fly fishing, conservation and politics.
Each week, I have the pleasure of joining Mountain Journal founder Todd Wilkinson in our “The Week That Is,” column where we discuss topical events relating to the nation’s capital city and the public land West. On Monday’s you can read the previous week’s column here.
In this edition, the conversation turns to Interior Secretaries past and future, including the controversial tenure of sagebrush rebel James Watt of Wyoming.
There are not enough words to express how happy this makes me. Bravo to President-elect Biden for the historic and long overdue appointment.
Source: Biden picks Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) to be first Native American interior secretary.
I put my AFFTA hat on last Friday to participate in the White House Conference on Conservation. The conference was excellent and while I often grouse about having to “go to DC” this was time well spent.
The theme for the conference was “Growing America’s Outdoor Heritage and Economy.” A theme that is near and dear to our heart here at Dispatches. The drum beat of “habitat equals opportunity equals economic activity” is getting louder and I couldn’t be happier. It is to the great credit that the Administration, especially the Department of Interior, is championing the economic value of the conservation and outdoor recreation.
The conference was part of the on-going America’s Great Outdoors initiative. The “on-going” is important to note. Since the Obama Administration rolled AGO out under the capable guidance of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and his team, they have kept stakeholders and the public informed and engaged. This conference was the latest example.
The purpose of the conference was to “engage directly with conservation leaders from all 50 states to strengthen partnerships and identify next steps in advancing community-driven conservation and outdoor recreation initiatives that are building strong local economies and healthy lands, waters and wildlife across America.
Joining Salazar at the conference were Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. Each participated in panel discussions to help frame the discussions in breakout sessions later in the day.
The three panels during the conference were (the links take you to videos of the panels):
Each panel was moderated by an administration official with remarks from folks who have experience or involvement in the subject areas. Of special note was Dave Perkins Vice-Chairman of the Orvis Company. Perkins was part of the Restoring Rivers panel and did a great job in connecting the dots to the economic contributions of river recreation and restoration. Having a major player from the fly-fishing industry was important recognition of both the economic and conservation contributions the industry makes.
The capstone to the day came with remarks from President Obama. Having the President come to Interior underscores the importance the administration puts on conservation and the impact of the recreational economy.
In order for folks to talk about specific interests there were 11 breakout sessions:
These breakout sessions were used to learn from stakeholders what was working in the AGO initiative and more importantly what needed to be done.
I attended the Rivers Restoration and Recreation session moderated by Rock Salt from the Dept. of the Army (Civil Works) and Rebecca Wodder from Interior.
Wodder framed the discussion by asking, when it came to rivers, what works and what needs work.
Earlier in the week, Salazar had signed a Secretarial Order establishing a National Water Trails system under the National Trails System Act.
“The order sets the framework for Secretarial designation of water trails that will help facilitate outdoor recreation on waterways in and around urban areas, and provide national recognition and resources to existing, local water trails.”
Many in the room pointed to the new National Water Trails as an important step forward and one that has great potential to provide stakeholders a way to promote water-based outdoor recreation, encourage community stewardship of local waterways, and promote tourism that fuels local economies across America.
From AFFTA’s perspective, this is a great opportunity. It really is very simple, rivers are our business, they are the principal venues for our customers and clients. There is an indisputable nexus between the health of a river and its viability as a recreational resource.
I used the case of the Colorado River and its tributaries as an example. It was one the Secretary was familiar: “It’s a mecca of economic development in outdoor recreation, and that needs to be recognized in how we manage the Colorado River System.” I encouraged them to remind Secretary Salazar and Asst Secretary Darcy to keep those economic impacts in mind when making decisions that affect water supply and quality.
I know that my AFFTA colleagues will welcome the chance to work on making the new National Water Trails system a recreational and economic success.
Salazar also announced that is working with the Secretary Vilsack and Commerce Secretary John Bryson on a Memorandum of Agreement to ensure that Federal resources are effectively focused in support of the collaborative conservation efforts of the National Fish Habitat Partnership.
The National Fish Habitat Partnerships provide local, public-private conservation partnerships that are the foundation of the three part equation, “Habitat = Recreational Opportunity = Economic Activity, which so important to AFFTA. Healthy habitat and clean water create the venues for AFFTA member’s customers and clients.
The National Fish Habitat Action Plan and the National Fish Habitat Partnership are strongly supported by AFFTA and this announcement that an agreement is in the works is excellent news. This is an important step to having our federal partners work together to insure the success of the partnerships and the important work they do.
As a member of the steering committee of the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture, one of the 18 National Fish Habitat Partnerships, I know that a well coordinated effort with the various federal agencies can only help the EBTJV continue its successful efforts to ensure healthy, fishable brook trout populations throughout its historic range.
As someone who is often cynical about the value of these types of get togethers, this one was a winner. Sure there is more to be done but the America’s Great Outdoors initiative has been a lot more than rhetoric. The President has shown his support, traveling to the Department of Interior twice and hosting a gathering at the White House. There are AGO projects in 50 states.
Now with this engagement on rivers and fish habitat there is a new opportunity for anglers and the sport fishing industry. That can only be a good thing.
Here is a an update on the conservation funding bill that is headed to the House floor next week. The administration weighed in this afternoon with a STATEMENT OF ADMINISTRATION POLICY on H.R. 2584, The Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.
The SAP, as they are known, is five pages of details of the funding and policy problems created by this bill should it become law. Worth a read if you are still unsure how bad this is…
Stay tuned.
UPDATED:
July 21: Veto Pen for the Rusty Machete
July 12: The Full Appropriations Committee put the boots to the corpse leaving the work of the Subcommittee unchanged.
Thanks to Moldy Chum, Headwaters (with a hefty dose of info on the appalling bad HR 2018) and MidCurrent for helping get the word out. If you have added you voice let me know so I can thank you here.
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An Appropriations Subcommittee in the U.S. House left conservation funding and policy a mutilated corpse on the floor of their hearing room yesterday.
The funding cuts don’t put conservation programs on life support, instead they just left the body on the floor to bleed out. And to make sure they sent a strongly worded message to those of us who care about conservation, they added provisions to the legislation that undermine critical conservation and environmental policies.
Here is a sample courtesy of TU and NWF (follow the links for more details):
They hung a sign around the corpse with these provisions:
Folks, it is time to raise a stink about this and make our elected officials understand that habitat equals opportunity that creates economic activity!
If we don’t then we only have ourselves to blame.
“Fishing and hunting generate $76.7 billion annually in economic activity in the U.S.,” said Steve Moyer, VP for Government Affairs at Trout Unlimited. “We can’t expect to sustain this powerful economic engine if we’re removing the very conservation programs that make it run.”
“Clean water is an incredible economic engine, driving such industries as commercial and recreational fishing, hunting, boating and tourism. When water quality degrades, as we see in the Gulf of Mexico, the Chesapeake Bay and now dismayingly on the Yellowstone River, the national economy suffers. We can ill afford to lose the millions of American jobs that depend on clean water, and unfortunately today’s subcommittee action may put our nation’s clean water jobs in real jeopardy,” said Steve Kline, director of the Center for Agricultural Lands at the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.
Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives zeroing-in on natural resource conservation programs at a time when conservation, tragically (and temporarily I hope) has become a political football toted mostly by Democrats.
Some of it has less to do with backlash politics than it does some shrewd elected lawmakers, schooled well in the grim arithmetic, who understand that slashing Medicaid will result in a kind of Frankensteinian flash-mob of villagers with torches and pitchforks, while defunding the clean water protection that has so vastly improved our waterways and lakes, even as our population has doubled, will go largely unnoticed (at least in the short-run) and may even win them some powerful friends in the would-be polluter lobby.
My concern right now is that while it’s right to balance the state and national budgets, infrastructure / transportation / industry / energy have strong lobbies that make sure that those sectors are preserved. And while they are important to sustain a way of life our waters sustain life.
Leaders lose sight of the biggest things, or think that they’ll take care of themselves. Left alone, they probably would, but we won’t leave them alone (see infrastructure / transportation / industry / energy).
And yet … hope and perseverance. This is no time to put down our shovels or our pens.
If they don’t see the light let them feel the heat.
Our elected officials either ignore the interests of anglers and hunters or they think nature will take care of itself. The case for other sectors is being made more effectively than the case for outdoor recreation. We are seen as “hobbyists” and our venues will take care of themselves or are not as important as the other sectors. Our interest are economically legitimate but poorly understood.
This is the worse I have ever seen in 30 years of doing conservation work. Unfortunately our years of wishful thinking that Republican’s care about sportsmen may finally be catching up with us. I don’t care whether you label it politics or culture, we are seeing how the Republicans in the House value our community and what we know is essential for hunting and fishing to survive in this country.
If the hunting and fishing community does not step up and express outrage over this assault on the very foundation of our traditions then we only have ourselves to blame.
NOTE: This post is being updated as more information comes in, check back now and then.
Stay tuned, this is only gonna get worse…
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Secretary Ken Salazar and Bureau of Land Management Director Bob Abbey took an important step toward protecting wilderness values on BLM lands. If you are a backcountry angler or hunter you should be glad they did.
Wild lands are important venues for those of us who fish and hunt. They are where you have to earn access by a bit of effort. They are also the bedrock of important habitat.
The BLM has not had a national wilderness policy since 2003. An out-of-court settlement between then-Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton, the State of Utah, and others lead to the revocation of wilderness management guidance in the agency’s handbook.
According to the BLM release, “The Secretarial Order 3310 directs the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), based on the input of the public and local communities through its existing land management planning process, to designate appropriate areas with wilderness characteristics under its jurisdiction as “Wild Lands” and to manage them to protect their wilderness values.”
The order also “directs the BLM to maintain a current inventory of public lands with wilderness characteristics, which will contribute to the agency’s ability to make balanced, informed land management decisions, consistent with its multiple-use mission.”
I rarely miss an opportunity to push the conservation equals opportunity equals economic activity message. It is wonderful to see Secretary Salazar make those points in his announcement in Denver last week.
“The wild backcountry here in Colorado, and across the West, is also a huge economic engine for local communities. Outfitters, guides, hotels, restaurants, and retailers like this one all have a stake in the protection of America’s great outdoors.
Wise stewardship isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s good for business and it’s good for jobs,” said Salazar.
My favorite response so far is from Chris Hunt on his ever-wonderful Eat More Brook Trout Blog.
“Hey, it’s really pretty simple. Habitat equals opportunity. Without one, you really don’t have the other (unless you’re dunking worms in a pay-by-the-pound trout pond or “hunting” behind a high fence, that is). Fortunately, Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar understands this most basic of equations–today, he announced that the Bureau of Land Management would once again consider high-quality federal land for potential wilderness designation,” writes Hunt.
Trout Unlimited and The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership both had laudatory comments pointing out the important conservation impacts.
“Interior’s announcement will require the BLM to analyze the fish, wildlife and water values of backcountry areas before allowing development activities that could otherwise impair them,” TU’s CEO Chris Wood said. “This is simply common sense applied to commonly-owned lands for the common good.”
“The clean waters and undisturbed fish and wildlife habitat provided by pristine public lands enable sportsmen to continue enjoying days afield,” said TRCP’s President Whit Fosburgh. “We commend the federal government’s efforts to permanently safeguard America’s finest backcountry lands and the outdoor opportunities they offer sportsmen all across the nation by taking this necessary action.”
No doubt there will be voices in opposition. It will be predictable from the extraction boys. What will be unfortunate is if some of our colleagues in the hunting and fishing community start to decry the lack of “access”. Hardly the case as Hunt points out.
“Indeed, the “controversy” surrounding wilderness (and wilderness study areas, for that matter) is largely due to misunderstanding and misinterpretation. My guess is that you’ll hear a few folks from the foam-at-the-mouth crowd talking about being “locked out” by wilderness, or that Salazar’s new policy restricts their “access” to public lands. That’s simply not true. In fact, very little–if anything–will change. It would be largely inconceivable for Salazar or BLM Director Bob Abbey to approve a new WSA that would alter existing uses, including those designated for motorized access,” writes Hunt.
Of course one man’s access is another man’s annoyance. I come down on the side of wilderness and wild lands. I don’t like machines around when I fish and hunt and will happily work hard to get to those places, the fishing and hunting is always better.
Thankfully those of us who spend our time in the wild lands can get a fair shake again.
To read Secretarial Order 3310, click here.
To read the BLM’s draft guidance to its field managers for implementing the Secretarial Order, click here.
Q and A document can be found click here.
Secretary Salazar and Bob Abbey’s remarks as prepared can be found here: