House Interior Department appropriations bill takes an axe to conservation programs

Washington, D.C. — Crucial programs that protect wildlife and habitat were slashed today in a bill approved by the House Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations subcommittee. While the bill’s overall funding is reduced by 4 percent, certain programs were singled out for the worst cuts in the bill. The subcommittee bill cuts the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by more than 20 percent and the land acquisition program under the Land and Water Conservation Fund by 80 percent below the FY 2012 enacted levels. The cut to the Fish and Wildlife Service budget includes a 30 percent reduction in the program that protects new plants and animals under the Endangered Species Act, severely restricting efforts to protect more than 250 candidate species, many of which have awaited listing protection for years. The bill also contains numerous extreme anti-conservation policy riders long sought by industry and extreme conservatives alike, including language that would force a decision on the delisting of the gray wolf in Wyoming, a state that is already planning extensive wolf killing programs once the species is delisted.

Below is a statement from Jamie Rappaport Clark, President of the Defenders of Wildlife.

“Paying to conserve something now is much cheaper than paying to restore it later. This is the simple equation that many members of Congress just don’t seem to understand. The funding cuts passed today will inflict serious damage in many critical areas of our natural heritage, including the air we breathe, the water we drink and our nation’s wildlife. Reversing that damage will be a lengthy and costly process.

“In a replay of last year, the House bill singles out the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, our nation’s premier wildlife conservation agency, for some of the most punishing cuts, far beyond what may be needed in the name of deficit reduction. These cuts not only harm our precious wildlife refuges, endangered plants and animals, and migratory birds, but given that wildlife associated recreation is a $122 billion a year industry, they will harm also our nation’s economy, especially local communities that benefit most from wildlife-based ecotourism dollars.

http://www.grandcanyontrust.org/news/2012/06/house-interior-department-appropriations-bill-takes-an-axe-to-conservation-programs/

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Crucial Bird Conservation Programs Cut by 50 Percent by House

(Washington, D.C., June 22, 2012) In a move attacked by bird conservation groups as “one of the most regressive wildlife appropriations” ever, crucial conservation programs were slashed by 50% of FY 2012 funding levels in a funding bill approved by the House Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee for Fiscal Year 2013. The Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act (NMBCA) - a major source of funding for conservation programs that benefit migratory birds –was also cut in half.

Also sliced in half were funding for State Wildlife Grants, the nation’s core program for preventing birds and wildlife from becoming endangered in addition to supporting strategic conservation investments in every state and territory, and the North American Wetlands Conservation Act, which provides funding for conservation projects that benefit wetland birds.

“I think this is a serious setback on the threat-to-wildlife scale,” said Darin Schroeder, Vice President for Conservation Advocacy for American Bird Conservancy, the nation’s leading bird conservation organization. “Of course we are in tough economic times, but the answer certainly isn’t to slash and burn conservation programs! Wildlife related activities such as birdwatching pump billions of dollars into the economy every year. If wildlife conservation programs are gutted and wildlife populations shrink, local economies will suffer. There’s no doubt that funding for these wildlife bills are both effective and essential.”

For example, NMBCA is the only federal U.S. grants program specifically dedicated to the conservation of migrant birds throughout the Americas. NMBCA has a proven track record of success, having supported 367 projects in 48 U.S. states and territories and 35 other countries since its inception in 2002. NMBCA grants totaling more than $39 million have leveraged $152 million in matching funds, a partner to grant dollar match of nearly 4:1. To date, more than 3 million acres of migratory bird habitat have been positively affected. Advances in conservation for many declining species, such as the Baltimore Oriole, Scarlet Tanager and Cerulean Warbler, owe much to the NMBCA.

http://www.abcbirds.org/newsandreports/releases/120622.html