MeatEater and TRCP Thank Montana Landowners Who Provide Hunter Access
Selected enrollees in FWP’s Block Management Access program received gifts and thank-you notes hand-delivered on behalf of Montana hunters
Forty-six Montana landowners who provide public access to hunters through the state’s Block Management Access program are receiving new Stihl chainsaws and $200 Visa Check Cards as well as handwritten thank-you notes in an effort organized by MeatEater and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.
The recipients of these thank-you packages were randomly selected from across all seven of Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks’ regions. Funding to support the effort was raised last year by TRCP and MeatEater through the Montana Farm and Ranch Access Appreciation Sweepstakes.
“Block Management Access is one of the most important programs for hunters in our state—both resident and non-resident alike—and we wanted enrollees to know how much the everyday Montana sportsman and sportswoman appreciates their generosity,” said Ryan Callaghan, director of conservation for MeatEater. “Delivering these gift packages and thank-you notes in person allowed us to shake hands, share stories, and learn more about the experiences of ranchers and other landowners who offer access to the public. Those types of face-to-face conversations have historically been a key part of the relationship between the hunting and landowner communities in our state.”
The entire statewide Block Management program provides approximately 600,000 hunter days each year on around 7 million acres of private land. Whether these properties are enrolled in Type 1 (reservations required) or Type 2 (self-administered access) Block Management, they provide outstanding opportunities for the general public to pursue a variety of species, particularly in areas where public land access may be limited.
Participation in the program by private landowners is entirely voluntary and determined on an annual basis. While landowners are compensated by the state primarily through per-hunter-day impact payments, those amounts are capped and far less than the rates that could be charged if a property owner decided to instead lease access to an individual or outfitter.
“The success of Montana’s Block Management Program relies on landowners across the state who provide excellent opportunities for hunters. We know access improves when landowners feel respected and appreciated for the access they provide. I’m grateful to the many hunters who stepped up through this campaign to show their appreciation to the block management cooperators,” said FWP Director Hank Worsech.
“Access is foremost among the challenges that face hunters across the country, and voluntary programs that open private property to sportsmen and sportswomen are critically important,” said Joel Webster, vice president of Western conservation for the TRCP. “Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks’ Block Management Access provides high quality opportunities all across our state, and we thought this would be a meaningful way to show how much the program means to the public and how much we appreciate the willingness of landowners to participate in it.”
Although I’m no longer able to hunt the way I used to, I want others to enjoy some of the same experiences I did when I was younger. Access to wildlands is critical for future Hunters. We should be forever grateful to landowners who allow such access.
Eight Conservation Priorities Congress Needs to Tackle by the End of the Year
Lawmakers have a lengthy to-do list before the end of the 117th Congress in December. Here’s what they should do for hunters and anglers.
Invest in Conservation Through Annual Appropriations Bills
Atop the to-do list for Congress is continuing to fund the government prior to the end of this fiscal year on September 30. While the House has passed a slate of appropriations measures, the Senate has not held hearings on any funding legislation for the year ahead. This, combined with election-year politics, means that Congress will likely negotiate a continuing resolution, a short-term extension of current funding levels into early December.
While that means no meaningful cuts to programs of importance, it also may delay planning and implementation of recent conservation investments through the Great American Outdoors Act, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and Inflation Reduction Act. It is critical that we eventually do more than extend current funding so agencies have certainty in their resources and capacity to plan and administer programs effectively.
Boost CWD Research and Management
Earlier this spring, our major ask was Senate introduction of the Chronic Wasting Disease Research and Management Act, which had moved quickly through the House in fall 2021. Now that the bill has been introduced and championed in the Senate, lawmakers should move quickly to advance this legislation by year’s end. We’re headed into an exciting deer season that could be overshadowed by the threat of CWD in some parts of the country—particularly in states like Alabama, North Carolina, and Louisiana, where cases were confirmed for the first time earlier this year. If passed, the bill would provide $35 million annually to state agencies for CWD suppression and an additional $35 million for research into the disease and management techniques. It also directs the U.S. Department of Agriculture to carry out a public review of its Herd Certification Program, which is the federal standard by which states accredit captive cervid operations as “low-risk” for CWD spread. This step is critical to hold captive deer facilities accountable for CWD outbreaks.
Advance Grasslands Conservation Solutions
We’d also like to broad support in the Senate on the recently introduced North American Grasslands Conservation Act, which would help kickstart the voluntary protection and restoration of grasslands and sagebrush shrub-steppe ecosystems by private landowners. There’s urgency right now to maintain these systems for agriculture, wildlife habitat, carbon sequestration, and future generations of hunters and anglers, while supporting ranchers, farmers, Tribal Nations, and rural communities. And since the Grasslands Act is modeled off the very successful North American Wetlands Conservation Act, which is well-known among waterfowl hunters, sportsmen and sportswomen will be important voices in this debate. We’re continuing to work with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to build momentum around the bill.
Modernize Forage Fish Management
To build off the success of the Magnuson-Stevens Act—which has been instrumental in addressing overfishing and maintaining fish stocks over the past 50 years—anglers need Congress to debate and advance the Forage Fish Conservation Act. The new legislation would ensure that federal fisheries managers account for the needs of forage fish and the predator species that depend on them. It would establish management plans for river herring and shad in the Atlantic and address the needs of sportfish and other predator species in existing forage fish management plans. It would also require that managers assess the possible impacts of newly proposed commercial fishing for forage fish, including the effects on other fisheries, anglers, and the marine ecosystem. Since its introduction in October 2021, there has been little action on the bill. Anglers can speak up for this solution right now by clicking here.
Fund Proactive Conservation of At-Risk Species and Habitat
The conservation community is still awaiting final passage of the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, which would be a win for particularly at-risk habitat and species, including ruffed grouse, greater sage grouse, coho salmon, and sockeye salmon. After House passage this summer, we need the Senate to act next to carry this legislation, which would make generational investments in fish and wildlife restoration, over the finish line.
Expedite Natural Infrastructure Projects That Improve Habitat
As part of the month-long negotiations around the Democrat’s reconciliation package, passed earlier this summer, Senator Manchin secured a commitment from Majority Leader Schumer that the Senate would vote on a suite of permitting reforms. Senator Manchin released a list of his priorities in that discussion soon after.
A permitting reform package could be attached to a moving legislative vehicle—most likely a forthcoming short-term funding bill. Generally, Republicans are very supportive of measures to expedite permitting processes and would likely use the opportunity to advance reforms to increase the pace and scale of forest management in the West. Similarly, there are many Democrats that see permitting reform as an opportunity to advance the deployment of renewable energy. However, don’t count everyone to fall in line. Some members have pushed for any permitting legislation to go through regular order and vowed to oppose the proposal if it fails to achieve environmental justice goals. This could create a difficult intraparty headache that Democrats will be eager to avoid ahead of November’s midterm elections.
It’s possible that like an omnibus spending package, a vote on a full permitting reform proposal waits until the lame duck session. The TRCP and partners across the conservation community are closely tracking these negotiations for possible threats, and opportunities, for conservation.
Pass a Water Resources Development Act with Habitat Benefits
WRDA is a biennial piece of legislation that authorizes water infrastructure and management projects that ensure flood control, maintain navigable waterways, and promote ecosystem restoration.
The TRCP worked with partner groups to shape the House and Senate 2022 WRDA bills to ensure they account for the needs of aquatic ecosystems and continue to improve the state of our natural infrastructure. Our team worked closely with Western lawmakers to include a provision in both bills for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to study the benefits of utilizing natural infrastructure approaches for headwater restoration to achieve drought and fire resilience downstream. Beyond that, TRPC has been actively reminding decision-makers of the importance of investing in the health of the Everglades—one of the largest wetlands systems in the world, which is vital to South Florida’s water supply.
The House and Senate passed their respective 2022 WRDA reauthorization bills earlier this year. Staff from committees in the House and Senate are in the process of reconciling differences between the two versions of the legislation and could send a final bill to the president’s desk in September. .
Conserve Public Lands in the National Defense Authorization Act
The NDAA is our nation’s annual military spending bill, but it has often been a vehicle for conservation policy. The House of Representatives passed their version of the legislation in mid-July, which includes a handful of conservation victories like the Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy Act and Grand Canyon Protection Act. The Senate has yet to consider their own measure before the full chamber.
TRCP and the broader conservation community are closely tracking the NDAA and working with lawmakers toward inclusion of the bills into a final negotiated package. Like WRDA, the NDAA follows a similar conference process to align the House and Senate-passed bills.
Stay Informed
The conservation community has a lot to celebrate from the 117th Congress, but we’re far from done. Sign up for our weekly Roosevelt Report to stay on top of these conservation issues as Congress closes out the year.
Southwest Montana’s High Divide region and the Big Hole and Beaverhead Valleys provide excellent fish and wildlife habitat and a wealth of dispersed recreation opportunities. Earlier this summer, I had the opportunity to fly over this spectacular landscape with EcoFlight, a Colorado-based non-profit that utilizes small aircraft to help educate and advocate for the conservation of wild lands and wildlife habitat. Accompanied by TRCP’s Western communications manager, Randall Williams, and two of our colleagues from Trout Unlimited and The Nature Conservancy, we flew along the Montana-Idaho border and across the southern end of these important watersheds.
Although the weather forecast looked ominous, we had ideal conditions for our morning flight over some of Montana’s most storied landscapes. The world-class hunting for elk, mule deer, antelope, and upland birds found in this area is no secret, and neither is the outstanding fishing. Hiking, camping, and wildlife viewing are also popular activities. These opportunities not only enrich the quality of life enjoyed by Montanans and allow for memorable days afield with friends and family, but they are also critical to businesses in local communities: A recent report found that hunting and fishing in Beaverhead County generates over $167 million each year and creates more than 1,400 jobs.
But Southwest Montana’s public lands are facing challenges, many of which were evident from the air. We could see, for example, the changes on the landscape from wildfire, development, and drought. We also took in the huge expanse of wild country that provides critical winter and summer ranges and migration corridors for elk, mule deer, antelope, and world-class cold-water fisheries—these areas could come under threat, as well, if sportsmen and sportswomen don’t speak up.
Many of the public lands in this area are managed by the Dillon Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management, which is conducting a 15-year re-evaluation of its 2006 Resource Management Plan. These plans guide management priorities for agency decisionmakers and can shape how our public lands are managed for decades at a time. Required by BLM planning regulations, periodic evaluations offer a chance to review the current plan and determine if there is any new data or updated science that would be of significance, or if there have been impactful changes in the relevant management plans of other federal agencies, Tribes, or state or local governments.
Since the Dillon plan was written in 2006, significant changes in federal and state policies have occurred, and there is a vast amount of new information related to wildlife migration and winter range. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks has also identified multiple big game migrations that connect important seasonal habitats in this region and the agency considers these habitats a priority.
As our birds-eye view made clear, there have also been significant changes to the landscape and its habitats in the past 15 years. We can’t wait another decade and a half to update public land planning and implement solutions.
Sportsmen and sportswomen know the incredible fish and wildlife values found across Southwest Montana. My opportunity to view this region from the air helped to reinforce just how vast this country is. We all need to speak up by encouraging the BLM Dillon Field Office to update the current RMP. A modernized plan should incorporate new big game migration science and identify the threats to wildlife movement and habitat connectivity in the area, as well as opportunities for meaningful habitat restoration that could benefit both wildlife and public land grazers. Only then can the plan adequately safeguard our hunting and fishing opportunities.
What the Latest Atlantic Menhaden Stock Assessment Means for the Chesapeake Bay
The menhaden reduction fishing industry is pointing to the Atlantic-wide assessment to push back on angler advocacy for menhaden and sportfish in the Bay—here’s our response
At the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission meeting on August 3, the stock assessment for Atlantic menhaden showed that the stock is not overfished, nor is overfishing occurring. Omega Protein, the foreign-owned company that operates all menhaden reduction fishing vessels in the Atlantic, pointed to the assessment as evidence that their practices aren’t harming fisheries. Their basic message to angling groups that are pushing to move reduction fishing out of the Chesapeake Bay? Back off.
But the effects of the localized harvest of more than 112 million pounds of menhaden annually from the Bay are not included in this latest stock assessment. “Overfished” is a coastwide designation given for the status of the fishery from Maine to Florida—it does not make distinctions for unique places like the Chesapeake Bay.
It is true that the implementation of ecological reference points into the ASMFC’s menhaden management model in 2020 was a crucial step for this forage fish that serves as the base of the marine food web. But the latest stock assessment update was a single-species assessment, not an ecological reference points assessment. This means that the information used does not include the current impacts of overfishing other forage fish, like Atlantic herring, which would likely alter the impacts of the menhaden fishery on predators like striped bass and bluefish.
The ERP assessment from 2020 used multiple predator and prey species to model the ecosystem, including bluefish, weakfish, spiny dogfish, and Atlantic herring. But for the assessment release this month, these species “were assumed to be fished at 2017 levels,” according to the ASMFC, meaning that the ecosystem-level data is five years behind.
Meanwhile, there are no scientific data specific to the Bay that assess the impacts of the reduction fishery on predator species like striped bass, red drum, and osprey. It should not be up to the ASMFC or the public to prove that the menhaden reduction fishery is causing harm to the Bay. It should be up to Omega Protein to prove to the public that this resource is being equitably harvested, leaving enough forage in the water to maintain the ecosystem and the regional economies that depend on it.
The 2018 striped bass stock assessment showed that the stock was overfished and overfishing was occurring. While the TRCP and our partners supported an 18-percent striped bass harvest reduction in 2020, it is expected that this October’s updated stock assessment will still show that striped bass are overfished.
Every other East Coast state except Virginia has seen the value of leaving more menhaden in the water to support coastal ecosystems. All but Virginia have acted in favor of their coastal economies and tourism by abolishing the practice of menhaden reduction fishing in state waters.
Our coalition of concerned anglers, manufacturers, local businesses, and conservationists is dedicated to commonsense fisheries management, which considers the needs of the ecosystem as well as ALL the user groups that enjoy and utilize it. If you, too, want to see the Chesapeake Bay return to the fishery it once was, join us by signing this petition to move menhaden reduction fishing out of the Bay, so that predators like striped bass can begin to rebuild.
Photo by Gaelin Rosenwaks. Follow her on Instagram @gaelingoexplore.
In honor of TRCP’s 20th anniversary, here are some of our proudest moments as an organization and the biggest victories our team has helped to advance on behalf of hunters and anglers
The TRCP Is Founded to Fill a Serious Need 2002
After starting the modern conservation movement more than 100 years earlier, hunters and anglers had lost much of our relevance in federal policy by the early 2000s. Our community had so successfully committed to bringing back individual species—like ducks, whitetail deer, wild turkeys, elk, pronghorn antelope, native trout, and more—that we became fractured and lost sight of the broader issues of conservation.
This became apparent to James D. Range, a lifelong sportsman and longtime senior Republican staff member in the Senate, who had played a critical role in advancing some of the nation’s most important natural resources legislation, including the Clean Water Act. He knew that our community—if we banded together—could again be a powerful voice for conservation. And in 2002, he created the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership to present a united front to decision-makers on the issues that matter to all hunters and anglers.
TRCP Today: The organization continues to build off Range’s vision, uniting and amplifying a community that has become a powerful force in conservation. As a result, the last decade has been one of the most substantial periods for conservation policy since the 1970s. We have grown to more than 60 organizational partners and 130,000 individual advocates in pursuit of solutions that benefit America’s 60 million hunters and anglers.
Photo by Ben Matthews.
Roadless Rules Help Conserve Backcountry Habitat
2002-2012
Since the TRCP’s inception, we have advanced policies that conserve large blocks of intact habitat, including roadless areas on our national forests, to maximize hunting and fishing opportunities. Roadless area conservation was one of TRCP’s founding issues, and between 2002 and 2012, the TRCP helped to successfully conserve 58.5 million acres of habitat on public lands in 38 states.
Led by TRCP staff on the ground, sportsmen and sportswomen were a consistent, engaged, and reasonable presence throughout multi-year rulemaking processes in Idaho and Colorado. In 2008, we successfully advocated for strong conservation of backcountry habitat in a final rule for Idaho’s 9.3 million acres of roadless areas. Then, in 2012, recommendations from our community were incorporated into a final Colorado roadless rule that safeguarded 4.2 million acres of backcountry for future generations.
Finally, in October 2012, the Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the nationwide 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, resolving the issue nationally in a way that conserved these valued habitats and sporting destinations, while providing commonsense flexibility for habitat restoration. These efforts have helped fish and wildlife managers to maximize public hunting and fishing opportunities and safeguard vital habitat for the foreseeable future.
TRCP Today: We continue to advocate for solutions that conserve unfragmented habitat. With a field team that now reaches from New Mexico to Alaska, TRCP is advocating for the establishment of Backcountry Conservation Areas on Bureau of Land Management lands, the first of which was adopted two years ago, and reinstating conservation safeguards across 9.2 million acres of the Tongass National Forest, which the U.S. Forest Service exempted from the roadless rule in 2020.
Photo by Greg Shine/BLM.
TRCP Defends Wetlands and the Clean Water Act
2004-2015
On Earth Day in 2004, President George W. Bush laid out a strategy to move beyond the “no net loss” policy for wetlands that his father established in 1989. This commitment to increasing wetlands acreage annually was one of TRCP’s signature issues at the time, but this early victory did not mean we could rest on our laurels.
In fact, just two years later, there was talk of the George W. Bush Administration weakening Clean Water Act protections for wetlands. Given his role in helping to write the nation’s bedrock law on clean water, TRCP’s co-founder Jim Range was understandably moved to act. He led a delegation to Texas and drove around Bush’s ranch with the president, ultimately convincing him to abandon plans to weaken the Clean Water Act.
In the 2010s, the TRCP was a key voice in advocating for Clean Water Act protections for both wetlands and headwater streams, after a series of Supreme Court cases and subsequent federal agency actions made it unclear which bodies of water the Act protects. In 2015, after an extensive public process and based on a massive study of hundreds of scientific articles about water quality, the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers adopted a rule to clarify federal jurisdiction over the “waters of the United States.” Though it was ultimately reversed, the rule was a major victory for hunters and anglers: It would have helped conserve the roughly 60 percent of streams and 20 million acres of wetlands that were at risk of being polluted or destroyed because of jurisdictional confusion.
TRCP Today: Our water resources team has expanded to support conservation solutions in the Delaware, Colorado, and Rio Grande river basins, and we continue to advocate for headwaters, wetlands, and prairie potholes. In June 2021, the EPA and Corps announced that they would reconsider which waters and wetlands should be protected under the Clean Water Act—again. Sportsmen and sportswomen are important stakeholders in this public process that could secure protections for critical fish and waterfowl habitat.
Photo by Doug Duren.
Farm Bill Conservation Expands 2008-present
Since his time on Capitol Hill, Jim Range had envisioned a brighter future for habitat and hunting and fishing access in rural America, where public land opportunities are scarce. Under his leadership, the TRCP championed “open fields,” a farm bill initiative that would incentivize private landowners to offer access to the public for hunting and fishing, ideally in concert with habitat improvements. What became the Voluntary Public Access and Habitat Incentive Program was established in the 2008 Farm Bill and built up in the two farm bills since. It is the only federal program dedicated to creating public access on private lands and a major victory for the TRCP. Unfortunately, Range never got to see “open fields” benefit sportsmen and sportswomen or expand to $49 million in projects across 26 states—he lost his battle with kidney cancer in early 2009 at the age of 63.
Though this loss was heartbreaking, TRCP’s focus on private land conservation never wavered. We pushed for a Conservation Reserve Program Grasslands initiative to help conserve working grasslands and prevent conversion and habitat fragmentation. We championed the State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement (SAFE) program, another CRP initiative, that has provided habitat for sharptail grouse, sage grouse, woodcock, bobwhite quail, pheasants, a wide variety of waterfowl, black bears, mule deer, elk, salmon, steelhead trout, and many other species across 36 states.
In the 2014 Farm Bill debate, we stood with partners to secure authorization for the new Regional Conservation Partnership Program to fund locally led solutions to regional conservation challenges. That same bill restored the linkage between conservation compliance and crop insurance, to ensure that farm support payments aren’t going to farmers who are doing environmental harm. This was among our top three asks for that legislation and an under-the-radar win that continues to serve fish and wildlife habitat.
TRCP Today: As the most recent Farm Bill nears expiration, we’re already fighting for increased investments in private land conservation programs and enhancement of on-the-ground impacts for fish and wildlife in the next five-year bill. Stay up to date and learn how this will affect your hunting and fishing here.
Hunters and Anglers Stop Public Land Grab
2014-2017
Despite the importance of America’s 640 million acres of public land to our hunting and fishing opportunities and our country’s unique outdoor legacy, special interests intensified their efforts to sell off or transfer them to the states in 2015. In response, the TRCP launched sportsmensaccess.org—the home base for hunters and anglers opposed to public land transfer with the latest news on threats to public access. More than 150 sporting groups and businesses joined the coalition and more than 50,000 individual hunters and anglers sent messages to their lawmakers to oppose public land sale and seizure. At the state level, TRCP field representatives across the West helped to beat back all but six of 37 bills advocating for the disposal of federal public lands, driving thousands of hunters and anglers to rally at state capitols and town hall meetings under the slogans #KeepItPublic and #PublicLandsProud.
One congressman, however, was a little slow to get the message. In February 2017, sportsmen and sportswomen flooded the inbox of former Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) with letters, tweets, and Facebook messages about his unpopular and dangerous public land sale bill, H.R. 621. In a matter of weeks, more than 10,000 TRCP members contacted their own lawmakers, as well. Shortly after, Chaffetz dropped the legislation, which would have enabled the sale of 3.3 million acres of public lands to pay down the national debt, and he made his mea culpa to hunters and anglers on Instagram under a photo of him wearing a camo coat and holding his dog. Chaffetz retired from Congress that June.
TRCP Today: Presidents Trump and Biden made it clear that this idea would not gain traction on their watch, but the push to sell off public lands hasn’t gone away completely. The tug-of-war between Americans who are proud to have public lands as their birthright and those who seek to undermine these lands for short-term profits has never been tied to one individual bill, state, or lawmaker—it’s a longstanding ideological battle that puts conservation, access, and our hunting and fishing opportunities on the line.
Photo courtesy of the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust.
Anglers Demand Better Federal Fisheries Management
2013-2018
After watching federal fisheries management focus almost exclusively on the commercial sector for years, the TRCP embarked on a new effort to improve fish stocks and seasons and urge decision-makers to recognize the value of anglers in this conversation. In 2013, we convened a coalition of groups and industry leaders to lay out a vision for better management of recreational fishing in federal waters. The result was a report outlining six recommendations for conserving marine recreational fisheries, championed by Johnny Morris of Bass Pro Shops and Scott Deal of Maverick Boats.
What became commonly referred to as the Morris-Deal Report—as well as TRCP-led workshops with fisheries managers, biologists, economists, and conservation groups—laid the groundwork for federal legislation that would bring marine fisheries management into the 21st century. In 2015, NOAA released its first-ever policy recognizing the value of recreational fishing, based on our recommendations, and TRCP staff was invited to testify in support of the Modern Fish Act in 2017. A year later, the bill was signed into law.
Photo by Greg Nickerson/Wyoming Migration Initiative.
First Migration Corridor Conservation Policies Are Created 2015-present
The TRCP field team has worked diligently over the years to raise awareness with local decision-makers about the lack of conservation policies for big game migration corridors and seasonal habitats that, thanks to advances in GPS collars and wildlife research, we can now use to help direct habitat restoration and improvement and prevent incompatible development. These efforts made a big leap forward in February 2018, when then-Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke signed Secretarial Order 3362, which directed agencies to give more attention to habitats where mule deer, elk, pronghorn antelope, and other species migrate, rest, and spend the winter months.
Since that time, the states and federal government have partnered to research big game movements and improve habitat for mule deer, elk, and pronghorn antelope. In addition, the Department and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation provided more than $15 million to implement the order, funds that were matched by about $30 million in state and private funds. This resulted in on-the-ground projects that range from restoring habitat to improving fencing. The order has inspired Colorado, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, and Idaho to adopt their own migration corridor conservation programs, with additional states working to join them.
TRCP Today: Building off our 2021 report laying out ways to ensure the best-available migration science is incorporated into public land management across the West, the TRCP continues to work with the BLM and Forest Service on land-use plan amendments and revisions that help to conserve wildlife corridors and stopover areas. There is also potential to do more with private landowners and smooth out collaboration between state and federal agencies, Tribal governments, and individuals to restore habitat connectivity. This year, we celebrated a new pilot program between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the state of Wyoming, where a diverse set of Farm Bill programs and dedicated funding will support voluntary conservation of private working lands to safeguard migratory big game populations. The hope is to scale up this program across the West in the future.
Photo by Nick Venture of Become1.
TRCP Unlocks Inaccessible Public Lands 2018-2022
The TRCP continued to differentiate itself in the next great quest for public lands and outdoor recreation access. In 2018, as authorization for the iconic Land and Water Conservation Fund was nearing expiration, other groups created countdown clocks and posted increasingly urgent messages about the need for permanent authorization of this critical resource. While standing with our community to secure the future of the LWCF, we also went to work to quantify a widespread access problem that was tailor-made for LWCF to fix—inaccessible public lands. The TRCP partnered with the digital mapping company onX to identify 9.52 million acres of federal public lands in the West that are “landlocked” by private land with no permanent legal access.
Our first Unlocking Public Lands Report made national headlines just as the conversation around LWCF was heating up, and we were able to offer sound reasoning, based on data, for full funding at $900 million annually, with a minimum of three percent held aside to improve existing public land access, and a plan to take short-term approvals of this critical tool off the congressional to-do list by making authorization permanent. This was accomplished in 2020 through the John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act and the Great American Outdoors Act (see below.)
Between 2018 and 2020, we expanded our work with onX to identify a total of 16.43 million acres of inaccessible public lands across 22 states. The company helped us provide land trusts and federal decision-makers with data about the scale and scope of public land access barriers in their area. We also began collaborating with the BLM and Forest Service to modernize their data to reflect existing road easements that provide the public with permanent, legal access across private lands.
It was at this point we discovered that many of the easement records were only kept in paper files at the back of dusty filing cabinets—at the time, the Forest Service and BLM had an estimated 50,000 recorded easements that were not available to the public in geospatial form. The average hunter or angler wouldn’t have known about these public access areas unless they’d walked into a field office to ask, and the agencies would have had trouble prioritizing future easements and land acquisition if this data was not all in one place.
TRCP Today: This year, at the urging of thousands of TRCP members, Congress passed the MAPLand Act—with unanimous support in the Senate—and President Joe Biden signed it into law on April 29. TRCP is presently working with members of Congress to fully fund MAPLand implementation, which includes digitizing and making publicly available information about public access, within a four-year period.
The last four years have ushered in a seemingly golden era of bipartisan agreement on conservation investments, even with the pendulum swing of politics in Washington, D.C. With Republicans largely in power in 2020, Congress passed the Great American Outdoors Act—to permanently provide $900 million annually for the Land and Water Conservation Fund and a one-time influx of $9.5 billion over five years to address the deferred maintenance backlog on our public lands—and the America’s Conservation Enhancement Act, which codified the successful National Fish Habitat Program and authorized $60 million annually for waterfowl habitat restoration through the North American Wetlands Conservation Act. Then, with Democrats controlling the Senate and White House in 2021, Congress increased funding to expedite Everglades restoration work and passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act with major wins for wildlife crossings, ecosystem restoration, natural infrastructure, and climate resilience.
These bipartisan victories reflect the efforts of the entire hunting, fishing, and conservation community—no one group can take the credit. Where TRCP played an important role was in convening partners at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to forecast how hunters and anglers could advocate for conservation and outdoor recreation jobs, while improving habitat and public lands that were seeing an uptick in visitation during lockdowns. The result was our Conservation Works for America campaign, which outlined recommendations that were taken up in the IIJA and other major funding vehicles. It’s just the kind of victory Jim Range knew was possible if our community could work together.
TRCP Today: As of publication, the Inflation Reduction Act is poised to pass the House and head to the president’s desk for signature. While imperfect, this bill will unleash billions of dollars’ worth of conservation provisions hunters and anglers fought to include in the culmination of TRCP’s Conservation Works for America campaign. And we continue to advocate for conservation funding bills still on the menu for debate and/or passage this Congress, including the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, North American Grasslands Conservation Act, and Chronic Wasting Disease Research and Management Act.
Thank you for being here and supporting the TRCP, whether you discovered us this year or 20 years ago! We cannot do what we do for fish, wildlife, and hunting and fishing opportunities without the efforts of individual sportsmen and sportswomen who are committed to healthy habitats and safeguarding outdoor recreation access for the next generation. YOU are our inspiration.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
TRCP has partnered with Afuera Coffee Co. to further our commitment to conservation. $4 from each bag is donated to the TRCP, to help continue our efforts of safeguarding critical habitats, productive hunting grounds, and favorite fishing holes for future generations.
Thanks for helping us tight budget hunters access more lands to have good times.
Although I’m no longer able to hunt the way I used to, I want others to enjoy some of the same experiences I did when I was younger. Access to wildlands is critical for future Hunters. We should be forever grateful to landowners who allow such access.
Awesome IDEA!! A little appreciation sure goes a long way!! I hope some hunters offer to use those Stihl’s and cut some firewood for those landowners!