News for Immediate Release
January 24, 2008
Contact: Tim Zink, 202-654-4625, tzink@trcp.org
TRCP Announces 2008 Conservation Policy Agenda
Consensus priorities of hunting, fishing and conservation coalition encapsulated in list; new entries include climate change and mining reform
WASHINGTON – The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) today released its 2008 TRCP Conservation Policy Agenda, which represents the consensus priorities of its wide-ranging partner organizations. The agenda was developed by a broad coalition of organizations that includes leading national hunting, fishing and conservation groups. First-time entries on the agenda include addressing the challenges to fish and wildlife populations presented by climate change and an outdated legal framework for hard-rock mining that has left the country broke in more ways than one.
"It’s important for us to identify and retain our focus on a well-defined set of core issues," said TRCP President and CEO George Cooper. "Our Policy Council, which includes several of the foremost minds in the fish and wildlife conservation community, plays an essential role by helping plan a path toward progress. Notably, in the coming year, we’ll be joined on that path by a growing number of union sportsmen, an emerging force in the effort to guarantee all Americans a place to hunt and fish."
"T.R. himself once counseled, ‘I have never won anything without hard labor and the exercise of my good judgment and careful planning and working long in advance,’" said Policy Council Chair Steve Williams, President of the Wildlife Management Institute. "He was right. Having a clear map of the path ahead is incredibly important, and the 2008 Conservation Policy Agenda provides this very thing for the TRCP."
The TRCP’s mission is built on three pillars:
· Expanding ACCESS to places to hunt and fish,
· Conserving HABITAT necessary to sustain fish and wildlife, and
· Increasing FUNDING for conservation and management.
The 2008 TRCP Conservation Policy Agenda includes:
· Reforming the outdated General Mining Law of 1872.
The 1872 Mining Law grants citizens the right to mine and remove hard-rock minerals from federal lands if they have a valid mining claim. The law does not require the claim owner to pay any royalties, fees or rents to the U.S. Treasury for minerals that are removed and sold. It does not ensure that federal public lands will be reclaimed and restored once mining operations have ceased. And "Good Samaritans" are saddled with complete liability if they even attempt to clean up a polluted site. These and other provisions of the current mining law are antiquated and must be changed, and the TRCP is working with a range of partners to see that they are.
· Ensuring that "Open Fields," "Sodsaver," tax incentives for easements and strong overall conservation funding remain in the "Farm Bill" that emerges from Congress.
The Farm Bill is our country’s single largest investment in fish and wildlife on private lands. Even with the threat of a looming presidential veto, a congressional conference committee needs to forge a final Farm Bill that includes a strong Conservational Title. The American public and both houses of Congress already have proven their support of innovative new programs. Open Fields, a TRCP signature issue that would simultaneously promote sportsmen’s access and healthy habitat, and Sodsaver, which would protect native grassland while reducing wasteful spending, were included in the House and Senate bills. Legislators also continued their support of key programs like the Wetlands Reserve Program and Conservation Reserve Program. And they voted to make permanent a key tax incentive package for easements long supported by the sportsmen’s community. The TRCP is devoting its energies to seeing these worthy measures galvanized in the final bill.
· Reducing the harms to fish and wildlife and sportsmen’s opportunities on public lands caused by shortcomings in the federal energy leasing and oversight processes.
In the last decade, more than 26 million acres of public land in the Intermountain West, an area larger than Virginia, have been leased for energy development. Nearly 20 percent of the entire state of Wyoming has been leased in the same period. More troubling than the overall pace of development is the nature of the lands that are being leased. All too often those lands are critical habitat for species like elk, mule deer, pronghorn, sage grouse and trout – species that hunters and anglers revere. Even more troubling is the reality that the federal agencies that are charged with assessing and monitoring the effects of development on these populations are not getting the job done. While the TRCP is not against all development, we believe that only through significant reforms to the federal energy leasing process will our fish and wildlife resources, along with our opportunities as sportsmen, receive the attention they deserve.
· Advancing lasting national wetlands protection and restoration strategies.
Recent decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court and guidance from the Army Corps of Engineers have critically weakened our national wetlands protection standards. Meanwhile, the American landscape continues to lose about 80,000 acres of natural wetlands every year, and it has lost more than half of its total natural wetlands.
In 2008, TRCP will kick-off its We Are Wetlands initiative, an ambitious two-year campaign to cultivate local, state and federal wetlands leaders. A national media and communications strategy will increase public awareness of the important role of wetlands to fish, wildlife and our communities, while a TRCP-led national petition drive will add 80,000 voices – one for every acre of natural wetland lost this year – to the call for stronger wetlands protections.
· Promoting sound roadless area forest management that is careful to incorporate the views of America’s hunters and anglers.
Almost 60 million acres of national forest and grasslands are "inventoried roadless areas," meaning that they do not have roads maintained for travel by means of motorized vehicles. These unbroken blocks of terrain present some of the finest habitat anywhere in the country. As such, they present the last strongholds for several fragile fish populations, such as bull trout, while consistently producing trophy specimens of several wildlife species, including moose, elk and mule deer.
The national management regime for these areas has in recent years been a matter of intense dispute. The last two presidential administrations have offered widely divergent plans, both of which have faced – and at times failed – court challenges, cloaking the management status of roadless areas in a cloud of uncertainty. Throughout this dispute, the TRCP has worked to ensure that sportsmen make themselves heard in this public debate. We will continue doing so in the coming months, placing a tight focus on states like Idaho and Colorado where opportunities for public comment emerge.
· Finding funding increases for state wildlife departments.
The combined efforts put forward by our state fish and wildlife agencies are a tremendous force for effective species conservation. They need the funds to carry out their missions, and State Wildlife Grants deliver a steady funding stream. Initiated by Congress in 2001, these grants help breathe life in the State Wildlife Action Plans, first-of-their-kind blueprints for keeping at-risk species from becoming threatened or endangered.
A national coalition, the broadest ever of its type, has crystallized around the State Wildlife Grants. Called Teaming With Wildlife, it includes more than 3,000 state wildlife agencies, organizations and businesses dedicated to sound wildlife management. The TRCP is a partner organization in the coalition and is an active member of its National Steering Committee.
· Educating the public about the effects of climate change on fish and wildlife populations and overall species diversity -- while working with Congress to secure new funding sources to address climate change impacts and finding methods to reduce the causes of climate change.
Climate change might be among the greatest threats to our nation's fish and wildlife species and species diversity. TRCP and its conservation partners can best address the impacts of climate change on fish and wildlife by protecting and improving habitats and maintaining healthy, connected, and genetically diverse populations through full funding and implementation of the new state wildlife action plans. A new funding source is essential to help the state agencies manage fish and wildlife in the face of climate change. Congress and the Administration must hear from the conservation community and from hunters and anglers concerning the impacts of climate change on fish and wildlife. In 2008, TRCP and its partner organizations, including AFL-CIO unions, will educate sportsmen about climate change effects on fish and wildlife, work with Congress to secure a new funding source for state fish and wildlife agencies, and find methods to reduce the causes of climate change.
· Implementing provisions under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, our country’s foremost coastal fisheries law, that help marine species and recreational anglers alike.
The 109th Congress passed a comprehensive update to the Magnuson-Stevens Act, our primary coastal fisheries management law, that largely reflected the key interests of recreational saltwater anglers. Part of the reason the bill so closely reflected our concerns was that our community was involved in negotiations throughout the process, and the TRCP Marine Conservation Working Group played a major role in making this happen. As the rulemaking process that follows the passage of any major law proceeds, it is equally important that saltwater anglers remain engaged in the process, and the TRCP will be stepping up our work in the coming year to ensure that we do.
For more information on any of the issues listed above, please visit www.trcp.org.
Inspired by the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, the TRCP is a coalition of organizations and grassroots partners working together to preserve the traditions of hunting and fishing.
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