News for Immediate Release
April 25, 2008
Contact:
Geoff Mullins, 202-654-4609, gmullins@trcp.org
Conservationists Urge Leaders to Finalize Farm Bill
With Congress struggling to reach final compromise, coalition sees foresighted conservation programs as "dangerously close to demise"
WASHINGTON — With both houses of Congress temporarily extending the current Farm Bill in the hope of reaching a final compromise on an updated bill, a broad coalition of hunting, fishing and conservation groups today called for the new legislation's immediate passage.
"There are calls mounting, including those of the president, to break off negotiations and pass a one-year extension of the current Farm Bill," said Geoff Mullins of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. "But doing so could damage many programs that expand and improve fish and wildlife habitat across the country."
While not often thought of as such, the Farm Bill is one of the most important pieces of legislation for clean air and water, along with the fish and wildlife that depend upon them. The bill's Conservation Title represents our nation's largest investment in fish and wildlife stewardship on private lands.
"Two established programs with long track records of success, the Wetlands Reserve Program and Grasslands Reserve Program, would fall by the wayside if the current bill is extended at baseline funding levels," said Bart James of Ducks Unlimited. "These programs are dangerously close to demise, and if they die, it would be catastrophic for populations of ducks, geese and pheasants, just to name a few."
"A temporary extension of the current bill also would mean that two new programs that were included in both the House and Senate versions of the Farm Bill that were passed in the last few months would be lost," said George Cooper, TRCP President and CEO. "Open Fields and Sodsaver matter too much to too many people to let that happen."
In a letter sent today to the president and agricultural leaders in Congress, 15 organizations contend, "Failure to complete a bill would be devastating to current conservation programs, the progress being achieved on the ground to meet the conservation needs of America's farmers and ranchers, and the newly proposed innovations to benefit conservation and sportsmen found in the current legislation."
The groups also express concern about a program that is often called "the Holy Grail for America's fish and wildlife." They write, "Even the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), the largest and most successful of all U.S. Department of Agriculture
conservation programs, is under tremendous market pressures for other land uses and needs a strong, new bill to provide added stability and competitiveness. Extension of existing law could further cripple CRP by prolonging the current delay in scheduling new enrollments for the program."
"The bottom line is painfully simple," said Mullins. "If we want healthy fish and wildlife, rich soils, and clean air and water on private lands, we need a new Farm Bill and we need it now."
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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