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President Signs Wildlife Conservation Bills

As Congress wrapped up business before adjourning on September 29^th, they approved a number of bills related to wildlife conservation.  This week, President Bush signed these bills into law. 

"We are pleased to see the Congress acting on so many legislative issues that move conservation forward," said Dale Hall, Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "These laws enhance our work with partners to implement on the ground conservation efforts."

Highlights include passage of S. 260, the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Act, which authorizes the Partners for Fish and Wildlife program, a successful cooperative conservation program that provides funding to private landowners to conduct conservation activities on public lands.  The program has grown over the years, and current appropriations exceed $50 million. The Act provides official endorsement of the existing U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Partners program, which provides technical and financial assistance to private landowners to enhance wildlife habitat on their lands. The program will celebrate its 20^th anniversary next year and has become extremely popular with landowners and conservationists alike.

Another important bill that passed is H.R. 5539, the North American Wetlands Conservation Act Reauthorization.  Commonly referred to as NAWCA, this law reaffirms a popular program that funds wetlands conservation across North America, including Canada and Mexico.  The program receives appropriations exceeding $40 million per year that are matched well beyond the 1:1 match required in the law.  The North American Wetlands Conservation Act was reauthorized at a funding level of $75 million through fiscal year 2011.

President Bush also signed S. 2430, the Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act.  This bill amends the Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act of 1990 to provide for implementation of recommendations made in the Great Lakes Fishery Resources Restoration Study. The new law authorizes $14 million per year through 2112 for restoration projects, including regional projects that cross state boundaries and focus on high priority restoration activities. The law also gives the Service the lead for selecting the projects to be funded and authorizes an additional $2 million per year to administer the grant program.

A dozen other bills dealing with wildlife issues were passed. These include:

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal Federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, which encompasses 544 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 63 Fish and Wildlife Management offices and 81 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Assistance program, which distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.

-FWS-