As House Weighs 2012 Farm Bill, Sportsmen Promote Conservation Funding
News for Immediate Release
July 1, 2010
Contact: Katie McKalip, 406-240-9262, kmckalip@trcp.org
Sportsmen Promote Conservation Funding
TRCP hails key role of Farm policy in sustaining habitat, hunting and fishing
WASHINGTON – Led by the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, American sportsmen spoke out in support of private-lands fish and wildlife conservation as the U.S. House of Representatives met to consider conservation programs in the 2012 Farm Bill at an Agriculture Committee hearing today.
The conservation title of the Farm Bill is the single-largest source of federal funding for private-lands conservation programs, and previous iterations of the bill have allocated billions of dollars toward landowner activities that sustain critical habitat and bolster fish and wildlife populations important to sportsmen. Today’s committee hearing weighed the efficacy of Farm Bill measures such as the Conservation Reserve Program, generally viewed as America’s largest and most successful agricultural-lands conservation program.
“During a time of budget austerity, sportsmen remind our congressional leaders that no legislation better ensures the conservation of America’s private, agricultural and forest lands than the Farm Bill,” said TRCP Director of Policy and Government Relations Tom Franklin. “These popular and successful conservation programs, including the CRP, are necessary to sustain good farming practices and our nation’s cherished outdoor traditions.”
The CRP encourages farmers and ranchers to undertake land-conservation measures that help safeguard habitat for diverse and abundant wildlife populations including waterfowl, upland birds and wild turkeys. The program has facilitated restoration of 2 million acres of wetlands and adjacent buffers and the conservation of 170,000 miles of streams, resulting in the annual production of 13.5 million pheasants nationwide and 2.2 million ducks in the Prairie Pothole region.
“Declining public access for sportsmen is a major contributor to decreasing numbers of American hunters and anglers,” Franklin continued, “and so sportsmen now unite in urging Congress to uphold the integrity of this crucial legislation by assuring that Farm conservation programs are retained and adequately funded in 2012.”
The U.S. Senate initiated its review of Farm Bill programs at a committee hearing on Wednesday.
Learn more about the TRCP’s work on the Farm Bill.
Read the TRCP report “Growing Conservation in the Farm Bill.”
and grassroots partners working together to preserve the traditions
of hunting and fishing.
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