Proposed House Cuts to Farm Bill Conservation Programs Criticized by Sportsmen

The Farm Bill Conservation Programs help conserve millions of acres of fish and wildlife habitat and hunting and fishing opportunities. Photo courtesy of EPA.gov

The Farm Bill is a vital part of U.S. private-lands conservation. Millions of acres of fish and wildlife habitat and the hunting and fishing opportunities they provide have been conserved and enhanced through Farm Bill programs.

Right now, the House Appropriations Committee is meeting to consider more than a billion dollars in reductions to mandatory conservation programs agreed to by the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee. Conservation programs facing drastic cuts include the following:

• The USDA conservation operations budget.
• The Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program (WHIP).
• The Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP).
• The Grasslands Reserve Program (GRP).
• The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).
• Funding for the Voluntary Public Access and Habitat Incentive Program (VPA/HIP), also known as Open Fields, would be completely eliminated.

The TRCP Agriculture and Wildlife Working Group is displeased with these cuts and is committed to ensuring that the 2012 Farm Bill strongly funds conservation programs that secure America’s outdoor heritage.

“Agricultural- and private-lands conservation remains a cornerstone of the TRCP’s policy work, and the efforts of the TRCP and our partner organizations have been instrumental in bolstering vital conservation programs in previous Farm Bills,” said Steve Kline, director of the TRCP Center for Agricultural and Private Lands. “The reductions presently being considered represent a quarter century of taxpayer investment in conservation. Sportsmen strongly oppose these cuts.” 

The TRCP’s farm policy work is guided by the Agriculture and Wildlife Working Group, formed by the TRCP to provide recommendations to Congress and the administration on conservation programs in the 2008 bill. Composed of representatives from the nation’s leading sportsmen’s groups, the AWWG currently is developing recommendations for the 2012 Farm Bill.

“These proposed reductions will hamstring the USDA’s ability to responsibly manage priority fish and wildlife habitats and help landowners reduce potential threats to their operations associated with priority wildlife concerns such as lesser prairie chickens, sage grouse, and New England cottontail, all of which are candidate species for listing under the ESA,” said Jennifer Mock Schaeffer, Farm Bill coordinator for the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies and AWWG chair. 

Learn more about the TRCP’s agricultural- and private-lands conservation work.