Backsliding

[scolopaxmatt]

And some more bad news.  Sorry all, I'm just the messenger.

 

http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/the-conservationist/senate-budget-undoes-water-rule-cuts-conservation-funds?dom=fas&loc=contentwell&lnk=senate-budget-undoes-water-rule-cuts-conservation-funds

[mike rossi]

This is important info, but let me give you a little perspective, take it for what its worth.... The cuts to these agencies happens every year in recent history and get the slash even when the pro gunners (lol) do not dominate congress.... Yet the programs and the system survive. 

 

The LWC fund was to sunset this year, there was a petition fyi:   https://www.change.org/p/congress-renew-america-s-most-important-conservation-program-lwcf

 

Not all is doom and gloom either:

 

June 22, 2015 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced the availability of $17.5 million in financial and technical assistance to help eligible conservation partners voluntarily protect, restore and enhance critical wetlands on private and tribal agricultural lands. http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdamobile?contentid=2015%2F06%2F0177.xml&contentidonly=true

 

http://blog.pennlive.com/pa-sportsman/2015/07/wild_bobwhite_quail_may_be_ret.html

 

http://lpcinitiative.org/aerial-survey-shows-25-increase-in-lesser-prairie-chicken-population/

 

I do want to bring to your attention the following article:  http://www.friendsofthestamp.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Baicich-June-2015.pdf

 

Particularly this section:

 

Where Birders Come In

 

The price of a Migratory Bird Stamp reached $15 back in 1991. With the need to keep up with land acquisition and easement costs, especially since valuable habitat prices have tripled over the last three decades, it was important for the price of the stamp to rise. Indeed, what you may have bought for $15 in 1991 today costs about ,
starting with the new 2015–16 stamp.

 

But as indicated before, this price increase also brings up a problem. Going back to
the same well again and again, in this case to a dwindling number of waterfowl hunters,
is not a long-range solution to the habitat acquisition problem. More stamp buyers have
to be found. Moreover, asking those who are not required to buy a stamp—say, bird
watchers or wildlife photographers—to voluntarily buy a $25 stamp is not simple.
While not an easy sell, the price of the next stamp is about equal to the price of
a decent large pizza and will likely be one of your smaller birding expenses. More
importantly, it is still the easiest thing anyone can do to protect crucial wetland and
grassland habitat.

or at staffed NWR Visitor Centers. If you buy your stamp online at store.usps.com,
you can save a trip and have it mailed to you for a modest $1.30 fee. The availability is
there.

 

Fortunately, there have been a number of birder-oriented organizations that have
stepped up to the challenge of selling stamps, either individually or in special plastic
display holders. These organizations include the Georgia Ornithological Society, the
Wisconsin Society for OrnitholSociety, the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology, the Black Swamp Bird Observatory, the Klamath Bird Observatory, and the American Birding Association. You can pick one up at
Massachusetts Audubon’s Joppa Flats Education Center.

For birders, however, the important thing is not just to buy the stamp, but also to
display the stamp, to show it off. See the sidebar for ideas.

Last fall, Mike Burke, a birder and naturalist who writes regularly for the
Maryland-area Bay Journal, wrote: “Today, birders are the pre-eminent sportsmen
of our age and our numbers continue to grow.” He focused on the Duck Stamp, and

To add to the confusion and conflation dont forget about the movement to create a Federal Wildlife Conservation Stamp. This is NOT the same movement or group lobbying Congress for a federal Upland Stamp. They are lobbying Congress for a federal Wildlife Conservation Stamp - which they nickname the non hunters stamp....  

 

[scolopaxmatt]

Thanks for the further reading Mike.  Thanks also for balancing out my doom and gloom.  I'd post more good news if I saw any, but it seems as though the sky is always falling. 

 

Conscripting birders into the habitat restoration game would be a huge get.  In my experience most birders are either former hunters or avid fishermen.  In any event they would make excellent allies.

[scolopaxmatt]

http://blog.pennlive...may_be_ret.html

 

F'ing A Bobwhite Quail!