December 10, 2018 - Montana Wildlife Federation

One of several priorities for the Montana Wildlife Federation is the passage of legislation to increase funding to prevent wildlife from becoming endangered. The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act would dramatically increase funding for every state wildlife agency, including $29 million/year for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, to implement on-the-ground projects to conserve fish and wildlife.

The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act would be good for wildlife and for people. By supporting early intervention to conserve wildlife before they reach the brink of extinction, it would reduce the cost to taxpayers and the regulatory burdens on farmers, ranchers, and other resource users. The bill enjoys broad support from conservation organizations, the energy industry, businesses, and wildlife managers.

Like the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act enjoys broad, bipartisan support. The bill has more than a hundred cosponsors, including both Republicans and Democrats, from all over the country.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwsmtnprairie/ — Photo by Jennifer Strickland, USFWS.

On December 6, the Bureau of Land Management released a proposal to rewrite conservation plans that were intended to conserve the greater sage-grouse. Dave Chadwick, Executive Director of the Montana Wildlife Federation, said the following:

“The 2015 sage-grouse conservation plans were the product of years of hard work by wildlife managers, conservationists, hunters, ranchers, local government and the energy industry. It wasn’t easy, but we worked together to find a way to protect sage-grouse habitat, prevent the species from becoming endangered, and maintain all the different ways people use our public lands.

“In Montana, a deal is a deal. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to hold true in Washington, DC. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has decided to walk away from the bargain that the federal government made with Montanans – and all Westerners. By throwing out local input and multiple-use management in the name of ‘energy dominance’, the federal government is putting the sage-grouse back on the road to extinction, endangering hundreds of other species, and threatening public access to public land.

“The federal government’s reckless move has emboldened some Montana legislators to call for backing out of the sage-grouse conservation at the state-level as well. More than a dozen bills have been unveiled that would repeal hard-negotiated habitat protections at the state level. The ‘not warranted’ decision was predicated largely on the strength of state plans. If we roll those back, on top of the rollbacks we’re seeing from Washington, we leave it up to a judge to decide the fate of not only the sage-grouse, but all Westerners who live, work and recreate on our public lands.”

Funding to Recover America’s Wildlife

Federal Rewrite of Sage-Grouse Plans Throws Out Years of Hard Work

Jeff Lukas

Elk Campaign Manager