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New Federal Funds for Wildlife Conservation

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Many people have never even heard of two of the most important conservation laws of the 20th century: the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act of 1937 and the Dingell-Johnson Sportfish Restoration Act of 1950.

Under these laws, federal excise taxes on guns, ammunition, and fishing gear are dedicated to conserving fish and wildlife and providing access for the public to enjoy the resources. These dollars are kept out of the federal budget, helping ensure that wildlife management avoids the dysfunction that plagues our political system.

Passage of the Pittman-Robertson Act was one of the National Wildlife Federation’s first major accomplishments, and the Montana Wildlife Federation was there from day one.  We also helped pass Dingell-Johnson Act as well.

Just like the hunting license model at the state level, Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson embody a “user-pays” system in which hunters and anglers finance wildlife management. Over the last 75 years, these programs have provided the foundation for the recovery and management of our most treasured game and sportfish species. From white-tailed deer to pronghorn to cutthroat trout – animals that were on the brink of extinction a century ago are now abundant.

While many hunters and anglers know about how their excise tax dollars go into Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson, the programs are not well known to the general public. In addition, because Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson are funded by taxes on hunters and anglers, Americans who don’t hunt and fish aren’t contributing to the program’s work to protect our wildlife heritage.

More than a dozen years ago, some in Congress recognized this problem and created a third program called the “Wildlife Conservation and Restoration Program.” This program was meant to be the “third leg” of the American wildlife conservation funding system, providing a way for all Americans to support wildlife conservation alongside Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson. Unfortunately, unlike the Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson excise taxes, the WCRP was not established with any source of funds.

Earlier this summer, Representatives Don Young (R-Alaska) and Debbie Dingell (D-Michigan) introduced the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act of 2016 (H.R. 5650) to finish the job of funding the Wildlife Conservation and Restoration Program.  This bill would  dedicate $1.3 billion of existing federal revenue from oil and gas development on public lands and waters to the Wildlife Conservation and Restoration Program.  This bold legislation is the direct of a recommendation from a  Blue Ribbon Panel that included leaders from conservation groups, wildlife agencies, businesses, and the oil and gas industry.

If conservationists, wildlife managers, the oil and gas industry, and outdoor businesses can find common ground, our political leaders should be able to take action to adopt their recommendations.  We need to act now to carry the legacy of Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson into the next century and enact dedicated funding to prevent wildlife from becoming endangered.

Take Action: Ask Congress to Pass HR 5650!

Daunting Challenges, Collaborative Solutions

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Bitterroot River Photo Credit: Dave Stalling

One hot, dog-day afternoon last week I loaded up my Labradors and fly rod and headed for the Bitterroot River. As it turned out, I didn’t do much fishing. The smoke was thick from the nearby Roaring Lion Fire near Hamilton (which had already burned 18 homes) and the water was more warm and shallow, with more algae clinging to rocks, than I ever recall from the past; no need to add further stress to trout that are, no doubt, doing all they can to conserve energy and make it through another Montana summer – summers that seem to be growing longer, hotter and dryer. When in a river, do as the fish do, I thought, and so I found a deep cool hole in the shade of some cottonwoods and soaked until a cool evening breeze arrived.

Like all long-time Montanans I recall many hot, dry summers and big fire years. It’s part of the place we love. But there’s no doubt such summers are growing more frequent. Higher overall temperatures, less snow pack, earlier snow melt, less water in our rivers. When river levels drop shallow waters grow warmer and have lower oxygen levels. Warm waters are also ideal for algae growth, which saps even more oxygen from rivers. Trout need cool water and oxygen.

Scientific consensus is conclusive; the verdict is in: Our climate is changing.

But climate change is only part of the story, exasperating other issues. More people are building homes in fire-prone, fire-adapted forests where natural, historical fire-regimes have been altered by past management and fire suppression. The low-elevation ponderosa pine forests of the Bitterroot Valley, for example, evolved with and depended on frequent, low-intensity fires that thinned out the Doug-fir and grand fir understories, recycled nutrients and maintained healthy savannas with plenty of grasses and forbs for elk, deer and other wildlife. High-grading of big fire-resistant pines; overgrazing of grasses that fueled small fires, and years of quickly extinguishing all fires eventually allowed for the growth of unnaturally thick fir-forests. With intense competition for limited water and nutrients, these weakened forests became more susceptible to insect and disease. Warmer winters have also allowed for higher reproduction and growth of mountain pine beetle populations.

Dead and dying forests combined with hotter, drier summers makes for the perfect storm, of sorts, for large, frequent, intense and damaging wildfires.

Daunting challenges for sure, but far from hopeless. Working together, we must push for policies that reduce C02 and other greenhouse gasses; create cleaner, more efficient ways of extracting and using energy, and develop alternative sources of energy. We must also support efforts to restore healthy forests, and protect, restore, enhance and reconnect critical habitat that will ensure wildlife have plenty of room to adapt to changes.

The key is working together. Collaboration. Compromise. We need to unite diverse interests, set aside our differences and fight together to protect what we all love and cherish – Montana’s wildlife and wildlife places and the hunting, fishing and other opportunities they provide.

Dave Stalling is Montana Wildlife Federation’s Western Field Rep. based in Missoula and can be reached at dstalling@mtwf.org

MONTANA FAMILIES THRIVE ON PUBLIC LANDS

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brett_french_mother_son_fishingPhoto Credit: Brett French

Summer is upon us…and every mom in Montana knows what that means. Our local playgrounds, swimming pools, trails and rivers become classrooms for our wee ones for the next three months. The longest days of the year are spent catching frogs, roasting marshmallows on camping trips, and dodging elementary-aged neighborhood biker gangs pedaling off to their next adventure.
Moms across Montana wouldn’t have it any other way.

I beam with pride at the end of the day looking at my three little ladies from across the dinner table: knees scraped, hair a tangle of knots and pine needles, and faces flushed from a day of playing under the big sky…instead of having spent the day indoors glued to an iPad screen. Their memories will be peppered with urban adventures right out our backdoor, thanks to public lands and rivers.

The Montana Mountain Mamas spoke out early and often in support of programs such as the Land and Water Conservation Fund, because we rely on public lands every day to raise our kids. Even if we aren’t on a backpacking trip in the Bob Marshall, riding the Going-to-the-Sun Road in the springtime on bikes, or running the rapids on the Gallatin River – our public spaces positively affect our kids every single day. And as parents, we’ll protect their right to access public spaces that enable them to scrape knees and get muddy.

LWCF supports vital local urban spaces like community parks, trails, playgrounds, swimming pools, fishing access sites and soccer fields. Our public lands are so much more diverse than national parks and big game hunting grounds on forest service land. Our public lands are all around us, every day.

Programs such as LWCF are a win-win for all Montanans. LWCF is not a tax that we see; instead the funding is derived from offshore oil and gas exploration. It tackles big-picture conservation issues such as checker boarded public lands that effect wildlife migration, but also closer-to-home solutions such as funding for a local lacrosse field and urban connecter trails so that kids can take a trail from their homes all of the way to their school.

For most Montana parents, our public lands are where we raise our children. We depend on fishing access sites to float and fish our blue ribbon trout streams, we hold birthday parties in our neighborhood parks, and we make home purchases based upon proximity to playgrounds.

Kids who grow up in Montana get the best of both worlds. They understand the need for big country for big game, and often spend every autumn weekend hunting on our public lands with family and friends. However they also enjoy the local, close-to-home benefits public lands offer…like that evening casting session for trout in urban waterways across Montana.

The Montana Mountain Mamas are dedicated to raising our kids with plenty of fresh air, clean water, and access to it all. We are proud to speak out on behalf of our kids and our public lands. Visit www.montanamountainmamas.org to sign up for our newsletter, check out our latest gear review, or read our most recent blog post from gals across Montana.

Becky Edwards lives in Bozeman with her husband and three daughters, and is the Director of the Montana Mountain Mamas.

Out of state politicians trying (again) to take over Montana’s national forests

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stalling-wildlife Photo Credit: Dave Stalling

First it was the Utah politicians who wanted to take over Montana’s national forests. Now, it’s the Idaho politicians.

Idaho Representative Raul Labrador’s “Self-Sufficient Community Lands Act” (H.R. 2316) has a clever name, and is couched as using collaborative groups’ work to improve public land management. But in truth, it would hand control over our national forests to an unaccountable local committee and exempt all logging or other natural resource work from bedrock environmental laws. The bill throws out the idea of multiple use and disregards any standards for wildlife, fisheries, clean water, and public access.

Representative Labrador has said that his bill was conceived by a group of county commissioners from Idaho and that its primary purpose is to promote the idea that management of national forests should be handed over to state and local control. Like other proponents of “transferring” our national lands to states, Labrador claims this would improve management and put money in the coffers of local counties, without harming public access for hunting and fishing. It just sounds too good to be true, and that’s because it is.

In fact, the Labrador bill would pave the way for up to 4 million acres of national lands to be designated as “demonstration areas” under the management of a four-person local committee. The politically-appointed committees would have complete control over these formerly public lands. And the lands there would be exempt from all environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act that protects our coldwater streams and rivers, as well as other key laws including the National Forest Management Act and the Endangered Species Act.

Local collaboration is crucial to effective national forest management. As someone who recently started serving on a collaborative group, I can say that H.R. 2316 has nothing to do with local collaboration and everything to do with bulldozing the public off of our lands.

Authentic collaborative groups involve a broad group of stakeholders, ensuring that everyone has a voice. They hold in-depth, public meetings in which everybody is heard. They review issues thoroughly and according to the best science. They have subcommittees that take more in-depth looks at specific areas or issues. They hash out the details of projects.

Only after extensive work does a local group’s recommendation go forward to the public land agency. The public still has all the channels to make its voice heard and give input on projects, which are implemented in full compliance with federal environmental laws.

Forest management projects put together by local collaborative take time, but they’re worth it. They’ve had the input of conservationists, ranchers, loggers and local government officials, and they’re more likely to stand up to challenges because that’s been considered in the process. And we have plenty of examples from all over Montana of how local collaboration can improve forest management.

Unfortunately, Representative Labrador’s bill would reject authentic local collaboration and effective national forest management in order to push an ideological agenda to transfer national forests to state and local control. Our public lands are too important for political experiments.

Nick Gevock is the Montana Wildlife Federation’s conservation director.

Public Land Debate: State Takeover Remains an Unpopular, Unworkable Idea

Fish Reel as Water Heats Up

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Meadow_Creek_Fly_Fishing_(9191405295) Photo Credit: Forest Service Northern Region

It’s happening already. Hoot owl closures have been put on the Big Hole, Madison, Gallatin, Beaverhead, and the Ruby and this year they’re earlier than ever before. The summer of 2015 was unprecedented when rivers around Missoula began closing in the beginning of July. While closures this summer were anticipated, nobody predicted them occurring so early in the season.

These closures show us yet again the real impact that climate change will have on our rivers and our fisheries. Reduced snowpack, diminished flows in streams and rivers, hotter summers, and more extreme weather events brought on by climate change threaten to radically change Montana’s outdoor traditions and world class fly fishing.

Even as a hotter climate threatens our outdoor heritage, it will also impact our outdoor economy. The Montana Wildlife Federation released a report last year: Climate Impact Report, that conservatively estimates the impact of climate change on Montana’s outdoor economy. According to this analysis, if we continue to do nothing to curb the pollution that causes climate change, Montana will see an average temperature rise of 4-5 degrees F by 2055. For the angling industry this means that there will be a one-third decline in angling days, with an economic loss of $49 million and 1,800 jobs. These grim predictions are already a reality for many fishing guides across the state.

Scott Nicolarsen, owner of Montana Topwater in Missoula, said, “Because of hoot owl restrictions and the poor quality of fishing I had to cancel many trips last summer. My overall number of trips dropped from the 100 day average to only guiding 70 days in 2015. I actually had to call clients and recommend they not come. This means I don’t get paid, flights and hotel reservations get canceled, and meals are not ordered. The 30% decline in revenue is devastating.”

Dan Vermillion, owner of Sweetwater Travel in Livingston, said “The Yellowstone is one of North America’s most treasured fisheries with world-class trout fishing from Yellowstone Park to Park City. With climate change, and its hot, dry summers, we are seeing smallmouth bass all the way up to Livingston, and brown trout and rainbow trout invading the habitat that has long been the last refuge the Yellowstone cutthroat. If we do not address these changes soon, our tourism industry will suffer and, most importantly, future generations of Montanans will not know the beauty of a trout rising for a dry fly. ”

When the first hoot owl closures were implemented, no one thought they would become a regular occurrence. They certainly were not meant to begin in June. Unfortunately, as the effects of climate change become more apparent, Montanans can expect their summer fishing window to get smaller and smaller – and Montana’s outdoor economy can expect to see jobs dry up as fast as the rivers.

To check current restrictions and closures, go to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks.

Jeff Lukas – MWF Elk Campaign Manager

Jeff Lukas

Elk Campaign Manager

Jeff Lukas is a passionate conservationist who has been fishing and hunting his entire life. Whether it’s floating a small stream chasing trout, pursuing elk in the high country, or waiting in a blind for ducks to set their wings, Jeff is always trying to bring more people afield to show them what we are trying to protect. He loves being in the arena, and he will never shy away from conversations about the beautiful and unique corners of Big Sky country.