitat restoration projects across the coastal United States and the Great Lakes basin. More>> |  | Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies
The Association is working to bring a new, high-tech approach to wildlife monitoring. More>> |  | BASS/ESPN Outdoors
BASS Conservation through the BASS Federation Nation and supported by Costa Del Mar sunglasses is now accepting applications for the BASS Conservation Scholarship Program, which will award college scholarships to students seeking a degree in the natural resource field. More>> |  | Boone and Crockett Club
The Boone and Crockett Club is accepting applications for its 2007 Conservation Across Boundaries program, a natural resource conservation education field course for science teachers. More>> |  | Coastal Conservation Association
The CCA is calling for, and working towards, a positive resolution to the summer flounder population problem. More>> |  | Ducks Unlimited
Ducks Unlimited applauds the reauthorization of the North American Wetlands Conservation Act for an additional five years. More>> |  | Federation of Fly Fishers
The FFF announces the formation of the Gulf Coast Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers. Currently acting as a subcouncil of the Southern Council. The aim of the GCC is to be an effective outreach organization in continuing the valued traditions of our sport in the Gulf Coast region. More>> |  | Izaak Walton League of America
The IWLA is hosting a series of presentations on ways to better manage stormwater and runoff. More>> |  | North American Grouse Partnership
The NAGP's Cooperative Sagebrush Initiative, a regionwide program built on the strengths of its stakeholders and the power of a commonly-held conservation fund, is growing. More>> |  | Pheasants Forever
PF is bolstering its youth outreach programs and has hired a new youth programs specialist. More>> |  | Quail Forever
Quail Forever announces its newest Kentucky chapter. Led by QF biologist Brian Grossman and co-founder John Mason, the new chapter will be called the Covey Rise Chapter of QF. More>> |  | Quail Unlimited
Rocky Evans, President of QU recently announced the continued Premier Sponsorship of one of its longest supporters in conservation and its QU membership, Purina brand dog food. More>> |  | Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation
RMEF has awarded more than $400,000 in grant funding for habitat stewardship and wildlife management projects throughout California in 2006. More>> |  | Trout Unlimited
TU and sportsmen were 'pleasantly surprised' by Idaho Gov. Jim Risch’s presentation to the Roadless Area Conservation National Advisory Committee (RACNAC) in late November. More>> |  | Trust for Public Land
The Trust for Public Land has posted its December website update. More>> |  | Whitetails Unlimited
Help Whitetails Unlimited celebrate its 25th Anniversary by attending one of eight special celebrations. More>> |  | Wildlife Management Institute
Read the latest issue of WMI’s "Outdoor News Bulletin" online. More>> |  | The Wildlife Society
Preview the promotional issue and see what's in store for TWS's new publication The Wildlife Professional. More>> |  |
| Back to Top | | Go to TRCP Home Page | Grassroots Action We would like to thank all of you for making 2006 a very successful year for our grassroots advocacy. This year, in response to our requests, TRCP Partners have sent almost 20,000 pieces of correspondence to elected officials. By making the voices of the sporting community heard, you are helping to shape the decisions that affect the future of hunting, fishing and public lands management. Thank you all for all of your support . We look forward to an even more productive 2007.
| Back to Top | | Go to TRCP Home Page | Featured Conservation LeaderQ & A with J. Michael Nussman, President and CEO, American Sportfishing Association 
TRCP Board Member J. Michael Nussman at work with rod in hand on the Missouri River.
What is you earliest memory of a sporting experience afield? Who first got you into the water/woods? From the time I was 6, my father took me camping and fishing, and from about 10, he took me hunting as well. We went all over North Carolina. The camping was all of the car/tent variety and the fish were bluegills with an occasional bass if I was lucky, not to mention the occasional trout in the mountains or flounder on the Outer Banks. We also hunted quail in the piedmont. This was all in North Carolina in the 60s so while it wasn’t that wild, at 6 to 10 years old, it seemed like wilderness to me. To your mind, what species face the most critical conservation challenges? To my way of thinking, the species that face the greatest challenge in the future are all of the big game fishes, the marlins and the tunas. Most spend a significant amount of time on the high seas, where no country has management authority. To date, no international fishery management group has shown the will to successfully manage recreationally important species like the tunas and billfish. Where is your favorite place to hunt or fish? Wherever I am. I love fishing in the Chesapeake Bay, where I live, but equally enjoy and look forward to trips all across the country. Why are you involved with the TRCP? I saw a chance to be involved in a coalition that believes in the same thing that I do … a great future for fishing and hunting! | Back to Top | | Go to TRCP Home Page | BookshelfThis month we felt that we couldn’t do a better job with our Bookshelf section than the Wildlife Management Institute had done with theirs. We reprint the following with permission from the Outdoor News Bulletin.  A Writer's Voice: Collected Work of Twentieth Century Biologist and Conservationist, Joseph P. Linduska, compiled and neatly edited by Louise E. Dove is an engrossing anthology of the wit and wisdom of an extraordinarily gifted biologist, conservationist and outdoor writer. Joe Linduska, who died in 1993, was a gentle man, maybe even a gentleman, but he certainly was genuine and, with a permanent starburst twinkle in his eye, a certifiable character. I'm pretty sure that he was the world's only Czech-American leprechaun.
You don't have to have known Joe Linduska to enjoy this book thoroughly, but those of us who gained his friendship, and treasure it still, may want to bronze this little opus. It will give all readers a glimpse into his considerable intellect, his foresight as a scientist and conservationist, the breadth and subtlety of his humor, and his consummate skill as an outdoor writer. The latter is the "most wonderfullest" thing about the book. In this work, most of the writings are from 1986 to 1993, when Joe wrote a weekly column ("colyum" he called it) for the Kent County News, in Chestertown, Maryland, where he and his sainted bride Lillian resided. But it includes a smattering of magazine and newspaper articles as far back as the late 1950s. In nearly all of his published pieces, besides cogency, there is a subtle, snake-charmer wryness - what Joe himself referred to as "a little gimmick" and suggested was a literary device. Baloney, I say. Except when forced into pedantic technical writing, Joe wrote what and how he thought, and humor was simply, innately manifest in his insights and outlook. On the diet of a western house finch, he wrote that it is "as unselective as an opossum or a derelict coon hound," and that bird's digestive tract "has the thoroughness and efficiency of a septic tank." He referred to the American woodcock as a "woodland Durante," whose peenting vocalizations are akin to the "eructations of a flatulent frog." He characterized the European starling as a "squeaky-voiced, nest-thieving, black-hatted wretch... [that] found its way over most of the world, often with the help of stupid people." He advised that ichthyologists are fishermen who have gone to college. Satire and a poorly disguised curmudgeon persona were other vehicles. For example, on a one-time proposal by "some gang of addlepated nitwits" to have the great blue heron replace the Baltimore oriole as Maryland's state bird, Joe threatened to move to Delaware in retaliation, and insinuated that the Baltimore Orioles ball club and Cal Ripken might follow suit. Joe was a master of self-deprecating humor. He was not loath to mention, in one manner or another, his appreciation for the elixir merit of martinis (in fact, for travel and cheapskate purposes, he actually invented clear Pepsi in liter bottles long before the bottling company did). And there was the well-document rift between Joe and his "Chesterpeake" Bay retriever, Fitzhughs Standing Ovation (aka Duke, aka Damnuduke), whom Joe enlisted initially as columnist alter-ego. After wresting the column regularly away from Joe, by popular demand, Duke added insult to injury by taking some ineffectually subliminal shots at his indignant master/fellow journalist by referring in print to Joe variously as the "Ole Man," "Old Guy," "Old Busybody," "Ole Pop," "Old Geezer," "Old Skinflint," "Old Pinch Penny," and a host of other names. Don't think for a minute that I have substantially high-graded from the book's contents. The entire volume is awash in writing that is highly informative and entertaining. A Writer's Voice can be ordered on-line at http://www2.lib.udel.edu/udpress/writers.htm. Its retail price is $42.50. Thanks, Joe. Thanks, Louise. | Back to Top | | Go to TRCP Home Page | Photo GalleryCheck out How Your Fellow TRCP Partners Fared this Season We need your photos. We are working to expand the photo gallery on our 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.
Outdoors writer Lee Fahrney harvested this eight-point buck recently on his 160-acre property in Iowa County, Wisconsin. The buck boasted a 20-inch inside spread and earned a gross score of 142. This latest chapter of his outdoors adventures joins the hundreds of articles he has written on hunting and fishing, conservation and environmental issues. View the rest of the TRCP Partner Photo gallery here. | Back to Top | | Go to TRCP Home Page | Roosevelt ReflectionsTheodore Roosevelt and the Eastern Elites
by Ken Barrett  The original Rough Riders were a band of volunteers compiled by TR from all walks of life; cowboys, Indians, Ivy League graduates, and an assortment of colorful characters. A decade before those men took San Juan Hill, Roosevelt gathered another group of chaps for the purpose of establishing a national conservation organization. These men came from the ranks of what today can only be described as the Eastern Elite. He invited this small group of individuals, including his brother Elliott, George Bird Grinnell and men with names like Pierpont, Stuyvesant and Rogers, to a dinner in New York City, in December 1887. All were New Yorkers, all were well-educated, all were members of the upper-class, and all were passionate about fair-chase hunting and fishing.
Together they established the Boone & Crockett Club, and in early 1888, Grinnell listed their five primary goals in his influential publication, Forest & Stream. They were: - Promote manly sport with the rifle;
- Encourage travel and exploration in the wild and unknown parts of this country;
- Work for the preservation of large game to further legislation for that purpose, and to assist in enforcing the existing laws;
- Advance inquiry
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