The Middle River Group, LLC

fly fishing, conservation and politics.

Congress

US Forest Service Public Affairs Conference

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A very nice thank you note!

Last month, my friend Steve Bekkrus asked me to come to Atlanta and give a presentation to the U.S. Forest Service’s Southern Region Public Affairs conference. He asked me to give a presentation on the impact of the recent election and also on how to more effectively educate and engage Congress. I was delighted to have the opportunity and really enjoyed the conference.

It was a great opportunity to talk with public affairs professionals who work hard to make our public lands a national treasure. These are sharp professionals and it was a lively discussion.

As a follow up I sent them this list of ‘Take Aways.” [Read more…] about US Forest Service Public Affairs Conference

Creative Lobbying – Don’t Tell Them, Take Them!

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As a career choice, lobbyist was not at the top of my list when I graduated from college. I really had planned to do something in the outdoors with smoke jumper and fishing guide topping the list. But fate is what it is and I wound up spending the bulk of my adult life in DC as a hired gun plying my trade in the various Gucci gulches of the U.S. Capitol.

You don’t do something for more than 30 years without becoming something of a student of the game and over the years I have seen, heard or read a number of example of good and bad advocacy techniques.

One of the best lobbyists I know...

The other day I came across an excellent examples of creative lobbying in this post, How to Win Through Chit Chat on the Trucacabra blog. It chronicles the author’s very effective lobbying techniques. I won’t spoil his thunder but will tell you he has hit on one of the best ways to engage our elected officials on conservation issues.

I know Washington, DC can be an exciting place to visit and all the hoopla of fly-in days and receptions can be quite alluring. My experience tells me the place to effectively engage our elected officials in where we live, work and play. Don’t tell them how important woods, water, wetlands or fields are. Take them there!

Victims of Deficit Reduction

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Nicholas Kristoff offered a provocative column; Republicans, Zealots and Our Security, in Sunday’s New Your Times. Kristoff opens with an intriguing notion. If foreign fanatics were to take our country to the brink of financial crisis we would be up in arms. He makes a compelling case that ideology by the more conservative wing of the GOP should be no different.

We tend to think of national security narrowly as the risk of a military or terrorist attack. But national security is about protecting our people and our national strength — and the blunt truth is that the biggest threat to America’s national security this summer doesn’t come from China, Iran or any other foreign power. It comes from budget machinations, and budget maniacs, at home.

In other words, Republican zeal to lower debts could result in increased interest expenses and higher debts. Their mania to save taxpayers could cost taxpayers. That suggests not governance so much as fanaticism.

We should be alarmed and outraged.

How did we get to this point? When did politics become more important than responsible governing?

Kristoff focuses on the damage this mania for budget cuts does to education. The same could be said for conservation and environmental programs. Try substituting conservation or the environment for education, Kristoff’s words ring just as true.

More broadly, a default would leave America a global laughingstock. Our “soft power,” our promotion of democracy around the world, and our influence would all take a hit. The spectacle of paralysis in the world’s largest economy is already bewildering to many countries. If there is awe for our military prowess and delight in our movies and music, there is scorn for our political/economic management.

While one danger to national security comes from the risk of default, another comes from overzealous budget cuts — especially in education, at the local, state and national levels. When we cut to the education bone, we’re not preserving our future but undermining it.

This is going to be a long hot summer…

Sportsmen’s Organizations Oppose Conservation Cuts

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A deliberate move away from America’s long conservation tradition…

Responding to the draconian cuts passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in HR 1, 42 of the country’s leading hunting, fishing and outdoor organizations sent a letter to the U. S. Senate today urging restoration of funding to conservation programs.

The key point for me:

While we fully acknowledge that conservation programs should shoulder a fair and proportional burden of reductions to the Federal budget as required to address the budget deficit, these provisions of HR 1, in our view, represent a deliberate move away from America’s long conservation tradition and, specifically with respect to the interests of the hunting, fishing and outdoor community. We are very disappointed that the House considered these actions without consultation with the hunting, fishing and conservation community, and appeal to you to please give significant and favorable consideration to our perspectives. These vital conservation programs with long-standing track records of success are foundational to fish, wildlife and habitat conservation, good for the economy in creating jobs particularly in rural communities, and critical to providing opportunities for access to and enjoyment of fish and wildlife resources by America’s sportsmen and sportswomen. [emphasis mine]

You can add your voice with this Action Alert from Trout Unlimited

Full letter after the jump.
[Read more…] about Sportsmen’s Organizations Oppose Conservation Cuts

A Conservation Nightmare

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We were warned

When Bob Marshal wrote, This will be the year that will test the commitment of the outdoors community, he gave us fair and early warning of the assault on conservation that was coming.

The conservation battles sportsmen fought to protect fish and wildlife habitat in the past may seem like speed bumps to the wall being raised in Washington this year.

Hal Herring took up the battle cry when he wrote Are There Any Politicians Who Really Understand Sportsmen’s Concerns?

What is disturbing is that we seem to have lost any conservative political leaders who understand sportsmen’s concerns, or, in the same vein, who recognize that there can be value in undisturbed land, or waters, or that intact ecosystems, with their healthy game and fish populations, also hold economic value in producing clean water, clean air, grazing, wildlife, flood or invasive weed control, all those elements that may not always add to the bottom line of corporate profit, but are the actual bottom line of life on this planet.

Not long after that Kirk Deeter added his voice in Should Conservation Be a Political Issue?

In my humble opinion, conservation shouldn’t be a political issue. It should be a cultural issue. And in that regard, I think those doing the real heavy lifting to protect wild places for fishing and hunting aren’t so much “green” as they are “camo.”

U.S. House takes an axe to conservation

Yesterday Deeter sounded the alarm loud and strong in his reaction to the US House of Representatives passage of HR1, Proposed Conservation Funding Cuts Could Devastate Fly Fishing Resources.

HR1 is a bill in Congress right now that would slash funding for a number of important conservation programs that impact fly fishing from coast to coast. I don’t care what your political persuasion is…if you’re a fly fisher, this should concern you, because any threat to habitat is a threat to opportunity. And in many cases, once a resource is gone, it’s gone.

He joins calls to action from Ducks Unlimited and Trout Unlimited!

Are you getting the message yet? If not, then you are not paying attention!

[Read more…] about A Conservation Nightmare

LWCF deserves full funding because conservation is good business

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The Land and Water Conservation Fund provides federal dollars for conserving our national parks, forests, refuges and other public land. Those lands are our national playgrounds and provide outstanding recreational opportunities for all Americans. Outdoor recreation, especially hunting and fishing is an important economic engine.

The American Fly Fishing Trade Association President Gary Berlin’s op/ed says it well…

Many of us will be afield this fall spending time in our favorite hunting and fishing spots. We will be enjoying the tradition of these field sports so important to our lives. But as you head out to the fields, rivers and streams we want to take a moment of your time to let you know about an important tool for conservation of those areas we find near and dear to our hearts.

The United States Congress has a very full plate this fall. Important topics will be debated and may become law. Some of these policy debates present a unique opportunity to secure full and dedicated funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the principal source of federal dollars for protecting land in America’s national parks, forests, and other public landscapes and ensuring recreational opportunities for Americans in every state in the nation.

Since 1977, this fund has been authorized at $900 million per year. Most of the funds come from off-shore oil and gas leases, and are to be used for the purchase, from willing sellers, of land with outstanding natural, recreation, scenic, and other attributes, and for the development of outdoor recreation lands and facilities at the state and local level.

The fund has been chronically underfunded, leaving a huge land protection and outdoor recreation backlog. Without timely and adequate funding, important opportunities to invest in the outdoors could be lost forever.

The beauty of the fund is its unassailable logic –when the federal government gets funds from the sale of resources we all own, it should reinvest some portion of the proceeds from that sale into the dwindling irreplaceable open spaces and recreational opportunities we all need.

The outdoor recreation business is important to local communities surrounding national parks and other public lands.  Local economies are made more vibrant and resilient by the natural and cultural amenities and the abundant recreational opportunities provided by parks and public lands.  These amenities greatly enhance the quality of life in our communities, help large and small localities attract new residents and businesses and generate tourism-related jobs and revenues.

Hunters and anglers know how important land conservation is to outdoor recreation.  Hunting and fishing has become an economic building block in our national economy generating more than 1.6 million jobs and more than $2 billion annually in salaries, wages, and business earnings.   In 2006, more than $70 billion was generated in sportsmen-related retail sales.  With the “ripple effect”, this translates to more than $190 billion in total economic activity.

People need to know how much we care about this fund and the special places that it protects such as parks, refuges, trails, cultural and historic places, public lands, and other recreation areas in our community.

Gary Berlin
President, American Fly Fishing Trade Association
901 Front Street, Suite B-125
Louisville, CO  80027

303-604-6132
303-604-6162 (fax)
www.affta.com