GOP runs risk of alienating hook and bullet crowd

from Politico:

By Darren Samuelsohn

7/12/11 4:30 PM EDT

House Republicans fighting the Obama administration's environmental agenda are finding themselves making decisions that threaten the party's carefully nourished relationship with the hook and bullet crowd.

Anglers and hunters once courted by former President George W. Bush don’t like what they’re seeing in the GOP’s mad dash to cut spending and have made their feelings clear in meetings this month with top aides to House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

As the Republican leaders no doubt know, this is not a crowd to mess with. The Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation estimates that nearly eight in 10 hunters always vote in presidential elections, while six in 10 come to the polls in off years.

The outdoorsmen typically lean Republican, but Democrats say they could capitalize with a constituency that's also known to be pretty independent minded.

"That's a very powerful group," said Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.). "They bring in a pretty diverse voice. I think you have to be really careful with this because I think the American public, while they want spending cuts, certainly don't want to decimate the environment for the long run."

Bush fought routinely with mainstream environmental groups. But the Texan who loved to clear brush on his Crawford ranch worked hard to court the outdoor crowd.

Bush won accolades from conservationists for his handling of Healthy Forests legislation to diminish forest fire risks and in creating Farm Bill programs to promote wetlands and wildlife habitat.

The Adirondack Council, which focuses only on the New York state park, also backed Bush's Clear Skies legislative proposal, which skirted reductions for global warming pollution but tried to make inroads on acid rain, a big problem in the region.

"There was definitely a feeling in the hunting and fishing community that the Clinton administration had not shown the level of respect [it deserved]," said Dale Hall, a former Bush-era director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service now leading Ducks Unlimited. "Whether it's true or not, the perception was there that they were a secondary thought. We believed it should be a primary thought."

Back in power, House Republicans may have poisoned the well with their austere spending strategy, including the fiscal year 2012 Interior and environment spending bill that won approval Tuesday in the House Appropriations Committee.

Under the legislation, the Interior Department's overall budget would fall $720 million from fiscal 2011. A popular land and water conservation fund would see a more than 80 percent cut to $62 million, while funding for the North American Wetlands Conservation Act gets a 47 percent reduction to $20 million. State Wildlife Grants are also cut 64 percent to $22 million.

Wildlife-themed riders are also sprinkled through the bill, including language that allows chemical companies and large agriculture operators to skirt pesticide permit requirements and enforcement of certain mountaintop mining rules. Conservation groups are complaining the language would dirty rivers and streams they use for recreation.

Other riders include a prohibition for any judicial review on Interior's decision to delist wolves from the Endangered Species Act in Wyoming and the Great Lakes region, as well as a zeroing out in funding for the Fish and Wildlife Service to list new species and designate critical habitat under the law.

"In the past, conservation has been a bipartisan issue. Democrats and Republicans have always agreed about hunting and fishing," said Whit Fosburgh, president and CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, one of four conservation groups that took issue with another GOP-sponsored rider that blocks the EPA from updating Clean Water Act policies dealing with fish and wildlife habitat.

"I think you're seeing a divide that's starting to open up that hasn't always existed in the past and we hope won't exist for very long," Fosburgh added.

House Republicans said they've done the best they could for the hook and bullet crowd given tight fiscal times.

"There's an awful lot of Republicans who are concerned about conservation and that I'd call Roosevelt Republicans, myself included to some degree," said Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), the chairman of the Interior-environment appropriations subcommittee.

"But when you don't have the money, you don't have the money," Simpson added. "I'd like to drive a Porsche. Guess what? My wife says I can't afford it."

Conservation group leaders said they understand what GOP leaders are going through, and they’ve told lawmakers like Simpson as much in private meetings.

"Mike Simpson got dealt a lousy hand," said Fosburgh. "He was in an incredibly unenviable position. There was no way he was going to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear."

Many also said they support the overall goal of reducing the deficit.

"Inside the hook and bullet crowd, you'll find a lot of fiscal conservatives in general, not because of any party affiliation but more of a philosophy of how to try to get things done," Hall said.

But while they may understand the budget crunch, hunters and anglers are not done making their case to get their funding restored and the riders removed.

Leaders from Ducks Unlimited, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies met last week with top aides for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Office of Management and Budget.

In their presentations, they cited the side benefits that come with wildlife conservation, including flood control and better water quality. Federal dollars are also leveraged by upward of five to one with private and state money. Lawmakers also need to be reminded that the nation’s estimated 40 million sportsmen of voting age pay billions of dollars every year in state and federal taxes through their licenses and equipment purchases.

"If we want to talk about how to fix the deficit and how to fix the debt, our respectful argument is don't get rid of those things that make you money," Hall said.

Apart from tight budgets, hunters and fishermen face some other trends not working in their favor. For starters, Republican lawmakers often chalk up some of their cherished conservation programs as little more than green boondoggles. As America gets more and more urban and suburban, the hook and bullet crowd also finds fewer lawmakers who regularly cast a line or shoot a gun.

"John Dingell is the last of the crowd who's still around, a guy who is not partisan who knows fish and wildlife," Fosburgh said of the Michigan Democrat and Dean of the House.

The loss of key advocates like the late Rhode Island GOP Sen. John Chafee and New York Republican Reps. Sherwood Boehlert and Jim Walsh has also hurt. "What we've not seen is the next generation of leaders step up like that, especially on the Republican side. There's a smaller bloc than there was once was," Fosburgh said.

Jim Connaughton, former chairman of George W. Bush's White House Council on Environmental Quality, said a variety of hook and bullet groups are expressing angst over budget cuts.

"All of the major conservation organizations, from center-right to center-left, are deeply disheartened by the sidelining of their issues and their needs in the wake of these huge stresses as a result of the deficit and runaway entitlement programs," he said.

Many conservation leaders were cautious about making overt political threats. But they said their dues-paying members will take notice if funding levels for their favorite programs keep getting slashed and if the policy riders don’t disappear.

"There's a tipping point,” said Scott Kovarovics, conservation director at the Izaak Walton League of America, “in which folks who hunt, fish and enjoy the outdoors are going to take a step back and say this isn't one thing, it's a series of things.”

To read and comment online:
https://www.politicopro.com/go/?id=4517

Conservation Pays

An op-ed piece by DU CEO Dale Hall, which appeared in the Feb. 22 edition of the Atlanta Journal Constitution

The Congress and Administration began in earnest their jousting over the budget last week when the president submitted his fiscal year 2012 proposal and the House of Representatives debated HR1, the bill to fund the remainder of fiscal year 2011. The debates surrounding these two actions will likely define the approach that will be used to reduce the massive budget deficit that all agree is crippling America's economic recovery. At Ducks Unlimited, we strongly urge budget cutting efforts that actually work to reduce the deficit. We do, however, believe that won't happen through political rhetoric, but rather through legitimate analysis of the costs and benefits of all programs.

I am extremely disappointed with the approach taken in HR1 to eliminate conservation programs, such as the North American Wetland Conservation Act (NAWCA) grants, that have proven successful at every level of analysis, including the amount of money returned to the federal treasury through taxes each year. For every federal dollar invested through this program, $3-$4 dollars of non-federal monies are secured as matching funds. This program alone has protected and conserved more than 25 million acres of essential habitat for migratory birds and also serves hundreds of non-game species. In addition, every year hunters, shooters, anglers and boaters pay special federal taxes that are returned to the federal treasury for specific conservation use. That amounts to about $1 billion each year going directly to the state fish and wildlife agencies to manage and conserve fish and wildlife in each of the states. Further, nearly $2 billion each year is secured through the sale of licenses to hunt and fish. Simply stated, the state fish and wildlife agencies could not exist without these two sources of funding, both voluntarily paid from the private sector.

Hunting and fishing is about an $80 billion per year industry. Billions of dollars per year – a net gain for the federal treasury - are returned through direct taxes paid by those who work in that industry: manufacturers, guides, outfitters, the hospitality sector, retail, and others who support getting hunters and anglers into the field. The father of modern conservation, Aldo Leopold wrote about the importance of the citizen conservationist nearly a century ago. Since that time, the cost of conservation has been freely carried on the shoulders of hunters and anglers. But the federal government needs to do its part.

The government's contribution to conservation each year is less than $5 billion. Yes, a fair amount more is appropriated to carry out laws and regulations to keep things from getting worse, but in the effort to improve and advance conservation, the federal government is not the leader in the funding of those efforts. The states and private conservationists are the leaders. For what federal taxpayers receive in return for their investment, and the small amount the government provides in partnership, these programs should be upheld.

Finding ways to reduce the massive federal deficit simply must be done. But in doing so, let's make sure to support those federal investments that pay for themselves several times over and be critical of those that are truly wasteful. Conservation has always, and continues to, pay for itself. Congress and the Administration should approach the budget challenge with facts and analysis, not a meat cleaver.

Sign National Petition to Protect Wetlands

From the Izaak Walton League of America and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partners:


Sign National Petition to Protect Wetlands

Every year, 80,000 acres of wetlands disappear across America. Every acre lost is an acre of important habitat for fish and wildlife or an area that reduces flooding more effectively than almost any levee can. In spite of their importance, recent Supreme Court decisions make it easier to drain, fill, or tile wetlands and harder to stop them from being polluted.

The League and other national hunting and angling groups continue to work to protect wetlands by convincing Congress to pass the Clean Water Restoration Act. We made real progress this summer when the U.S. Senate Environment Committee approved an amended version of the bill. Now, the focus shifts to the U.S. House of Representatives.

You can help send a clear message to Congress and the President about how critical this legislation is by signing an on-line petition about protecting wetlands. The goal is to garner 80,000 signatures – one signature for every acre of wetlands lost annually. Sign the petition today and join more than 65,000 other people who have already said “protect our wetlands.”

Learn more about the League!

U.S. House Passes Record Wetlands Conservation Funding

House Passes Record Wetlands Conservation Funding

The United States House of Representatives is making a record investment into wetlands conservation by approving more than $52 million for the North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA). | For More...