New TRCP chairman, Jim Martin, with a Montana rainbow.
Photo courtesy of Brett Prettyman
At its spring meeting, the board of directors of the TRCP elected Jim Martin, a longtime TRCP board member and biologist who currently is conservation director of the Berkley Conservation Institute, to chair the organization’s board. Howard Vincent, president and CEO of Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever, was elected secretary of the TRCP board.
“I am delighted and humbled to be offered the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of my personal hero Jim Range as board chair of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership,” said Martin. “I look forward to the TRCP working with the rest of the conservation community on conserving and enhancing the fish and wildlife resources and the habitat that is the foundation of hunting and fishing in America.
“Climate change and rapid development in America underscore the urgency of developing a new framework of conservation policy,” Martin continued, “a policy that must be forged while there still is time to secure the outdoors legacy we want to pass on to our kids, as our predecessors like Theodore Roosevelt passed on to us.”
Martin has served on the TRCP board of directors since the organization’s inception in 2002. A native Oregonian, Martin spent 30 years working for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, including six years as its fisheries chief. Martin currently serves as conservation director of Pure Fishing’s Berkley Conservation Institute, which supports conservation and angler recruitment efforts. Throughout his career, Martin has championed a range of conservation efforts in the name of sportsmen, including salmon restoration projects, addressing the effects of climate change on fish and wildlife populations, clean water protections and increasing youth participation in outdoor activities. Click here to read a Q&A with Martin.
Martin fills the chairman position left vacant since the passing of TRCP co-founder and visionary Jim Range in January. Dr. Rollin Sparrowe served as interim chair of the TRCP board following Range’s death.
“This transition has been a challenging one for the TRCP,” said Sparrowe. “Replacing Jim Range is a great challenge, but Jim Martin is more than equal to the task at hand.
“Martin knows the history of the TRCP and understands how to work effectively within the hunting, fishing and conservation community,” continued Sparrowe. “I look forward to collaborating with him and my fellow board members in the coming years as we fulfill the TRCP mission of guaranteeing all Americans quality places to hunt and fish.”
“Jim’s unique experience as a scientist, his role as a leader in the conservation community and his passion for hunting and fishing make him an ideal leader for the TRCP board and for America’s sportsmen,” said George Cooper, TRCP president and CEO. “His dedication to conservation, the outdoors and the TRCP is unsurpassed.
“America’s sportsmen are fortunate to be able to look toward the skilled leadership of both Jim Martin and Howard Vincent,” Cooper concluded. “Both are giants in the sportsmen-conservationist world, and the TRCP will be well served by them and their abilities as our organization enters a new era.”
Administration Takes Action to Safeguard Roadelss Areas
Tenderfoot Creek Inventoried Roadless Area in Montana provides important cool water and spawning habitat for the world-renowned trout fisheries in the Smith River.
Photo by Joel Webster
The Obama administration issued a “timeout” on development of inventoried roadless areas on May 28. The TRCP along with the Outdoor Alliance, Outdoor Industry Association, Izaak Walton League of America and Trout Unlimited lauded the move by U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to issue a directive requiring high-level review of proposed backcountry development until permanent rules for these areas’ management can be resolved.
“We’re pleased that the administration has elected to undertake this action and affirm its support of responsible management of inventoried roadless areas,” said Joel Webster, TRCP associate director of campaigns, “and we look forward to working with Secretary Vilsack and the Department of Agriculture in ensuring that America’s outdoor traditions, including hunting and angling, are sustained by conserving these important backcountry public lands.”
The memorandum from the Agriculture Department establishes the secretary’s“decision-making authority over the construction and reconstruction of roads and the cutting, sale or removal of timber in inventoried roadless areas on certain lands administered by the Forest Service.”
“Every American who appreciates and enjoys the vast range of amenities provided by our nation’s outdoors has reason to support this decision by the administration,” said Thomas O’Keefe, Pacific Northwest stewardship director for American Whitewater and OA roadless campaign director. “Whether they are climbers, hikers, backcountry skiers, mountain bikers or paddlers, outdoor recreationists agree that our national forest roadless areas play a crucial role in enabling and upholding our country’s outdoor traditions.”
Close to 60 million acres of roadless areas are encompassed within America’s national forests and grasslands. A series of conflicting court decisions regarding the2001 roadless rule have left management of these areas unsettled for years. Many outdoors-oriented groups support national legislation that conserves America’s backcountry lands and the fish and wildlife, sporting and recreational resources they sustain.
“Thanks to decisive leadership by Secretary Vilsack, sportsmen and other outdoor recreationists can look forward to our continued ability to enjoy their replaceable fish and wildlife habitat and high-quality outdoor experiences facilitated by backcountry areas,” said Kevin Proescholdt, IWLA director of wilderness and public lands and member of the TRCP’s Roadless Initiative Working Group, “and we stand ready to assist the secretary in working to conserve these public lands into the long-term future.”
The secretary’s announcement also has implications for roadless areas located in Colorado, where the state has been engaged in developing a plan for their management. Specific projects proposed in Colorado roadless areas will be subject to secretarial-level review under the new directive because the Colorado roadless rule has not been completed.
“The decision by the administration means that hastily finalizing the Colorado roadless rule won’t be in keeping with the way the rest of the national forests are being managed across the United States,” said Amy Roberts, OIA vice president of government affairs. “Responsible management of Colorado’s roadless areas will help maintain the billions of dollars annually generated by active outdoor recreation in this country. In today’s troubled economy, Americans are relying on sustainable forms of revenue like these more than ever.”
“Ultimately, America’s roadless areas are essential in supporting the range of public-lands outdoor traditions that form the bedrock of our national identity,” Webster concluded. “Every citizen has reason to applaud this reasonable and prescient move by the administration to guarantee that this unique identity will endure.”
Sportsmen and Union Partners Applaud Advancement of Climate Change Legislation
George Cooper, TRCP president and CEO, addresses the importance of fish and wildlife adaptation strategies as Mike Monroe, AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department's director of government affairs, listens.
Photo by Brian McClintock
Members of the TRCP Climate Change Working Group, comprised of representatives of leading sportsmen’s and conservation groups, praised the efforts of members of the Energy and Commerce Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives on May 15 for including funding for fish and wildlife adaptation strategies to combat climate change in the American Clean Energy and Security bill (ACES).
“A wide range of fish and wildlife will feel the effects of climate change, which could dramatically affect hunting and fishing,” said David Nomsen, vice president of government affairs for Pheasants Forever and working group co-chair. “The funding that the energy and commerce committee agreed on will provide a good start on a fiscal base for state wildlife agencies to implement climate change adaptation strategies for fish and wildlife.”
The ACES bill will work to limit the effects of global climate change by imposing a cap on greenhouse gas emissions while investing in energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. The bill also would create the Natural Resources Climate Change Adaptation Fund to assist federal and state agencies in implementing natural resources adaptation strategies and measures. The bill included a tiered allocation from carbon allowances auction revenue, with the adaptation programs receiving 1 percent from 2012 to 2021, 2 percent from 2022 to 2026 and 4 percent from 2027 to 2050.
“Chairman Waxman, Chairman Dingell and Chairman Markey have laid a strong and broad foundation for the very necessary natural resources adaptation programs, which will ensure not just the health and vitality of our fish and wildlife resources but also the quality of life for our citizens that functioning ecosystems likewise provide,” said Gary Taylor, legislative director of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and working group co-chair. “We applaud their recognition of the need for dedicated funding to deliver these very vital public benefits, and look forward to continuing to work with them on subsequent passage by the House.”
At a press conference hosted by the League of Conservation Voters, TRCP president and CEO, George Cooper, joined with environmentalists, businesses, veterans and unions to urge the committee to advance this bill. The Energy and Commerce committee marked up the bill on May 21, advancing it to the House Committee on Ways and Mean. Ways and Means is expected to discuss the bill as soon as early June.
“The ACES bill recognizes the importance for state wildlife action plans to include adaptation strategies—tactics that enable landscape-scale approaches in the comprehensive management of fish and wildlife species,” said Cooper. “Adaptation-focused funding will be essential in fish, wildlife and natural resources conservation as we struggle to address the negative impacts of global climate change on our public lands and outdoor traditions.”
Mike Monroe, director of government affairs at the AFL-CIO’s (a Union Sportsmen's Alliance partner) Building & Construction Trades Department stressed the importance of this bill from a labor perspective.
“America must stop exporting clean energy jobs,” said Monroe. “We think it’s time to lead again and this clean energy bill will jumpstart the economy and create millions of new American jobs.”
Read “Season’s End,” a report detailing the predicted impacts of climate change on fish and wildlife in the United States and the implications for hunting and fishing.
Contaminated water running out of a mine tunnel near Idaho Springs, Idaho.
Photo courtesy of the United States Geological Survey
The 1872 Mining Law, which governs hard-rock mining (gold, copper, silver, etc.) on America's public lands, was signed into law more than a century ago. More than 270 million acres of federal land are open to hard-rock mining under the law, mostly in the Rocky Mountain West. Because the law has not been meaningfully updated, many of America's most treasured wildlife habitat and hunting areas, valuable fisheries, popular recreation sites, vital municipal water supplies, and backcountry areas are at risk.
A bill recently introduced in the U.S. Senate by Energy and Natural Resources Chair Jeff Bingaman will update the 1872 law to ensure more responsible hard-rock mining through the 21st century.
Administration Provides Support for Clean Water Protections
Restoring clean water protections will help conserve hunting and fishing resources such as prairie potholes.
Photo courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Members of the TRCP Wetlands and Clean Water Working Group applauded statements made by the Obama administration supporting a legislative fix to the long-standing confusion over federal protections of the nation’s rivers, lakes, wetlands and streams. In a joint letter to Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee Chair Barbara Boxer, the heads of five executive branch agencies acknowledged the significant challenges in protecting water supplies posed by recent Supreme Court decisions and encouraged Congress to clarify those protections through legislation.
“A whole host of ecological features, which provide many important societal benefits like clean drinking water, healthy fish and wildlife populations, flood and erosion control, and recreational opportunities, remains at risk unless Congress acts,” said Steve Moyer, Trout Unlimited’s vice president for government affairs and working group co-chair. “We are very pleased that the administration has made legislative action a priority.”
The letter, signed by Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality Nancy Sutley, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar and Acting Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works) Terrence Salt, outlines principles for legislation to clarify the meaning of the term “waters of the United States.” The letter conveys directly the administration’s preference for a legislative fix. “A clear statement of Congressional intent is needed to provide a foundation for steady and predictable implementation of the Clean Water Act in the years to come,” it reads.
“As the No. 1 issue important to sportsmen, this is a very positive development,” said Ducks Unlimited’s Director of Public Policy Barton James, a working group co-chair. “Hunters and anglers hope that this clear statement will spur congressional leaders to advance legislation that will restore those protections that have been lost.”
“The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is already considering legislation called the Clean Water Restoration Act that will restore these protections to their previous levels,” said working group co-chair Jan Goldman-Carter, wetlands and water resources counsel at the National Wildlife Federation. “We urge senators to support this legislation and ask that Chairman Boxer and the EPW Committee hold a mark-up on this bill in the coming weeks. Action by Congress in 2009 is critical.”
“The administration’s clear call to action is positive for hunters and anglers and clean water across the country,” said Scott Kovarovics, conservation director at the Izaak Walton League of America. “This letter highlights the importance of Congress passing strong protections for streams, lakes and wetlands that are at risk in our communities.”
TRCP's Union Sportsmen's Alliance Holds First Sporting Clays Shoot
A shooter takes aim at a sporting clay during a charity shoot.
Photo courtesy of Shoot for a Cure
The TRCP's Union Sportsmen’s Alliance (USA) will hold its inaugural Capitol Area Sporting Clays Shoot on June 18. The shoot will take place at the Prince George’s County Trap and Skeet Center in Glenn Dale, Md., and benefit the USA and the TRCP’s efforts to uphold our hunting and fishing heritage.
We invite you to participate in this special event as a sponsor, as an individual shooter or by sponsoring a group. Awards will be given to the highest scoring teams (organizations) and to the top individual shooters (Lewis class).
CONTRIBUTION LEVELS:
Platinum Sponsor ($2,000): Includes four shooters, station sponsor recognition plus ammunition, targets, hats, lunch and raffle ticket package.
Gold Sponsor ($1,500): Includes four shooters, gold sponsor recognition plus ammunition,
targets, hats and lunch.
Silver Sponsor ($1,000): Includes four shooters, silver sponsor recognition plus ammunition, targets, hats and lunch.
Station Sponsor ($750): Includes sponsor sign recognition at a shooting station (no shooters).
Individual Shooter ($175): Includes ammunition, targets, hat and lunch.
In addition to sponsoring the event, Beretta USA is placing a variety of firearms at every shooting station to provide a one-of-a-kind shooting entertainment.
The first annual sporting clays shoot is being conducted by Mark Gagliardi with Shoot for a Cure. In addition to working with the USA, Mark devotes his time to planning union sporting clay charity events to benefit leukemia research.
For more information or to register, please contact Greg Singleton at 703-455-4701 or gsingleton@trcp.org.
The event is chaired by Richard Trumka, secretary-treasurer, AFL-CIO and co-chaired by Mona Robinson, USA Olympic shooting life member and Safari Club International hunter of the year
AAFTA Honors Former TRCP Chairman at the Jim Range National Casting Call
The Jim Range Rowboat on the water at the Cove at Fletcher's Boat House.
Photo by Brian McClintock
The National Casting Call has become an establishment in Washington, D.C., a day when the fly-fishing industry, conservation organizations and politicians gather to fish for shad and to celebrate the good work that anglers do to sustain our nation’s fisheries. Hosted by the American Fly Fishing Trade Association (AAFTA) at the Cove at Fletcher's Boat House on April 27, the Casting Call took on a memorial tone this year, as it was renamed in honor of Jim Range. Range, TRCP co-founder and AFFTA’s legislative representative, was instrumental in starting the first Casting Call 10 years ago to show D.C. politicos the role that anglers play in the conservation of our natural resources. Range died on January 20 after a brief battle with kidney cancer.
While the Casting Call traditionally is the venue where the National Fish Habitat Action Plan announces its 10 Waters to Watch and awards are presented to honor conservation work within the fly-fishing community, the American and hickory shad runs are the main event. The return of these fish runs, which rebounded from near extirpation in 1970s to plentiful numbers populating the Potomac River today, is one of the nation’s great conservation success stories.
The weather at this year's Casting Call was vastly improved from the previous years, which led to more boats on the water and more shad caught. Another highlight was the dedication of one of Fletcher's red rowboats in honor of Jim Range. Range spent many hours in these rowboats, and now he will always be on the water.
Howard Vincent (left), Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever president and CEO, presents Geoff Mullins, TRCP policy initiative manager, with a service award. Photo by Brian McClintock
At a reception hosted by Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever, Howard Vincent, the organizations’ president and CEO, honored the hard work of individuals and conservation groups for ensuring that the latest Farm Bill addressed conservation programs of great interest to sportsmen.
Geoff Mullins, TRCP policy initiative manager, was singled out at the reception. Mullins, along with other individuals from TRCP partner organizations, successfully worked to include important legislative elements, such as the new Open Fields program, into the new Farm Bill, which was reauthorized in May, 2008.
9. SPORTSMEN'S SPOTLIGHT: Some Sportsmen's Issues, Such as Open Fields, Get Funding in President's 2010 Budget
The Open Fields program that received funding in President Obama's budget encourages farmers and landowners to open their lands to hunters.
The TRCP and its partners lauded key provisions in President Obama’s 2010 budget but also raised concerns about some of the cuts and restrictions the president placed on strategic programs aimed to conserve fish, wildlife and the habitat on which they depend.
“While the sportsmen and conservation community is still examining and digesting the president’s budget, we’re happy to see that climate change and the Open Fields programs, for example, are issues that the Obama administration is putting its resources behind,” said George Cooper, TRCP president and CEO. “But we’re disappointed that the president’s budget also includes cuts and restrictions on other programs aimed at conserving habitat on private lands and encouraging property owners to open their lands to hunters and anglers. As the budget goes forward, we look forward to working with the administration and our allies in the House and Senate to ensure that sportsmen programs across the board receive necessary funding.”
The highlights of the president’s budget include increases in allocations for wildlife grants to help states implement climate change adaptation programs,comprehensive funding for the implementation of the Magnuson-Stevens Act and support for the new Open Fields program. The lowlights include cuts to Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program and Wetlands Reserve Program.
“Many of the issues that we work on at the TRCP have been affected by the President’s budget,” said Tom Franklin, TRCP senior vice president. “And whether the change is positive or negative, we’re looking forward to working with our partners, the administration and Congress to make sure that hunters and anglers will continue to benefit from these important conservation programs.”
Here are some of the details from President Obama’s budget that affect sportsmen:
Department of Agriculture (USDA) Programs:
Wetlands and Habitat Conservation on Private Lands:
The suite of conservation programs within the USDA represents the largest federal investment on private land, yet it only accounts for roughly 8 percent of the department’s budget. A positive increase of more than $11 million to Technical Assistance within Conservation Operations will provide landowners with proven methods to carryout best management practices on their lands.
Key habitat conservation programs, however, saw their budgets decrease under the new proposal. Most notably, the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) and the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP) saw major reductions from last year’s levels—levels that are inconsistent with the sportsmen's and conservation community’s recommendations for achieving maximum benefit to fish and wildlife habitat. WRP, the only USDA program solely dedicated to wetlands conservation and responsible for nearly 2 million acres of wetlands since its inception, was cut by $27 million, from $418 million to $391 million. The popular WHIP program, which focuses on improving key wildlife habitats, has been underfunded from the program’s inception, as applications have outnumbered the funding by a 2-to-1 ratio. Unfortunately this program has been cut by 50 percent in the budget.
Access:
The TRCP was pleased to see that the new hunter access program, Open Fields, is funded at $50 million in the president’s request. Passed in the 2008 Farm Bill, this represents an unprecedented added resource to states to promote public access to hunting and fishing opportunities and thereby stimulate local economies.
U.S. Forest Service (USFS):
The USDA budget also included a $60 million increase in available funds for capital improvements, including national forest road maintenance, upgrading, and decommissioning, within the budget for the USFS. More than 380,000 miles of mapped roads currently exist in lands managed by the USFS. Maintaining these existing roads should be a priority in addition to a focus on conserving the 58.5 million acres of national forest roadless areas in order to provide continued high-quality access to important hunting and fishing destinations.
Department of the Interior (DOI) Programs
Climate Change:
This initiative has some of the largest increases of any other individual issue in the entire budget. The president included a $133 million department-wide increase in the DOI's budget to combat climate change, including a $15 million increase for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) received the largest increase of any department agency, including a $40 million enhancement to fund state wildlife grants. This increase provides the FWS a total of $115 million to help states incorporate climate change adaptation strategies into state wildlife action plans and tribal wildlife plans.
The TRCP lauds the administration for establishing an interagency approach to combat climate change and for establishing a process to monitor resources and recreational uses as agencies move forward with these strategies.
Energy Development:
The proposed budget for the DOI’s energy development did not address many fish or wildlife concerns. Two visible changes in the budget from the 2009 fiscal year budget include an initiative to develop more renewable energy sources and an increase in the fee from $4,000 to $6,500 for the application for permit to drill (APD), making the fee more in line with cost-recovery policies of other industries and is closer to representing what it actually costs the BLM to process an APD. The budget proposes to sustain the level of funding for its oil and gas program at the same capacity to process the same number of permits as it did during the 2009 fiscal year. Although funding for fish and wildlife programs is increased, the additional funding is not commensurate with the increases the energy programs are receiving. The TRCP believes that more attention should be dedicated to maintaining sustainable fish and wildlife populations on public lands, particularly given the ever-increasing focus on energy programs that will divert time and resources away from the biologists tasked with that job. The recommendations contained in the TRCP’s FACTS for Fish and Wildlife and CAST principles outline the importance of pursuing energy development on public lands and waters to better manage our nation's fish and wildlife resources.
Wetlands:
Good news for wetlands conservation appears within the DOI budget proposal where funding for the North American Wetlands Conservation Act sees an increase of $10 million.
Youth Participation and Education:
In order to encourage more young Americans to get outdoors, the president directed $38 million toward programs designed to increase youth involvement in hunting,fishing and conservation. The largest sum of money, $28 million, will go to states to help them fund programs to educate young hunters, anglers and wildlife managers. An additional $8 million will create a 21st-century Youth Conservation Corps to encourage a new generation to pursue public service careers within natural resource management.
Other Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Issues:
The budget ephasizes treasured lands managed by the National Park Service and the BLM’s National Landscape Conservation System, where a significant amount of important fish and wildlife resources are found. The budget also allows the United States Geological Survey to take a greater role in the use of science in management actions and increased funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
Department of Commerce Programs
Marine Fisheries:
Within the Department of Commerce budget, the administration proposed a $56.5 million increase for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to support the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) implementation process. Signed into law in 2007, MSA governs marine fisheries management. The law includes many positive changes forrecreational saltwater anglers and addresses all of the SALT Principles recommended by the TRCP’s Angling 4 Oceans coalition.
The total budget request for fisheries totaled $911.8 million for this fiscal year, which is $32.8 million more than what was enacted in the 2009 fiscal year budget.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Programs
Water and Wetlands Conservation:
The proposed budget for the EPA stands at approximately $10.5 billion. This represents nearly a $3 billion increase over the last fiscal year’s enacted budget for the agency. Notably, some 48 percent of this proposal is directed towards Clean and Safe Water goals within EPA including state revolving funds, a Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and a Chesapeake Bay program.
One issue that remains critical to helping restore federal protections for these areas is passing the Clean Water Restoration Act currently under consideration in the Senate and likely to be marked-up in the near future by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The TRCP is encouraged by statements by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and others that support finding a legislative solution to the problem and urges the administration to continue supporting the bill as it makes its way through the legislative process.
A big thanks to everyone who sent in an answers to last month's T.R.ivia question. Congratulations to Lex Morgan for correctly identifying that T.R. called the Grand Canyon “beautiful and terrible and unearthly.” Send your answer to this month’s question to Brian McClintock (brianm@trcp.org) for your chance to win a DVD collection of the TRCP’s TV show "Life in the Open."
Every month, we profile an individual who works to conserve our nation's natural resources. Whether they're a head of a company or an everyday outdoorsman, all are working hard with the TRCP to help guarantee that you'll always have a place to hunt and fish.
Jim Martin Mulino, Ore. TRCP chairman of the board, fisheries biologist, avid hunter, conservation giant
Jim Martin fishing near Portland, Ore., with Mo Bates, TRCP vice president of administration. Photo by Britta Blodgett
Q: How did you get into hunting and fishing?
Like many sportsmen, I learned from my parents and have continued enjoying these sports with my buddies. My dad was the big hunter in the family, and my stepmom was the bass angler. I went along on all the trips and was fascinated to learn the skills from my earliest memory. The first bass at night, the first bb-gun and then the first .22--the rest is history.
Q: What led you to your career in conservation?
I was a committed hunter and fisherman from first memory, thanks to my parents. Then,when I was about 10, I was reading Field & Stream and discovered that there were these professional scientists called fish and wildlife biologists--and that was it! I knew right then that I was born to be one--discovering the secrets of protecting and managing these fish and wildlife resources for the enjoyment of everyone.
Q: How did you get involved with the TRCP?
Two of my long-term sportsmen friends and conservation partners, Jim Range and Tom Bedell, told me of the emergence of a new organization focused on the sportsmen’s voice in politics. They signed me up and asked me to help. I have been committed to TRCP’s approach and mission ever since. Losing my old friend, and TRCP’s founding board chair, Jim Range, to cancer last January crushed me and made me even more committed to ensure that the sportsmen’s community can be heard loud and clear in future policy discussions regarding this outdoor legacy we all love.
Q: What do you think the most important conservation issues facing sportsmen are today?
From a biological point of view, trends in habitat and the climate are the overwhelming impacts on the future of our resource. Development is affecting the habitat in permanent ways, and the climate is changing roughly 400 miles of latitude per century. The collective impact will be huge, and we have to begin getting ready for big changes in some species of wildlife and some of our hunting and fishing. Equally important is the future of conservation funding and the recruitment of the next generation of sportsmen. We cannot fund conservation in the future on a shrinking base of hunters and fishermen, especially while the job of conservation has gone from the sports page to the front page. All wildlife lovers and the general population must band together to provide conservation funding in the future. We also have to teach the kids to love nature, to love the outdoors and to hunt and fish if they are interested. Now is the greatest challenge of conservation ever, at the global scale. I am excited that the TRCP can join the rest of the sportsmen’s community to find new solutions to these challenges.
Q: What are your hopes for the future of the TRCP?
The TRCP can partner with other sportsmen’s organizations to ensure that we have strong populations of wildlife and a continuation of our hunting and fishing tradition into the future. All the major decisions affecting the future of the resource and habitat are political. Fifty million sportsmen and -women in America care about wildlife. Now, the challenge is how to mobilize those that care into an effective political voice, while there is still time. The TRCP has some of the most excellent staff on board that I have ever met. We have committed, experienced conservation leaders on our board of directors. We have sportsmen everywhere who are experiencing loss of habitat, loss of sportsmen’s access to hunting and fishing, and the fear that we will lose this sporting legacy in a generation or two. The TRCP can be part of bridging that gap into the new sporting future.
On March 23, 1909, Teddy Roosevelt, his son Kermit and three companions departed New York and headed for Naples. After arriving at the Italian port, they promptly boarded another ship and headed for British East Africa. They arrived at Mombasa, in what is now Kenya, nearly a month later, on April 21.
A studio portrait of a young Frederick Courteney Selous with his rifle and an African spear.
Photo source: Wikipedia
In addition to T.R.'s hunting party, the ship departing Naples carried Army officers, other big-game hunters, planters, civil officials and missionaries. Among the men on board was Frederick Courteney Selous. Perhaps the greatest African hunter of all time, Selous was a friend of T.R.’s and a man who would join Teddy’s safari on and off during the next year.
Selous, an Englishman, was born in 1851. He first journeyed to Africa at the age of 19 and quickly gained the confidence of an African king, who allowed him to hunt and explore the African wilds for the next 20 years. During his early years, he hunted elephants with a 4-bore rifle (a gun that shot a quarter pound round ball behind a quarter pound of black powder). In 1890, at the request of Cecil Rhoades, Selous went to work for the British South Africa Company and helped Rhoades bring South Africa under British control.
Selous--explorer, hunter, army officer and conservationist--saw combat in two African conflicts and was killed in action at age 66 during the first World War, while fighting German forces in what is now Tanzania.
Teddy wrote of his old friend, “He led a singularly adventurous and fascinating life, with just the right alternations between the wilderness and civilization. He helped spread the borders of his people's land. He added much to the sum of human knowledge and interest. He closed his life exactly as such a life ought to be closed, by dying in battle for his country while rendering her valiant and effective service. Who could wish a better life or a better death, or desire to leave a more honorable heritage to his family and his nation?”
One of Africa’s great remaining wild hunting grounds, the Selous Game Reserve, is named for the intrepid hunter and T.R.’s friend. It covers 17,000 square miles.
