| TRCP News- The Sneak Peak: "Escape to the Wild" Airs on OLN-Versus
- Not Just the FACTS: TRCP Advances Energy Development Debate
- A Conservation Victory: President Approves Bill Expanding Easements
- Angling 4 Oceans: Final Push for Fisheries Law Update
- AWCP Recap: A New MOU in Missoula
- A Fond Farewell: BASS Conservation Director Clough to Retire
- Inspiration Forever Intact: TR’s Elkhorn Ranch Purchased by Forest Service
- Honoring TR’s Legacy: Nolan to Head TRA
- Reminder: National Hunting and Fishing Day September 23
 The Sneak Peak: "Escape to the Wild" Airs on OLN-Versus
On Sunday evening, the TRCP helped offer a sneak peak of an original new field sports television show, "Escape to the Wild," on OLN. The show, a joint project of the TRCP, OLN and several of America's leading labor unions, takes American union workers on their dream hunting and fishing trips. Guiding them on their trips of a lifetime is Marc Pierce, the long-time host of "Ducks Unlimited Television." The first season of "Escape to the Wild" will feature some of the most legendary hunting and fishing locales in the world, and passionate, hardworking American sportsmen who might not have ever been able to visit these places on their own. 
Click here to watch a video clip from the first episode
The full season of "Escape to the Wild" will air starting in January. This sneak peak preview episode featured New York City firefighter and International Association of Fire Fighters member Rocky Raimondi pursuing marlin off the coast of Cabo San Lucas. For those of you who had the chance to tune in, we hope you enjoyed going along with Rocky on this dream trip as much as we did. And we think you’ll agree that this is not your usual hunting and fishing show. Orion Multimedia has done a beautiful job with this new program and has also produced a superb second season of "The TRCP's Life in the Open," which debuts in late September. In another bit of news, OLN is changing its name to VERSUS on September 25. For more information on this name change and the ongoing commitment to field sports on VERSUS click here. | Back to Top | | Go to TRCP Home Page | - Just the FACTS: TRCP Advances Energy Development Debate
 In an effort to make sure that fossil fuel extraction on public lands does not irreparably harm fish and wildlife populations, a TRCP-sponsored coalition, the Fish, Wildlife and Energy Working Group, has been meeting for the past year to identify strategies to limit these effects. The working group recently released a set of principles, called the "Energy FACTS for Fish and Wildlife," that it hopes will be embraced by those who guide public lands energy development. The FACTS principles call for immediate increases in:
- Funding provided to federal fish and wildlife conservation efforts in areas facing energy development,
- Accountability throughout the mineral leasing and drilling oversight processes,
- Coordination with the public and amongst federal land management agencies,
- Transparency throughout the federal planning process, and
- Science as the basis for all decision-making mitigation on energy development.
These principles will provide the backbone for the TRCP’s future work to protect fish and wildlife on public lands facing energy development. They were presented by working group members to Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne for his consideration in a face-to-face meeting this week.  The FACTS principles currently are being applied to gauge a proposed Resource Management Plan for Colorado’s Roan Plateau that was released late last week. The working group welcomed the concepts of clustered and phased development, unitization, and the setting aside of approximately half of the region for "no surface disturbance." But it cautioned that the plan is based on maximum recovery of mineral resources, which includes making 100 percent of the planning area available for leasing. This may be a red flag for future problems once development begins.
"We are more concerned with what the plan does not say, based on experiences with BLM elsewhere, and how commitments for the management of multiple resources have been trumped by the pressure to maximize the development of oil and gas," said TRCP Initiative Manager Steve Belinda. "There is no mention of any adaptive management based on structured monitoring and mitigation for fish and wildlife resources." "We’re glad to see the agency beginning to use broad-scale, comprehensive planning for energy development," said Dr. Rollin Sparrowe, Chair of the working group. "We also like seeing the agency focus on the use of less-harmful extraction techniques, like directional drilling. But without a process for monitoring impacts to fish and wildlife and adjusting mineral development based on those impacts, we will always be reacting to what is happening rather than trying to avoid impacts altogether." For more information on the TRCP’s Fish, Wildlife and Energy Working Group, please click here. | Back to Top | | Go to TRCP Home Page | - A Conservation Victory: President Approves Bill Expanding Easements
 In a move that gives farmers and ranchers nationwide better tools to protect vital fish and game habitat, President Bush on August 17 signed a pension reform bill that includes a provision for expanding the availability of conservation tax incentives for the next two years. The bill had already gained approval in both houses of Congress. Hunters and anglers played a key role in the long fight that led to this conservation victory.
"While part of a much larger bill that promises pension reform, this legislation is a major victory for the American sportsman," said TRCP Chairman James D. Range, who is one of the core partners in a broad working group headed by the Land Trust Alliance that focuses on easements. "In signing a version of the bill that makes conservation tax incentives more attractive, the president is responding to the requests of the countless anglers and hunters who have made themselves heard in recent years." The legislation:
- Raises the maximum deduction a donor can take for donating a conservation easement from 30% of their adjusted gross income (AGI) in any year to 50%;
- Allows qualified farmers and ranchers to deduct up to 100% of their AGI; and
- Increases the number of years over which a donor can take deductions from 5 years to 15 years.
To the Land Trust Alliance’s Rand Wentworth, "Easements are essential to preserving the intact landscapes we love. We deeply appreciate the diligence of the president and Congress in helping people protect more land." Many of the nation’s 40 million sportsmen are intimately familiar with the benefits of conservation tax incentives 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 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. Land trusts belonging to LTA throughout the country and organizations like The Nature Conservancy, The Conservation Fund and the Trust for Public Land have used easements to stabilize key habitat. In an era of tight budgets, state and federal agencies have found it difficult to conserve more land, but through conservation tax incentive deals, land is often donated to them to expand public areas or to create new areas. The organizations that championed this expansion of these conservation tax incentives will now shift their focus to extending the incentives beyond the current two year authorization. "We need to keep working to make these tools permanently available," Range said. "We know America’s sportsmen will continue to do so." | Back to Top | | Go to TRCP Home Page | - Angling 4 Oceans: Final Push for Fisheries Law Update
 Congress has returned to DC for its final round of action before heading out on the campaign trail and the TRCP’s Angling 4 Oceans coalition is focusing on reauthorization of the country’s primary coastal fishing law. Normally updated every five years, the Magnuson-Stevens Act has not been reauthorized in more than a decade. This has a profound effect on recreational saltwater anglers because the acts sets guidelines for who can fish, where and when they can do so, how many fish they can take and what types of gear they can use. A lot has changed in the decade since the act’s last overhaul, including the state of the scientific knowledge base that guides fisheries management, the numbers of commercial and recreational anglers, and the species they pursue most frequently.
The Angling 4 Oceans campaign has developed a set of core principles that, if enacted, will lead to profound improvements for aquatic populations and habitats, not to mention the national economy, to which recreational saltwater anglers make a huge - and underappreciated - contribution. You can read more about these principles at www.angling4oceans.org. Elements of these principles have been included in the versions of the reauthorization legislation offered by the administration and already passed by the Senate. Unfortunately, expected action in the House of Representatives on its version of the bill is now not expected until after the elections in a so-called "lame duck" session. This tenuous scenario casts serious doubt over the prospects for Magnuson-Stevens reauthorization this year, or any time soon. | Back to Top | | Go to TRCP Home Page | - AWCP Recap: A New MOU in Missoula
 The TRCP recently participated in the seventh annual meeting of the American Wildlife Conservation Partners (AWCP) at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation headquarters in Missoula, Montana. The annual meeting was highlighted by two events:
- the first meeting of the newly established Sporting Conservation Council, a group that includes several TRCP Board and Policy Council members (read more here) and is designed to offer advice to federal wildlife and land managers, and
- the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding by the 40 conservation organizations that make up the AWCP and a number of federal agencies that will lay the groundwork for collaborative efforts between the conservation groups and federal government working toward the goal of wildlife habitat conservation.
"Our community continues to improve at finding news ways to work together with federal land managers," said TRCP Vice President of Policy Terry Riley. "This was clearly on display at the AWCP meeting, where diverse groups came together on several common goals." | Back to Top | | Go to TRCP Home Page | - A Fond Farewell: BASS Conservation Director Clough to Retire
 A tireless champion of the conservation community will be retiring this month. Noreen Clough, the Conservation Director for BASS/ESPN Outdoors and a co-chair of the TRCP Freshwater Fisheries Working Group, has announced that she will be retiring in mid-September. Clough will be greatly missed by all of us at the TRCP. "Noreen is the picture of professionalism, competence and dedication," said TRCP President and CEO Matthew B. Connolly Jr. "The TRCP has been strengthened by her expertise, and those of us who have been fortunate enough to work alongside her will miss her greatly. We - and the resource - owe her a debt of gratitude."
For more on Clough’s conservation vision, please visit our Featured Conservation Leader section. | Back to Top | | Go to TRCP Home Page | - Inspiration Forever Intact: TR’s Elkhorn Ranch Purchased by Forest Service
 The USDA Forest Service on August 30 announced that it had reached an agreement with a private landowner to purchase the historically significant 5,200-acre Elkhorn Ranch in the Badlands of western North Dakota. In this area in the 1880s, Theodore Roosevelt operated a large ranching operation along the Little Missouri River. The ranch lands will become part of the Little Missouri National Grasslands.
"This is a unique piece of land both historically and ecologically," said USDA Secretary Mike Johanns. "President Roosevelt developed a strong attachment to the Badlands and he attributed his passion for conservation to his time in Dakota Territory." President Roosevelt frequently read and wrote on the veranda of his Elkhorn Ranch cabin site and described the scenic buttes located on the Eberts Ranch property. This time in Theodore Roosevelt's life inspired his life-long mission of preserving the special places and natural resources of America for future generations. More than 50 local and national wildlife and natural resource conservation organizations have worked together for the last 15 months in cooperation with the Forest Service to secure the acquisition of the ranch at a cost of just over $5 million. This effort was led by the Boone and Crockett Club, a TRCP partner organization, which Roosevelt founded in 1887. | Back to Top | | Go to TRCP Home Page | - Honoring TR’s Legacy: Nolan to Head TRA
 The Theodore Roosevelt Association, which, like the TRCP, works to preserve Theodore Roosevelt’s legacy, has named a new executive director. Dr. Cathal J. Nolan assumed the position in early August.
Dr. Nolan served as Assistant to the President at Boston University from 1995 to 1999. In 1999 he co-founded the International History Institute (IHI) at Boston University, serving as its Executive Director from 1999 to the present. At the IHI, he organized several international and numerous national and local conferences and guest lecture series, and raised external funds to support the Institute's activities. He also taught presidential and military history as Associate Professor of History. He has received multiple awards for outstanding teaching and outstanding scholarly books. He is the author of eight books of diplomatic or military history, and editor of five more, including the forthcoming Encyclopedia of U. S. Presidents and Foreign Policy. Dr. Nolan received his Ph.D. in International History and International Relations from the University of Toronto. He is a member of the Historical Society; Society for Military History; Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations and the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs. He currently lives near Boston with his wife, Valerie, and his children, Ryan and Genevieve, and will soon be relocating to the Oyster Bay, New York area. For more information, please visit www.theodoreroosevelt.org. | Back to Top | | Go to TRCP Home Page |  Reminder: National Hunting and Fishing Day September 23
National Hunting and Fishing Day is Saturday, September 23. As this day devoted to preserving and promoting our sporting traditions approaches, why not take a few minutes to help protect and expand these traditions? Please click here to engage in our current campaigns designed to guarantee you a place to hunt and fish. | Back to Top | | Go to TRCP Home Page |
Updates from TRCP Partner Organizations - News from the National Conservation CommunityAmerican Sportfishing Association
The ASA and 11 other conservation and recreational angling groups launched an effort to decommission and remove four dams on the Klamath River in the northwest U.S. More>> |  | Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies
The association applauded Senators for filing a long-term wildlife funding amendment. More>> |  | BASS/ESPN Outdoors
BASS Conservation is featuring an examination of the latest, and one of the most significant, challenges to angler access in recent years. A U.S. District Court judge in Louisiana recently ruled that anglers do not have the state or federal common law right to fish and hunt on the Mississippi River up to the high-water mark when it floods privately owned land. More>> |  | Boone and Crockett Club
The Boone and Crockett Club has released its 2006 Hunting Catalog. More>> |  | Coastal Conservation Association
The CCA has expressed its disappointment in the continuing reluctance of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to address shrimp trawl bycatch as the primary cause for the decline of red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico. More>> |  | Ducks Unlimited
Ducks Unlimited says a new Conservation Reserve Program practice to be administered by the Farm Service Agency, the Duck Nesting Habitat Initiative, will benefit breeding ducks in the Prairie Pothole Region. More>> |  | Federation of Fly Fishers
The FFF’s Southern Council Conclave, the council’s premier event, will be held in Mountain Home, Arkansas from October 5th through October 7th, 2006. More>> |  | Izaak Walton League of America
The IWLA recently commended the Forest Service for its focus on partnerships as the key to slowing loss of open space. More>> |  | Pheasants Forever
Pheasants Forever released a landmark study showing that the Conservation Reserve Program produces 13.5 million pheasants annually. More>> |  | Quail Unlimited
QU celebrates its 25th Anniversary with the launch of the Flight to the Future strategic plan. More>> |  | Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation
For more on the recent AWCP meeting hosted by the RMEF, click here: More>> |  | Trout Unlimited
TU has completed the cleanup of the American Fork Mine in Utah. More>> |  | Trust for Public Land
The Trust for Public Land was recently awarded a 2006 "Special Achievement in GIS" Award for its outstanding use of geographic information system (GIS) technology. More>> |  | Whitetails Unlimited
Whitetails Unlimited has announced the results of its annual Chapter Awards program More>> |  | Wildlife Management Institute
Read the latest issue of WMI’s "Outdoor News Bulletin" online. More>> |  | The Wildlife Society
The results of the 2006 elections for TWS Vice President and section representatives, and the vote on proposed bylaws changes, are in. More>> |  |
| Back to Top | | Go to TRCP Home Page | Grassroots ActionWe would like to thank all of you who have taken the time to participate in our past online advocacy campaigns. By making your voices heard, you have let lawmakers know that they must take seriously the interests of those who hunt and fish. We are currently seeking assistance on the following issues and encourage you to take a moment and add your support. - Open Fields Needs Senate Co-Sponsors - You Can Help - "Open Fields" will help states to expand existing voluntary access programs and enroll the thousands of landowners they now have on waiting lists. It also will help the states with under-funded programs to improve their operations, and it will help states without any access programs at all to start new ones.
- 2007 Farm Bill Conservation Title Needs Your Support - Every five years or so Congress reauthorizes Farm Bill legislation. Why should hunters and anglers be concerned with farm legislation? We may not immediately realize it, but nearly every type of game bird and animal and even most fish in America's rivers, streams and lakes are affected by Farm Bill-authorized conservation programs.
| Back to Top | | Go to TRCP Home Page | Featured Conservation LeaderQ & A with Noreen Clough, Conservation Director for BASS/ESPN Outdoors 
What is you earliest memory of a sporting experience afield? Not my earliest, but my best memory is Saturday fishing trips with my Mama, Daddy and sister on Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma in the early 1950's. I remember not just the great fishing, but how magnificent the bison were on that open range. Who first got you into the water/woods? My Daddy, who made walking in the woods a routine. He could identify every tree, with or without leaves, and unseen birds by their songs. When did you first recognize the need to conserve species? Way too late - although I always respected the outdoors, I never really recognized species declines until I moved into the DC area in 1968. Year after year I watched avian species composition and richness decline as development progressed. First the goldfinch were gone, and Baltimore Orioles soon followed. It stunned me. To your mind, what species face the most critical conservation challenges? Certainly in my book its the Florida Panther. Day after day the onslaught of explosive, unbridled development around Naples and southwest Florida squeezes this majestic animal into less and less area. I am saddened to know that I will see the Florida Panther become extinct in my lifetime. Where is your favorite place to hunt or fish? I guess because I work for BASS I should name a bass spot - but actually, I recently redfished in the Laguna Madre off Corpus Christi, TX. That's hard to beat! Why are you involved with the TRCP? TRCP is uniquely positioned to make a difference in conserving spaces to hunt and fish. I want to be part of that, to be able to continue the outdoor legacy so much of us have l been able to enjoy. | Back to Top | | Go to TRCP Home Page |  Bookshelf
Legendary Hunts by the Boone & Crockett Club
The Boone and Crockett Club is pleased to present Legendary Hunts, a collection of 43 short stories recounting the adventures for some of the most outstanding native North American big game quarry ever taken. For more information, click here.
The Fishing Club: Brothers and Sisters of the Angle by Bob Rich
In The Fishing Club, Bob Rich provides a delightful chronicle about his search to discover what drives all anglers in their hunt for fish. A former president of the United States (George Herbert Walker Bush), a Hall of Fame slugger (Ted Williams), the world’s most famous bass fisherman (Bill Dance), and an Olympic skier (Andy Mill) are just a few of the friends Rich enlists to help in his search. Interesting people and passionate anglers all, they share with a fishing buddy their first memories of fishing, reflections on what impact the sport has had on their lives, and why they love to fish. For more information, click here.
| Back to Top | | Go to TRCP Home Page | Photo Gallery Check out How Your Fellow TRCP Partners Fared this Season
This turkey was shot on April 29th 2006 on the State of Maine Youth Day by Brad Mason, 13, and Kathleen Mason, 10. Dave Mason, their father, was the caller. The bird was 18 pounds, had an 11-inch beard and 1-inch spurs. According to dad, when five toms came into their decoy, he told each kid to pick a bird; that he would count to three; and, on three, that they should pull the trigger. Both kids shot the same bird! Dad says it was great team work, and a first bird for both kids. View the rest of the TRCP Partner Photo gallery here. 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. | Back to Top | | Go to TRCP Home Page | Roosevelt ReflectionsTRCP’s Life In The Open Africa Special to Air September 29th  As illuminated in the August Square Dealer, Theodore Roosevelt and Ernest Hemingway are synonymous with African hunting - they were inspired by the endeavor. In turn, T.R.’s African Game Trails and Hemingway’s Green Hills of Africa have inspired scores of hunters to undertake their own safaris. Among the most recent are the host of TRCP’s Life in the Open, Ken Barrett, and TRCP Chairman Jim Range. Together they ventured to Zimbabwe last May in the hopes of finding and experiencing at least a piece of the Africa and the kind of African hunting described in Roosevelt’s and Hemingway’s books.
Before departing for the Dark Continent, Barrett and Range spent a morning with Patrick Hemingway, the last surviving son of Ernest and a former professional hunter in East Africa. Patrick recounted stories of both his father and Philip Percival, the famed professional hunter who guided both Theodore and his son Kermit on their famed 1909-1910 expedition and his father in 1933 and 1953. Patrick also shared his own experiences of hunting in Africa, graciously answering many questions about game, guns and more. The hunts of Range and Barrett, along with their interviews with Patrick Hemingway, will be the subject of an upcoming one-hour special episode of TRCP’s Life in the Open on OLN, which will be changing its name to VERSUS later this month. The special will feature Range’s hunt for the dangerous Cape buffalo and Barrett’s quest for a kudu, which takes an on an eerie similarity to Hemingway’s hunt for kudu described in Green Hills of Africa. Apparently life really does sometimes imitate art. Please join us on September 29th at 7:00 pm EST for this the one-hour special to discover if it’s still possible to experience the world - and the hunting - about which T.R. and Hemingway wrote. | Back to Top | | Go to TRCP Home Page | |
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