the recreational hunting and wildlife conservation plan as directed by executive order 13443 -...

7/31/2019 The Recreational Hunting and Wildlife Conservation Plan as directed by Executive Order 13443 - December 14, 20

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Facilitation o Hunting Heritage

and Wildlie ConservationThe Recreational Hunting and Wildlie Conservation Planas directed by Executive Order 13443


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Cover photo: Lower Klamath Marsh NWR, CA. Tupper Ansel Blake/USFWS


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Facilitation o Hunting Heritageand Wildlie ConservationThe Recreational Hunting and Wildlie Conservation Plan

as directed by Executive Order 13443

A Ten-Year Plan or Implementation

Developed in cooperation with the Sporting Conservation Council

(a federal advisory committee), diverse volunteers from state agencies,

conservation and sportsmens organizations, and participants in the White

House Conference on North American Wildlife Policy.

December 14, 2008

PhotoDis


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Ankeny NWR, OR. Aaron D. Drew/USFW


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Table o Contents

Executive Order 13443:Facilitation o Hunting Heritage and Wildlie Conservation ...............ii

Sporting Conservation Council Letter ....................................................v

Introduction ..............................................................................................1

Increasing Public and Private Funding or Wildlie Conservation .......5Renew, Extend, and Create Tax Incentives or Conservation and Access ................7

Increase Federal Funding or State Conservation and Access Programs and

Initiatives ........................................................................................................................8

Identiy Potential Partnerships or Voluntary Funding or Conservation. .............11

Improving Wildlie Habitat Conservation ...........................................13Develop Baseline Data or Long Term Goals and Measurable Results ................... 15

Create Financial Incentives or Private Lands Conservation and Access ................15

Improve Habitat on Federal Land: Biouels and Invasive Species ......................... 17

Expanding Access to Public and Private Lands ....................................19Reduce Liability or Access to Private Land. .............................................................19

Expand Wildlie Dependent Recreational Opportunities on Federal Land. ...........19

Provide Specialized Training or Federal Employees ................................................22

Educating, Recruiting, and Retaining Hunters .....................................25Promote Hunting among Various Demographic Groups .........................................28

Promote Hunting through Public-Private Partnerships ............................................30

Coordinating Federal, State, Tribal, and International Action ...........33Assess Existing Lines o Coordination .......................................................................34

Enact Improvements .................................................................................................... 34

Understanding Climate Change and Wildlie Eects ..........................37Establish Lines o Communication .............................................................................38

Improve Data and Policy .............................................................................................39

Conserving Wildlie and Developing Oil and Gas On Public Land ....41

Develop and Use Landscape-Level Assessments o Wildlie ...................................43Improve Collaboration on Project Design .................................................................43

Formalize Wildlie Expertise in Leasing .................................................................. 44

Create Incentives to Improve Wildlie Outcomes. .................................................. 45

Establish a Monitoring Protocol or Adaptive Management ................................ 46

Accomplish More O-Site Conservation ................................................................. 46

Optimize Funding or Federal Land Energy Programs ........................................... 47

Index to Actions......................................................................................49

Acronyms .................................................................................................53


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Executive Order 13443:

Facilitation o HuntingHeritage and Wildlie

Conservation

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws o the

United States o America, it is hereby ordered as ollows:

Section 1. Purpose. The purpose o this order is to direct Federal agencies thathave programs and activities that have a measurable eect on public land manage-

ment, outdoor recreation, and wildlie management, including the Department

o the Interior and the Department o Agriculture, to acilitate the expansion and

enhancement o hunting opportunities and the management o game species and

their habitat.

Sec. 2. Federal Activities. Federal agencies shall, consistent with agency missions:

(a) Evaluate the eect o agency actions on trends in hunting participation and,

where appropriate to address declining trends, implement actions that expand

and enhance hunting opportunities or the public;

(b) Consider the economic and recreational values o hunting in agency actions, as

appropriate;

(c) Manage wildlie and wildlie habitats on public lands in a manner that expands

and enhances hunting opportunities, including through the use o hunting in

wildlie management planning;

(d) Work collaboratively with State governments to manage and conserve game

species and their habitats in a manner that respects private property rights and

State management authority over wildlie resources;

(e) Establish short and long term goals, in cooperation with State and tribal gov-

ernments, and consistent with agency missions, to oster healthy and productive

populations o game species and appropriate opportunities or the public to hunt

those species;

() Ensure that agency plans and actions consider programs and recommendations

o comprehensive planning eorts such as State Wildlie Action Plans, the North

American Waterowl Management Plan, and other range-wide management plans

or big game and upland game birds;


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(g) Seek the advice o State and tribal sh and wildlie agencies, and, as appropri-

ate, consult with the Sporting Conservation Council and other organizations, with

respect to the oregoing Federal activities.

Sec. 3. North American Wildlie Policy Conerence. The Chairman o the Council

on Environmental Quality (Chairman) shall, in coordination with the appropriate

Federal agencies and in consultation with the Sporting Conservation Council and

in cooperation with State and tribal sh and wildlie agencies and the public, con-

vene not later than 1 year ater the date o this order, and periodically thereaterat such times as the Chairman deems appropriate, a White House Conerence on

North American Wildlie Policy (Conerence) to acilitate the exchange o inor-

mation and advice relating to the means or achieving the goals o this order.

Sec. 4. Recreational Hunting and Wildlie Resource Conservation Plan. The

Chairman shall prepare, consistent with applicable law and subject to the availabil-

ity o appropriations, in coordination with the appropriate Federal agencies and

in consultation with the Sporting Conservation Council, and in cooperation with

State and tribal sh and wildlie agencies, not later than 1 year ollowing the con-

clusion o the Conerence, a comprehensive Recreational Hunting and Wildlie

Conservation Plan that incorporates existing and ongoing activities and sets ortha 10 year agenda or ullling the actions identied in section 2 o this order.

Sec. 5. Judicial Review. This order is not intended to, and does not, create any

right, benet, trust responsibility, or privilege, substantive or procedural, enorce-

able at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments,

agencies, instrumentalities, or entities, its ocers or employees, or any other

person.

GEORGE W. BUSH

THE WHITE HOUSE,

August 16, 2007


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Ducks Unlimite


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Sporting Conservation CouncilA Federal Advisory Committee

9828 North 31st Avenue

Phoenix, Arizona 85051-2517

December 10, 2008

Honorable James L. Connaughton

Chairman

Council on Environmental Quality

722 Jackson Place NW

Washington, D.C. 20503

Dear Chairman Connaughton:

Thank you or the opportunity to partner with you on one o the most important eorts to aect hunting and

wildlie conservation policy in our time. We deeply appreciate CEQ Associate Director or Agriculture and

Public Lands Greg Schildwachters presentation to us on December 2, 2008 in Washington D.C. regarding

the completion o the rst edition o the Recreational Hunting and Wildlie Conservation Plan (Action Plan)

that sets orth a ten-year agenda or ullling the actions identied in Executive Order #13443.

We strongly endorse the approach to the Plan, particularly the 58 Actions listed on pages 49-51 that are

linked back to the more specic supporting actions presented in the body o the Plan under the major

topic headings listed on page i. We also appreciate the clear and direct tie o the Action Plan to the White

Papers prepared by the Sporting Conservation Council in support o the Policy Conerence directed by the

Executive Order. That tie is a clear validation o our continuing close partnership in this important work on

behal o Americas hunting heritage and wildlie conservation.

We remain committed to perhaps the most important criteria or an eective plan: that it is absolutely

apolitical and bipartisan in both orm and substance. We look orward to working on implementation o the

Plan and to uture opportunities or providing input on uture editions.

Sincerely,

Bob Model

Chairman

CC: Secretary Ed Schaer

Secretary Dirk Kempthorne

Under Secretary Mark Rey

Assistant Secretary Lyle Laverty

Assistant Secretary Steve Allred


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Lower Klamath NWR, CA. Tupper Ansel Blake/USFWS


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Introduction

On August 17, 2007, President George W. Bush signed Executive Order 13443:

Facilitation o Hunting Heritage and Wildlie Conservation. The Order directs

ederal agencies to acilitate the expansion and enhancement o hunting oppor-

tunities and the management o game species and their habitat.

The historical signicance is clear: 2008 marks the centennial o President

Theodore Roosevelts Governors Conerence on Conservation. Through the

conerence and other eorts, President Roosevelt established a burgeoning

conservation movement as an issue o national importance. The thrust o the

movement was straightorward: America possesses a bounty o natural resourcesand landscapes with unique characteristics that should be protected and con-

served or present and uture generations. This purpose animated an array o

ederal policies that guided conservation practices throughout the 20th and into

the 21st centuries.

In May 2008, the Departments o the Interior (DOI) and Agriculture (USDA) and

the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) held a reception at the

Department o the Interior to commemorate the anniversary o the Governors

Conerence and ormally launch implementation o Executive Order 13443:

a similarly historic endeavor to address modern challenges and shape conserva-

tion and wildlie dependent recreation in the 21st Century.

Executive Order 13443 directs ederal agencies to work in coordination with the

Sporting Conservation Council Federal Advisory Committee, state, and tribal sh

and wildlie agencies and the public to acilitate the expansion and enhancement

o hunting opportunities and the management o game species and their habitat

in a manner that respects state management authority over wildlie resources as

well as private property rights.

To achieve this goal, the Order calls upon the chairman o the CEQ to convene,

within one year, and periodically thereater, a White House Conerence on North

American Wildlie Policy to acilitate the exchange o inormation and adviceneeded to ulll the purposes o the Order. The Order also calls or a comprehen-

sive ten-year Recreational Hunting and Wildlie Conservation Plan that will set

orth an agenda or implementing the actions called or in the Order.

Over the last year, a diverse cross section o ederal, state, local, and tribal govern-

ment ocials, Members o Congress and their stas, sporting and conservation

organizations, and the private sector have engaged in an intense eort to assess

21st century issues and develop innovative ideas or consideration at the coner-

ence and possible inclusion in the ten-year Recreational Hunting and Wildlie

Conservation Plan.


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Beginning in the all o 2007, the Sporting Conservation Council (SCC) assembled

diverse working groups to begin developing recommendations or implementing

the goals o the Order. These groups oered background inormation, identied

challenges, and proposed goals and opportunities or addressing them.

The work o the Council supported the White House Conerence on North

American Wildlie Policy in Reno, Nevada, on October 13, 2008. Conerees re-

viewed topics based on the Councils white papers, which inormed the discussion

sessions at the Conerence. CEQ, USDA, DOI, and the Sporting ConservationCouncil gathered comments and ideas rom individuals and partners who share a

common commitment to enhancing conservation and hunting in the 21st Century

This Action Plan presents the results o all these meetings, workshops, and

detailed deliberations under headings or background inormation, goals and

recommendations rom the Sporting Conservation Council, and Actions. Note

that the goals and recommendations rom the Council are not the product o the

Administration but the work o the Council as presented to the Secretaries o

Interior and Agriculture. The Actions are the product o CEQ based on the input

o the Council, a diverse coalition o ederal, state, local, and tribal government

ocials, Members o Congress and their stas, sporting and conservation organi-zations and private individuals. This Administration oers this rst edition o the

planthe rst o many to ollow as it evolves over timeas a strong starting point.

As a statement o bipartisan policy, it is easible and widely supported. The plan

is a sound basis or developing hunting and wildlie policy through subsequent

administrations.

Bringing the sporting community together with policymakers would not have

been possible without the Sporting Conservation Council, a ederal advisory

committee. Thereore, the rst action in the plan is to establish the Council

in law.

Arlen Lancaster, National Resource Conservation Service; John Tomke, Ducks UnlimitedMexico; Greg Schildwachter, Council on Environmental Quality; Jimmy Bullock, ResourceManagement Service; and Rebecca Humphries, Michigan Department o Natural Resources,listen to the conerees.

(let) Secretary Dirk Kempthorne attends a planning meeting with conerence sta.

Representatives o the shooting sportsindustries, nonproft groups, and state andlocal government attended the White HouseConerence: Jay McAninch, Archery TradeAssociation; Glen Salmon, Indiana Divisiono Fish and Wildlie; Mitch King, Archery

Trade Association; and Melissa Simpson,U.S. Department o Agriculture.

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Arkansas) addressesthe Congressional Sportsmens Caucusbriefng on the Action Plan.

Je Crane, Congressional SportsmensFoundation; Dirk Kempthorne, Secretary o

the Interior; Jim Caswell, Bureau o LandManagement; and Rex Amack, NebraskaGame and Parks Commission and AFWAPresident discuss the Action Plan withconerees.


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The Sporting Conservation

Council, which we created in

2006, has proven itsel to be an

excellent source o insight and

good judgment. Congress should

ormally authorize it or a ten-

year term to help us carry out

that ten-year plan.

Vice President Richard Cheney

October 3, 2008

Action

1. Pass legislation authorizing the Sporting Conservation Council.

Draters o an authorizing bill should:

Provide a ten-year term or the Council.

Consider amending the Federal Advisory Committee Act to allow non-

governmental, nonconsensus advice to ederal land managers.

Consider an exemption or inormation provided by landowners about species

o concern under the Freedom o Inormation Act.

Identiy opportunities to promote cooperating agency status or state agencies.

Vice President Richard Cheney addresses theWhite House Conerence.

Arlen Lancaster, Natural ResourceConservation Service, speaks to theconerees.

A coneree addresses the panel during one o the breakout sessions at the White HouseConerence. The panel members are, rom let: Dave Nomsen, Pheasants Forever; Ken Mayer,Nevada Department o Wildlie; Mark Rey, U.S. Department o Agriculture; H. Dale Hall, U.S.Fish and Wildlie Service; and Pam Roth, Williams Companies.

Ed Shaer, Secretary o Agriculture, addresses the conerence.

Mark Rey, U.S. Department o Agriculture,and H. Dale Hall, U.S. Fish and WildlieService, make a point during the discussions


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Increasing Public andPrivate Funding orWildlie Conservation

Background

Under the United States Constitution, the states possess broad trustee and police

powers over the sh and wildlie within their borders, including sh and wildlie

on ederal lands within a state. Generally, states have delegated this responsibil-

ity to the state sh and wildlie agencies. During the early 20th century, the states

management ocus was on halting the decline o sh and game and restoring

depleted populations through use o harvest regulations, law enorcement, and

articial propagation and stocking. Early on, sportsmen demanded a user pays

system where sh and wildlie conservation was unded with dedicated revenue

rom the sale o hunting and shing licenses. In 1937, sportsmens collective ac-

tions resulted in the passage o the Federal Aid in Wildlie Restoration Act, com-

monly known as the Pittman-Robertson Wildlie Restoration Act (P-R).

This historic legislation established a user pay-user benet program that is

driven by a sel-imposed tax on hunting rearms and ammunition; 1970 and1972 amendments extended this tax to pistols, revolvers, and most archery equip-

ment. These taxes are levied on the manuacturers o the equipment and collected

nationally by the Internal Revenue Service, the Tari and Taxation Bureau, or

Customs depending on the type and origin o the equipment. The collections are

deposited into the Wildlie Restoration Account, and allocated by the U.S. Fish

and Wildlie Service (USFWS) to every state sh and wildlie agency, including

U.S. territories, to support the management o the states wildlie resources.

In 1950, sportsmen expanded this user pay-user benet unding mechanism to

sheries with the passage o the Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration Act (com-

monly known as the Dingell-Johnson Fishery Restoration Act). This legislationestablished an excise tax on most equipment used by anglers with the collections

deposited into a Sport Fish Restoration Account. The unds deposited into this

account are allocated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlie Service to the states and ter-

ritories based on the number o shing licenses sold and the water area within

the state. This legislation also assures that all unds collected through the sale o

shing licenses are spent on shery management activities. Later amendments

captured ederal uel taxes attributable to motorboat use or the Sport Fish

Restoration Account.


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. . . the people our country has

relied on to und sh and wildlie

conservation or over the last

century (hunters and anglers)

are declining as a percentage o

the population.

6

With this dedicated unding stream, states were able to retain adequate stas o

well-trained employees and law enorcement sta. Consequently sh stocking

and state-level programs or public access and habitat management developed all

across the country. Thus began Americas system o unding the North American

Model o Wildlie Conservation that links the hunter, angler, and the industry

they support with educated and trained natural resource management proes-

sionals. This user pay-user benet unding system has been a primary engine or

implementing the North American Model o sh and wildlie conservation in the

United States or the last 75 years.

Despite this success, the costs o sh and wildlie conservation are increasing with

public demands or new and expanded services. Proessional managers and the

organizations and individuals that help support them now must address a large

number o new pressures on the landscape that are rapidly changing the outlook

or North Americas sh and wildlie. At the same time, hunters and anglers, the

people our country has relied on to und sh and wildlie conservation or over

the last century, are declining as a percentage o the population. In short, license

revenues are alling as demand or wildlie management is increasing. The descrip-

tions below set orth a number o options or addressing these issues in the 21st

Century.

SCC White Paper Goals and Recommendations Identiy and develop new sources o dedicated, long-term unding or ederal,

state, and tribal sh and wildlie agencies to support conservation and hunting.

Capture revenue rom uture climate change initiatives such as cap and trade

and earmark that revenue to wildlie, habitat, and conservation education.

Provide additional incentives to private landowners or voluntary programs to

enhance wildlie habitat and hunter access.

Create landowner incentive-based programs to maintain and increase habitat

and to encourage public access or hunting opportunities.

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Actions

Renew, Extend, and Create Tax Incentives or Conservation andAccess.

2. Drat and enact comprehensive tax incentives legislation.

Several existing tax incentives ail to reach all potential beneciaries because o

various limits. A tax incentive bill should include provisions that:

Authorize permanently the conservation tax incentives, enacted or two yearsin the 2008 Farm Bill.

Expand the adjusted gross income (AGI) deductibility cap to 100 percent

or donations o conservation easements on lands enrolled in state access

programs; donations o access easements (long term) or agreements (short

term) or hunting, shing and other wildlie dependent recreational activities;

and other hunting-related land uses not covered by existing policy.

Classiy lands used as hunting and shing leases and clubs in the same manner

as working arms and ranches to allow them to qualiy or the current 100

percent AGI deduction allowance.

Increase the carry orward period rom ve to teen years or donationso access easements or hunting, shing, and other wildlie dependent

recreational activities, thereby providing a more valuable tax cut or

landowners.

Replace the requirement or biweekly reports o excise tax rom sporting arms

and ammunition with a quarterly schedule consistent with other estimated tax

payments.

Establish a more consistent approach or valuing land associated with tax

breaks. For example: a wetlands area o high conservation value may be

deemed worthless or real-estate development and thereore unrecognized

by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as the basis or tax incentive.

Our conservation tax incentives

have proven extremely eective.

We should make these incentives

a permanent part o the tax code

and expand them to include

conservation donors who make

their living in the hunting andshing business.


October 3, 2008

Bosque del Apache NWR, NM. Jim Clark/USFW


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Increase Federal Funding or State Conservation and AccessPrograms and Initiatives.

3. Recommend new programs and authorities to promote hunter

access.

The primary objective is to deliver a great deal o access and conservation benets

utilizing a small amount o unding. Proposals might include some or all o the

ollowing components: Create a tax credit or sh and wildlie protections, restoration and

enhancement and wildlie dependent recreation. This idea requires urther

development to ensure simplicity in administration so that the Treasury

Department need not administer any program that is more appropriately

administered by other agencies. Policymakers should note this would be the

rst instance o a credit authorized or any charitable donation. Considerations

include: permanent and long term habitat conservation and preservation; the

donation o hunting and/or shing access easements to an eligible nonprot

organization to expand, improve and enhance hunting, shing, and other

wildlie dependent activities on reuges and adjacent lands; the donation

o land (ee simple) or easements to ederal agencies that provide access toisolated or dicult to reach public lands or wildlie dependent recreation or

land (ee simple) or easements within the acquisition boundary o a specic

tract owned by a ederal agency; in the Partners or Fish and Wildlie Program,

establish a tax credit or landowners conducting restoration and enhancement

activities, as approved by the USFWS; and conservation or rare and declining

species.

Revive the Presidents Budget Fiscal Year 2006 proposal or a 50 percent

capital gains exclusion or conservation land sales that urther the goals o

Executive Order 13443 or other existing programs such as North American

Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) and State Wildlie Action Plans;

Eective immediately, we are

increasing the incentives or

landowners to enroll in state

access programs, which should

allow us in the next ve years

to make available seven million

acres o CRP lands or hunting.


October 3, 2008

USFWS


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Provide ederal unds to state-based programs that open private lands to

hunters and anglers. An example might be tax incentives or timber companies

that allow public access and use.

Authorize the use o non-ederal unding to match ederal unding or State

Access Programs.

Increase structured hunting programs and recreational shooting opportunities

as a means o achieving a net increase in ederal land hunting.

Provide ederal technical assistance to states to expand and enhance privateland conservation projects on lands enrolled in state access programs.

Encourage ederal or state governments to purchase easements on lands

needed to open wildlie corridors, conserve priority wildlie species habitat or

to provide access to otherwise inaccessible or dicult to reach ederal lands

or hunting and other wildlie dependent recreational activities.

Facilitate National Park Service (NPS) purchase o conservation and access

easements rom willing sellers on lands adjacent to park units to expand and

enhance the use o hunting as a wildlie management tool on the adjacent

lands.

Provide unding or the necessary inrastructure or enrollment in state access

programs (signage, encing, maps, parking pull os, etc.).

Establish ormal arrangements with states and 501(c)3 organizations to und

public relations and marketing programs or hunting and shing.

4. Improve the Federal Land Transer Facilitation Act (FLTFA).

FLTFA authorizes the Secretaries o the Interior and Agriculture to acquire and

dispose o lands in a manner that achieves a net conservation benet. Federal

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agencies, when assessing lands or acquisition and disposal, shall expand eorts to

achieve overall net gains o wildlie habitat, hunting opportunities, and econom-

ic benets to both the ederal government and the private sector while respecting

the rights o private property owners.

Future debate on FLTFA could:

Develop a Conservation and Recreation Benets Index (CRBI) that would

be created to score potential tracts or their contribution to, or example,

migratory corridors, ederal trust species, riparian areas, scenic rivers andstreams, wetlands and areas that contribute signicantly to the conservation

and/or protection o groundwater or water quality. Priorities or sale would

include high economic value lands identied as yielding little or no natural

resources benet that is consistent with and in urtherance o the mission o

the ederal agency o jurisdiction.

Involve the SCC, Congress, and states in considering how receipts could be

directed to a non-ederal account where they would be leveraged by non-

ederal unding and obligated to a prioritized list o projects chosen based on

their CRBI score.

Establish priorities or acquisition that would include purchase o title and/

or easements on lands needed to open wildlie corridors, conserve priority

wildlie species habitat such as waterowl production habitat, and/or to

provide access to otherwise inaccessible or dicult to reach public lands

or hunting, shing and other wildlie dependent recreational activities. All

purchases would require certication o a willing seller.

5. Drat and enact an Upland Conservation Act.

Such a bill would provide a companion law to the North American Wetlands Con-

servation Act by coordinating upland wildlie conservation the way NAWCA does

or waterowl.

6. Establish the Impact Directed Environmental Account (IDEA).

This und would collect nes and mitigation ees under ederal conservation laws.

The monies so collected would be invested in established conservation goals in

partnership with non-ederal conservation entities.

USFWS


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7. Identiy, in cooperation with state agencies, options orimproving Federal Excise Taxes (FET).

The primary means o unding wildlie conservation is the Federal Aid in Wildlie

Restoration Program, which collects a ederal excise tax and distributes unding to

states. An examination o this program should:

Solicit inormation rom the Association o Fish and Wildlie Agencies Excise

Tax working group and equipment manuacturers and retailers.

Consider expanding or reducing the categories o hunting and shing

equipment currently subject to FET.

Consider including or excluding categories o wildlie dependent

recreation and associated equipmentbut only in close coordination with a

representative group o aected participants and manuacturing industry that

share a desire to have a particular type o equipment included or removed.

Educate consumers and the public about the categories currently subject to

FET, the amount paid, and how the unding is used.

Develop legislative recommendations to reduce the costs and administrative

burdens on manuacturers subject to the FET (i.e., quarterly payments, rather

than weekly).

8. Establish a blue ribbon panel o experts on wildlie unding.

The primary means o unding wildlie conservationthe Federal Aid in Wildlie

Restoration Programis more than 70 years old. It is time or wildlie conserva-

tionists to reach out to leaders rom other sectors o American lie to compare and

consider additional models o unding.

Establish and dedicate unding or implementing State Wildlie Action Plans.

Identiy Potential Partnerships or Voluntary Funding orConservation.

9. Recommend unding arrangements that pool ederal, state, andprivate unds.

For example, recommendations might:

Create a new partnership between state and ederal agencies, equipment

manuacturers and retailers to collect manuacturers rebates as unding or

wildlie habitat and enhanced outdoor recreation. Funds could go to state

wildlie and access projects or programs or to a hunting oundation. The

arrangement could involve a widely-recognized logo sticker used at retail

stores to indicate the products and rebates and promote positive publicity and

satisaction or manuacturers and consumers. An example is the current use o

Smokey Bear approved camping equipment.

Expand the allowable uses o State Wildlie Grants and new grant programs to

include communication and education projects and programs that are ranked

highly as state wildlie conservation priorities.

10. Develop a model state ballot initiative to increase unding orwildlie.

Use ballot proposals to increase unding or conservation. Local and state initia-

tives or land acquisition have been successul. Broaden these propositions to

include conservation education and experience.


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Lacassine NWR, LA. J&K Hollingsworth/USFW


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Improving WildlieHabitat Conservation

Background

The states have long been recognized as having primary responsibility or the con-

servation o resident sh and wildlie. Existing ederal statutesFish and Wildlie

Coordination Act, Sikes Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Federal Lands

Policy and Management Act, National Wildlie Reuge System Improvement Act,

among othersrequire coordination between ederal agencies and state sh and

wildlie agencies during project planning processes and throughout project imple-

mentation. Land and resource management projects conducted by ederal agencie

on ederal lands can signicantly aect the ability o states to attain or sustain sh

and wildlie population goalsthis is particularly the case in the western United

States where ederal lands account or a signicant proportion o the land area o

most states.

A number o conservation challenges exist that can be addressed by Executive

Order 13443. For example, landscape ragmentation brought about by suburban

and urban development on ormerly wild or agricultural lands is a leading cause

o wildlie habitat loss and degraded habitats throughout the United States.

Wildlie habitat quality on millions o acres o public and private land is threatened

by insect inestation, disease, and the spread o invasive plant species. Reduced

levels o vegetation management on lands throughout the country have resulted

in reduced availability o young orest habitats and disturbance-dependent orest

types such as aspen-birch and, to a lesser degree, oak. These habitats and orest

types are important to many species o game and nongame wildlie.

Habitat conservation on private lands is a key to sustaining populations o game

and non-game wildliethis is particularly the case in the eastern United States

where most lands are in private ownership. State Wildlie Action Plans, regional

bird conservation plans, and game bird conservation plans have documented the

loss o biodiversity in the eastern United States due to declines in shrub lands and

young orest habitats.

Enhanced cooperation between ederal and state agencies could acilitate better

public understanding o the role o active management in wildlie conservation

and improve public support or the management o disturbance-dependent

habitats and associated wildlie. Where big game populations are now contributing

to deteriorating range conditions, these populations should be reduced to

levels that will allow important early-successional habitats to successully

regenerate.


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Farm Bill conservation programs provide nancial incentives or landowners to

establish and maintain important wildlie habitats by withdrawing lands rom crop

and orage production. Payment rates through these programs must be a com-

petitive alternative to income rom agricultural production or landowners will be

unlikely to set aside signicant acreages or wildlie habitat enhancement. Recent

interest in biouels has signicantly changed these economic considerations.

Grain-based and cellulosic ethanol oer opportunities to increase our nations

energy security and benet rural economies. However, the development o these

new sources o energy on a nite land base must be balanced with the demon-strated wildlie habitat benets derived rom existing conservation programs.

SCC White Paper Goals and Recommendations

Enhance and improve ederal, state, and tribal interagency coordination and

sta training on issues and authorities related to habitat conservation and

hunting.

Develop baseline data and use it to set goals and measure and monitor results.

Ensure that ederal and state sh and wildlie management agencies have the

inrastructure and capacity needed to be successul in research, educationaloutreach, habitat and population monitoring, and on-the-ground habitat

management activities or both public and private lands.

Facilitate multi-jurisdictional and/or multi owner conservation and access

projects on a landscape scale. An example might be access to more reuge

lands.

USFWS


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During our administration,

the USDA Forest Service has

partnered with hunting groups

to improve habitat or game

and species such as elk and

deer. As a result, across broad

stretches o ederal lands, theanimals now have better ood

and cover, which can lead to

healthier populations. And

in 2002, President Bush took

one o the most signicant and

positive environmental steps in

our lietime when he announced

the Healthy Forests Initiative.


October 3, 2008

Actions

Develop Baseline Data or Long-Term Goals and Measurable Results.

11. Expand existing wildlie and habitat databases.

Federal agencies will work with state and tribal governments, nongovernmental

organizations (NGO), and the private sector to acilitate and build upon existing

eorts by public and private entities to develop baseline data and science-based

objectives or achieving overall net gains in habitat and populations where consis-tent with state objectives. The data will be used to:

Create measurable goals and outcomes or implementation o Executive Order

13443. For example, X numbers o ducks, turkeys, quail, elk, etc., by August

15, 2018. Population metrics can be recorded or nationwide increases and/or

landscape-scale increases or decreases.

Populate a standardized, web-based, one-stop-shop to disseminate population

data or use in adaptive management, inormation about best practices,

conservation tools, and grant opportunities.

Coordinate wildlie population and habitat modeling protocols that ensure

consistency with most recent research ndings.

Develop, support, and advertise a web-based capability to help identiy public

lands available or hunting, to learn where to hunt, and also where to learn

more about hunting.

Review current predator control policies at the state level in the context o

maintaining elk and deer populations primarily as management objectives.

Create Financial Incentives or Private Lands Conservation and

Access.

12. Recommend updates to the timing and amount o Conservation

Reserve Program (CRP) payment rates.The Farm Bill governs how CRP payment rates rise or all based on market in-

ormation. The next Farm Bill could use these provisions to promote additional

conservation and hunting access to:

Increase rental payments to CRP enrollees who donate or sell hunting access

easements on their CRP lands, enter into access agreements, or enroll their

lands in a state access program.

Promote and support added incentives to programs like CRP and conservation

easements to encourage landowners to allow public access and public hunting

on their lands.

Review CRP rental rates on a more requent basis to ensure competitiveness

with alternative uses.

Consider new incentives or keeping properties with the best wildlie habitat

enrolled in the CRP program.

Provide incentives to maintain the continuity o large landscapes; or example,

by creating conservation co-ops to manage lands divested by timber companies

and other large land holders.


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13. Create a grasslands conservation initiative.

State wildlie agencies will work in consultation with ederal agencies, the SCC,

and conservation organizations to develop a grasslands conservation initiativeor improve/expand existing programs like Sod Saver. The initiative would ocus

on building a private and sustainable inrastructure or delivery o technical and

nancial assistance to agricultural producers through a private-public partnership.

Framers o the initiative should:

Develop common metrics and priorities or each state to ensure that projects

are targeted toward development o ecologically sustainable habitat.

Develop a conservation unding sourceederal, state, and/or privateto

create and implement a grassland conservation initiative.

Coordinate a model National Grassland/Shrubland Restoration Act prepared

or ederal public lands to address, among other things, the problem o invasive

plant species, such as cheatgrass, overtaking areas o multiple native species

and thereby eliminating a good ood source or native wildlie.

14. Create new options or keeping amily-owned private lands

intact when inherited.

To pay ederal estate tax, amilies oten must subdivide and sell property to raise

cash. To reduce the likelihood o this ownership ragmentation and habitat loss,

policymakers should:

Create programs that identiy lands and important wildlie habitat that are

at risk o ragmentation due to uture estate tax liabilities and place them

in easements or conservation programs that can keep the lands intact and

preserve their importance to wildlie.

Develop new incentives to maintain continuity o large landscapes. Develop

conservation cooperatives or lands divested by timber companies and other

large land holders. Encourage programs that maintain conservation easements

or continuity o lands that have value to wildlie.

Consider, or example, tax incentives, such as expanded conservation and

access related deductions, exemptions, and transerable credits that could

be enacted in the years remaining beore the inheritance tax expires (i.e.,

allow reappraisal o easement and exempt increased value, i any, rom the

inheritance tax).

Agassiz NWR, MN. Gary Tischer/USFWS

Weve expanded ederal tax

incentives to encourage privateproperty owners to designate

their property or conservation

purposes. The response has been

strong and positive. Through the

Conservation Reserve Program,

we are helping ranchers and

armers to restore grassland

habitat. Since 2001, weve

enrolled more than one million

acres in this program and

this has yielded important new

nesting habitat.


October 3, 2008


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Improve Habitat on Federal Land: Biouels and Invasive Species.

15. Recommend projects, initiatives and new or improvedauthorities to enhance wildlie habitat on ederal lands bypromoting biouel production.

To manage our nations orest lands through projects designed to reduce wildre

uel loads, provide woody biomass or nontraditional products, including biou-

els in a manner that enhances and improves wildlie habitat, potential projects,

among other possibilities, could: Initiate a biouels initiative to reduce risks o catastrophic wildre causing

habitat loss. The initiative protects habitat and provides conservation unding

through stewardship contracts. In planning biouels projects, ederal agencies

use best available science and models to determine the amount, kind, and

location o early seral habitat to meet desired populations o game and non-

game species as determined jointly with state and tribal wildlie management

agencies.

Develop investment tax credits that encourage the development o improved

technologies or utilizing woody biomass or cellulosic ethanol. The credit

would apply to all stages o a project including the removal o woody biomass

and its transportation.

Ensure that mechanisms that will ensure long-term provision o biomass rom

ederal lands (HFRA byproducts) or creation o ethanol and Co-Gen are in

place.

Authorize ederal agencies to retain receipts rom the sale o woody biomass

to provide priority unding toward habitat restoration in areas impacted

by harvest. The remaining receipts would be used to und the Secure Rural

Schools program, additional orest health projects, and to provide access or

hunting and other wildlie dependent recreation.

Develop a national strategy or wind arm siting that will protect the grassland/

shrubland steppe and associated wildlie in the ace o ever-expanding windarms and transmission lines.

Create bond authority to acilitate the use o timber receipts or improved

orest health.

16. Recommend improvements or controlling species that havedetrimental impacts on hunting and fshing opportunities andtargeted species.

Objectives o this eort will, among other possible approaches:

Assess the extent and severity o habitat loss and degradation resulting rom

outbreaks o native pests, diseases, or invasive species encroachment.

Assess the existing inrastructure and capacity to combat the most prevalentthreats.

Identiy the issues most relevant to hunting access and game species

conservation.

Drat recommendations or addressing the threats identied.

Target specic conservation education programs or urban landowners and

ranchette owners; use the National Association o Conservation Districts to

help these owners become conservationists; introduce them to Aldo Leopolds

essay, The Land Ethic.

BLM


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PhotoDisc


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19

Expanding Access toPublic and Private Lands

Background

Hunting and recreational shooting with rearms and archery equipment are

important elements o Americas outdoor heritage, and are uniquely dependent

upon public access to ederal, state, and private lands. Constraints on access have

been identied as one o the leading impediments to sustaining and growing par-

ticipation in these activities.


Create web-based tools that provide easily accessible inormation about

hunting opportunities on ederal lands.

Expand and develop partnerships with the DOI, USDA, and Department o

Deense (DOD) to determine what lands could be accessed by hunters and

recreational shooters.

Actions

Reduce Liability or Access to Private Land.

17. Drat model state legislation on liability or landowners whoprovide public access to their property.

18. Evaluate and assess public saety risks and risk liabilityassociated with shooting and hunting, commensurate andconsistent with other public land recreational activities.

Expand Wildlie-Dependent Recreational Opportunities on Federal

Land.

19. Integrate conservation and hunting opportunities into the nextTransportation Bill.

Opportunities might include one or more o the ollowing:

Establish a Federal Open Trails public land access program with ederal,

state, private, tribal, conservation organizations, and landowner partners. The

initiative would be ocused on the restoration and enhancement o existing

and legal public access roads that would be restored on a prioritized basis

according to extent o use or shing and hunting access and other wildlie-

dependent recreational activities.


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Create a und to assess current practices and develop recommendations or

wildlie riendly construction project design and seek opportunities to utilize

construction equipment or conservation projects on adjacent lands, e.g.,

creation o wildlie passages, and wildlie-sae encing.

20. Establish a one-stop-shop website o inormation on hunting on

ederal land.Maps o places to hunt, vendors or equipment and licenses, schedules or training

courses and other structured activities, and other types o inormation can be eas-

ily assembled online. Some o this inormation is already available electronically

rom ederal agencies. Enabling private organizations to identiy, collect, and share

such inormation could:

Create uses o advertising prots rom websites.

Oer a vertical search engine with inormation regarding structured hunting

programs, existing programs designed to generate youth and minorities

interest in hunting and outdoor recreation, hunter education, equipment,

hunting license requirements, hunting regulations, ethical hunting, and other

inormation useul to new and veteran hunters. Establish a map page that will allow users to identiy opportunities to hunt

on public lands. Maps should show lands where hunting is allowed and the

location o their boundaries with adjacent lands; access points or hunting on

public lands; and have a mechanism that would allow visitors to add additional

inormation that could populate the site subject to review by a gatekeeper

(who would veriy the content added beore it is posted). Inormation added

by visitors would appear on the site in a distinct colored ont to indicate that it

was added by a visitor to the site.

Since 2001, our administration

has launched scores o new

hunting and shing programs on

National Wildlie Reuges. We

are working with 40 sportsmens

groups to urther improve

hunting and shing on ederal

property. Were also making it

easier or sportsmen to know

where it is legal to hunt, by

marking access points, improving

highway signage or trail heads,

and providing electronic maps

online.


October 3, 2008

USFWS


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21. Recommend improved and enhanced access to public landswhere hunting is allowed.

Helpul inormation would:

Assess interagency opportunities or improving and enhancing hunting

opportunities or the disabled; provide access to dicult, or impossible to

reach ederal lands; incorporate hunting and recreational shooting into ederal

agencys planning processes. Revise BLM/USDA Forest Service management

plans to designate shooting areas.

Request an interagency data call or a compilation o opportunities to accessadjacent public lands through lands they oversee when hunting on adjacent

lands would be a benecial wildlie management tool. For example, in 2008

the Secretary o Interior announced an assessment o National Park Service

units to determine the potential benets o acilitating access to hunting

on adjacent ederal lands as a wildlie management tool. Such access is

already provided at Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), which allows

hunters to access Arapahoe National Forest through the park as a means o

promoting recreational opportunities while concurrently reducing the parks

overpopulated elk herd. The assessment would seek to determine where

similar programs would be desirable as a wildlie management tool in other

park units. Note: pending regulations related to carrying concealed rearms on

NPS lands do not aect the RMNP program and would not impact the ability

to undertake a similar program in other park units.

USFWS


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22. Establish shooting ranges in urban areas as a part o urbancenters or outdoor activities.

Improve connectivity o school groups to the outdoors.

Develop a model hunting easement similar to a conservation easement or

use in providing or protecting hunting opportunities.

Expand and develop partnerships among USDA, DOI, DOD, Department o

Energy (DOE), USFWS, BLM, Bureau o Outdoor Recreation (BOR), NPS,

and USDA Forest Service to determine accessible ederal lands or hunting and

recreational shooting.

Explore shooting range and hunting opportunity potential assessed as part o

the military Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process.

Fund or implement programs resulting rom the call or proposals improving

ederal land access, an initiative under the umbrella o the Federal Lands

Hunting, Fishing, and Shooting Sports Roundtable Memorandum o

Understanding.

Facilitate an eective ederal government-wide process to use non-ederal

unds or acquiring hunting and shooting access to ederal lands.

Provide Specialized Training or Federal Employees.

23. Recommend and implement a training curriculum or ederalemployees on the history, ecology, and management o hunting on

public land.

Understanding the historic and current roles o hunting in wildlie conservation

will help ederal employees conduct hunting programs, ully consider hunting in

conservation programs and activities, and communicate with hunters. The cur-

riculum will:

Explain the North American Model o Wildlie Conservation and the

American system o conservation unding.

Communicate a consistent ramework that will assess the impacts o project

proposals on wildlie populations and hunting opportunities.

USFWS


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Market strategies to better communicate the availability o existing programs

designed to provide educational outreach and technical assistance or private

landowners.

Establish more scholarships and stipends rom private entities to bring new

people, youth, and minorities to outdoor/hunting/wildlie conerences.

24. Require all ederal land management supervisory personnelto complete a state-sanctioned hunter education course, or anequivalent program.

Equivalent programs would include those sanctioned by the International Hunter

Education Association that teaches the practices, heritage, and traditions o mod-

ern hunting in the United States.

25. Teach best practices or hunting programs in ormal training orederal land managers.

These courses o instruction will provide training in both general and specialized

topics (or example, best practices or managing controlled hunts) suitable or a

range o employees at all levels in the ederal work orce. This training shall be

incorporated into the ormal training program o all employees managing ederal

lands. This program shall be operational and begin no later than Fiscal Year 2013.

PhotoDisc


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John Heinz at Tinicum NWR, PA. J&K Hollingsworth/USFW


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Educating, Recruiting,and Retaining Hunters

Background

Between 1990 and 2005, participation in hunting declined by 4.4 percent, con-

tinuing an overall trend o decline between 1980 and 1991. This is part o a larger

trend away rom nature-based recreation o almost all types and a growing dis-

connect between children and the outdoors. In act, competition or time rom a

growing array o leisure opportunities has drawn people away rom hunting and

shooting sports.

Also contributing to the change in the social landscape is an aging U.S. popula-

tion. Further, the U.S. population is projected to increase rom 282 million in 2000

to 420 million by 2050 (U.S. Census Bureau 2004). The changing amily structure

refects urther modications to the U.S. social structure.

In addition to their nancial contributions to resource management, sportsmen

and sportswomen have traditionally ormed the backbone o organizations that

provided political support or policies that orm the basis o the North American

Model o Wildlie Conservation. Failure to reduce the decline in the trend will

reduce the unding available to ederal and state agencies, as well as NGOs, with

a subsequent decline in wildlie habitat and outdoor experience opportunities.

Hunters, trappers, and anglers have traditionally introduced these activities to

amily and close riends. The social structures in support o hunting and recre-

ational shooting traditions have eroded, however, as the U.S. populace has shited

rom a rural to an urban culture.

As society becomes more urbanized and as urbanites have reduced ties to rural

settings, the opportunities to take part in these activities have declined. The mo-

bile nature o our society is exemplied by the rate o annual changes o address.

As amilies scatter across the landscape or economic opportunity or retirement,

the ability to retain hunters and recruit others into hunting traditions is lessened.

While rural upbringing contributes to a propensity to hunt among males, other

actors, such as gender and availability o a parent or mentor who hunt, play a role

in hunter recruitment. Participation in these activities by women and minorities

has historically been very low.

Education programs, such as the Archery in the Schools Program, are vital to the

preservation o hunting traditions. A variety o programs mainly aimed at youth,

minorities, and women have demonstrated that North Americans are still interest-


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ed in learning traditional hunting and shing skills. These programs oer women,

youth, and minorities opportunities to learn skills outside the traditional amily

setting. They have been successul in increasing participation in traditional hunt-

ing, have increased sale o licenses and equipment, and have increased the inter-

est o participants in natural resource management. Recent inormation suggests,

however, that greater structure in youth and minorities activities will be required

to engage the next generation o hunters.

An aging leadership within agencies also threatens retention o the oundationwithin the natural resource proession to ensure the uture o the North American

Model o Wildlie Conservation. Reports estimate that 27.2 percent o conser-

vation proessionals plan to retire by 2010; among leadership positions this was

nearly hal (46.1 percent) and is projected to exceed three-ourths by 2015 (76.7

percent). While this presents opportunities in natural resources careers, skills

needed to address contemporary conservation challenges have changed, and

questions arise about the tendency o new hires to embrace a traditional sel-sus-

taining hunting, shing, and conservation culture. With the advancing age struc-

ture in state and ederal resource agencies, a primary concern has been the loss o

core competencies, leadership skills, and institutional memory.

Conservation also means

passing on a way o lie to the

next generation a tradition

o sportsmanship, cooperation,

and respect or the natural

world.


October 3, 2008

Association of African American Sportsmen


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Create a Hunting and Shooting Heritage Foundation similar to the

Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation.

Use social sciences and marketing or hunter retention and recruiting.

Use the Foundation as a orum to bring together industry, NGOs, state, and

ederal agencies.

Establish a oundation based on implementation o the ten-year plan. Engage

a Chair or Director to manage the oundation; create this entity outside CEQ,

and have it be specically aimed at the wildlie and hunting heritage.

Use this oundation to generate youth and minorities interest through service

programs aimed at wildlie and conservation.

Develop an Open Fields, walk-in hunting access to private lands (which was

authorized in the 2008 Farm Bill).

Use ocus groups and other marketing tools to determine how best to

understand and reach young people.

Be sure to put marketers or public relations experts in leadership positions, as

well as biologists and hunting enthusiasts as the oundation is established.

Establish the institutional ramework and priorities or education, recruitment,

and retention.

Establish hiring and training standards.

Ensure that new proessionals entering the wildlie eld are well exposed to

practical experience in the eld through programs and training. Help them

with the basics o hunting and its relevancy and value to conservation practices

or ederal land management agencies, and ensure that personnel understand

and value the importance o hunters and anglers to wildlie management.

Increase structured hunting, shooting, and conservation education programs

on ederal lands.

No other country on earth

does a better job than the

United States at respecting the

environment and caring or the

wonders o nature. And one o

the reasons or that leadership

is the active concern andparticipation o the American

sportman.


October 3, 2008

USFWS


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Seek visible Executive endorsement or Americans involvement in natural

resource based recreational activities and engage infuential people as

spokespersons in support o the North American Model o Wildlie

Conservation.

Develop ways and means to eectively create and distribute inormation on

the Model/Public Trust Doctrine or dissemination to a wide target audience,

including the general public, academic programs, and state, tribal, and ederal

agencies.

Actions

Promote Hunting among Various Demographic Groups.

26. Waive or discount entrance ees or ederal hunting lands or

veterans and active duty military personnel.

Policymakers who address this issue anew will need to nd a rationale or avoring

military personnel or applying these benets to military personnel and not oth-

ers. Subject to that, this idea could:

Work with veterans, conservation, and sportsmens organizations to identiyopportunities to expand and enhance hunting on DOD bases by active duty

military personnel, provided that hunting would not have a negative impact

on Deenses mission; hunting should also provide benecial recreational

opportunities and be a wildlie management tool.

Develop a Wounded Warrior Hunting and Fishing Program to provide

opportunities or injured and disabled veterans and soldiers to hunt.

Expand opportunities on USDA, USDA Forest Service, BLM, and USFWS

lands or disabled veterans to hunt.

Horicon NWR, WI. Ryan Hagerty/USFWS


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27. Recommend new and better means o communicating with

youth and minorities.

Engage AmeriCorps volunteers that have expertise and interest in hunting and

shing to be mentors to American youth and minorities.

Use new technology such as YouTube.com and Facebook.com to reach a new

generation.

Create electronic games or cell phones, computers, and play stations that

involve hunting and shing, plant and animal identication, and promote

nature acronyms or texting.

Promote geocaching or youth and minorities.

Establish a speakers bureau or school lectures and activities, possibly drawing

rom parks and recreation agencies.

Develop an image or media use o a young or minority person that enjoys the

outdoors. Perhaps through television programming, this healthy spokesperson

would establish name or ace recognition or hunting and make it a cool

outdoor activity.

Include a teacher or a teachers council to advise a hunting oundation.

Create and support an exchange program or ederal and state employees toteach once a week or once a month in the local schools, particularly in the

more urban areas where proessionals do not get to explore or talk about

what they learned in the eld. This will reinvigorate the employee and also

give students the benets o rst-hand experience. This teacher on loan

can educate about wildlie, hunting, instill respect or the outdoors, discuss

new energy technology, and relate all o the subjects back to other subjects

such as biology, math, and English, especially as they relate in individual state

standards o learning (SOLs).

28. Develop and und a hunting access and conservation program

within the Youth Conservation Corps.Led by AmeriCorps, ederal agencies will work with sportsmens organizations

including outdoor-oriented youth and minorities organizations such as the Boy

Scouts, Girl Scouts, and the Student Conservation Association to provide oppor-

tunities or teens to perorm a summer o service working in a natural resources

eld under the supervision o mentor volunteers. The program, which will be de-

veloped in partnership with existing programs such as Ducks Unlimited Project

Weboot and US Sportsmens Alliance Families Aeld program will be initi-

ated by volunteers rom the sportsmens community and ederal agencies, who

have undertaken appropriate screening and training, who will recruit and lead

teams that undertake trail, signage, and habitat conservation projects designed to

enhance and improve wildlie dependent recreation and conserve wildlie habitat. Initiate a mentoring corps and engage ormer hunters. These could be aligned

with ederal land areas. This recruits new hunters and brings ormer hunters

back into the old.

Create a national coalition consisting o NGOs, industry, state, and ederal

agencies. Pittman-Robertson unds could be used to und this eort.

Create a national youth and minorities hunting coalition consisting o NGOs,

industry, state, and ederal agencies. Pittman-Robertson unds could be

supporting (


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Promote Hunting through Public-Private Partnerships.

29. Commission a Presidential Hunting and Shooting SportsPartnership Council.

Such a council would design, establish, and promote an American Hunting and

Wildlie Foundation. The Foundation would be charged with promoting wildlie

conservation and reversing declining trends in hunter participation. The Founda-

tion could:

Imitate the structure o the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation. Focus on recruitment and retention o hunters and shooters.

Seek other unds beside the Pittman-Robertson unds unless the resulting

reduction in P-R unding to states is oset with an expansion o the P-R

program or changing the ederal aid match rate to 90:10.

Promote hunting to young and minority people, the disadvantaged and

handicapped through structured hunting, shooting mentoring, and education

programs. The initiative would initially ocus on coordination between existing

programs to avoid redundancy and the need to develop an entirely new

ramework and capacity.

Work with state and local school ocials and boards and with the U.S.Department o Education to place curricula on the role o hunting in

conservation and wildlie management.

Provide amily programs and teaching camps on a variety o outdoor and

adventure activities, i.e., birding, hunting, shooting, and shing.

Engage energy companies on opportunities or youth and minorities hunts on

company properties.

Develop new partnerships with non-land/wildlie management departments

and agencies (i.e., the State Department) and the private sector (ESPN

Outdoors, MTV, the International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA), the

Boy Scouts, and equipment retailers and manuacturers). Develop ideas and

mechanisms or capturing the imagination and interest o young and minority

people and demographics not traditionally engaged in shing, hunting, and

other orms o outdoor recreation.

Achieve overall gains in career conservationists through integration o the

North American Model o Wildlie Conservation into educational exhibits

and programs; a joint initiative to assist schools and universities in the

creation o the curriculum (based on the North American Model o Wildlie

Conservation) and promotional activities necessary to urge the development

o a new base o career conservationists; market conservation education to

teachers urging them to cultivate their passion or wildlie and conservation

and to pass it on to their students. Promote the ten-year Recreational Hunting and Wildlie Conservation Plan

and measure progress.

Provide unding incentives to states that have eective (measurable) programs

in hunter recruitment and retention.

Administer competitive matching grants to state wildlie agencies or programs

and initiatives directed at generating youth and minorities involvement in

hunting and hunting ethics.

Report periodically on progress toward increasing recruitment and retention.

Develop ideas and mechanisms

or capturing the imagination

and interest o young

and minority people and

demographics not traditionally

engaged in shing, hunting,

and other orms o outdoorrecreation.


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30. Issue new regulations to promote responsible flming andphotography on public land.

Since passage o Public Law 106-206, which authorized the Department o

Interior to begin charging ees or commercial lming on public lands, the Depart-

ment has been drating regulations to govern commercial lming. Final regula-

tions should:

Clariy how commercial crews can seek permission to lm on public land.

Involve the public in reviewing lming proposals.

Ensure that the media continues to have the ability to inorm the public about

public lands.

31. Amend Executive Order 13443 to require specifc perormance,

reporting, and updates to the Action Plan. Develop a requirement or relevant ederal agencies to develop a competency-

based approach, to ensure that ederal sta are hired, trained, and rewarded in

a manner that promotes an understanding and commitment to the importance

o hunters and anglers to wildlie management, the benets o hunting and

shing as outdoor recreational activity, and the use o hunting as a wildlie

management tool.

Incorporate opportunities or hunting and recreational shooting into public

land management, planning, and decision-making. Specically, consider

integrating hunting and recreational shooting opportunities in all ederal

agency plans or travel management, land management, analyses under the

National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and related road closures andother access limitations; ensuring that hunting and recreational shooting

opportunities are a priority; and by tracking compliance.

Charge the Sporting Conservation Council with issuing annual

recommendations or implementing Executive Order 13443 and this action

plan, as well as any amendments to this plan.

Association of African American Sportsmen


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Desert NWR, NV. J&K Hollingsworth/USFW


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Coordinating Federal,State, Tribal, andInternational Action

Background

Facing human population growth, development, climate change and other actors,

ederal, state, and tribal wildlie managers o North America believe wildlie re-

sources o this continent can only be sustained with more eective collaboration.

Wildlie conservation eorts aimed at managing populations, habitat, and people

must be coordinated to achieve these goals.

Although most apparent in addressing migratory species, interstate shery re-

sources and other ederal trust species, the importance o coordination is also

evident in the management o resident species or populations that cross state,

state/tribal boundaries, or reside on ederal public land. Development o ederal,

state, and tribal land management plans and actions should be developed

in concert because o the proximity o these lands to one another and because

actions taken on one governmental entitys land may have an impact on wildlie

and habitat occurring on the same range or habitat type.

Although a great deal o progress has been made through the Cooperative

Conservation Task Force, and other programs and initiatives, some challenges

must be addressed to maximize collaboration and achieve the stated goals. The

challenges continue to occur at all levels o ederal, state, and tribal governments.

Improvement is necessary to meet the sh and wildlie conservation challenges

o tomorrow. To do so, ederal and state wildlie agencies and tribal governments

should coordinate and collaborate in planning, decision-making, and implementa-

tion activities to achieve maximum wildlie conservation success or the nation.

SCC White Paper Goals and Recommendations Develop inrastructure and capacity that will improve and enhance

collaboration and communication between ederal, state, and tribal

governments to achieve seamless implementation and integration o wildlie

objectives.

Ensure that ederal agencies, state agencies, and tribal governments collaborate

in wildlie conservation eorts aimed at managing populations, habitat, and

people to achieve landscape-scale goals. Desired population levels o game and

non-game species negotiated between state, ederal, tribal, and private entities.


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One benet would be to avoid current requent conficts between population

objectives or game and non-game species.

Ensure that ederal agencies, state agencies, and tribal governments integrate

the seven principles o the North American Model o Wildlie Conservation

as described in the SCC white papersinto resource management decision-

making.

ActionsAssess Existing Lines o Coordination.

32. Produce and act on a rigorous assessment o existing authoritiesrelated to hunting and game conservation.

Many aspects o hunting and wildlie conservation span the authorities o state,

ederal, and tribal governments. Various ormal and inormal means o coordinat-

ing these responsibilities have evolved. To examine and improve these relation-

ships, it may be necessary to:

Convene an expert panel o natural resource management and legal

proessionals.

Identiy relevant authorities and crat a user-riendly compendium or use by

relevant ederal employees.

Identiy conficting authorities that result in detrimental impacts to wildlie

conservation and outdoor recreation and crat potential statutory and

regulatory language to clariy and/or reconcile these conficts.

Develop a user-riendly compendium o relevant authorities that will be shared

with ederal employees and non-ederal partners.

Collect and update ormal coordination agreements such as memoranda o

understanding (MOU) and Letters o Transmittal, that should be established

or updated. Note: historically, these agreements have been made between the

ederal agencies and the Association o Fish and Wildlie Agencies (AFWA) on

behal o the states. Agreements should include coordination at all levels o the

organizations.

Produce a detailed proposal or a Public Land Law Review Commission.

Enact Improvements.

33. Expand and enhance cross-boundary eorts to use hunting as awildlie management tool.

Such eorts typically address overpopulated deer herds. These populations over-

lap state lines and neighboring state and ederal lands. To coordinate managementamong the states and with ederal agencies may require a memorandum o under-

standing outlining the planning and execution o management projects. Such an

MOU would include some or all o the ollowing steps:

Identiy a population control issue and contact relevant state sh and wildlie

agencies to explore existing authorities and mechanismssuch as new or

amending hunting seasonsthat can be utilized on ederal and/or adjacent

state lands.

Determine that when new or amended hunting seasons or programs will not

be possible or sucient, agencies will work with states to assess the possibility

Many aspects o hunting and

wildlie conservation span the

authorities o state, ederal, and

tribal governments. Various

ormal and inormal means o

coordinating these responsibilities

have evolved.


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o working jointly to utilize qualied volunteers on ederal lands to assist in

culling operations.

Authorize the use o contraceptives only upon a joint conclusion, under the

terms o the MOU, that none o the above alternatives are available and/or

adequate and with the concurrence o the state sh and wildlie agency.

34. Recommend improvements and enhancements to state-ederal

coordination on wildlie conservation and hunting opportunities.

Ideas likely to guide development o these recommendations would:

Improve the ability o states to match ederal unds with a model state law

creating new dedicated state unds rom product sales, impact ees, transaction

ees, and other potential revenue sources.

Complete an objective report on liability and other legal impediments to

supervised participation in youth and minorities hunting that identies

improvements possible without changes to existing law, and also those

that would require changes in state or ederal law. Three examples o legal

impediments are: prohibitions on Sunday hunting on ederal and state land,

age requirements or licensing, and improvements to hunter education

requirements.

Establish a ormal, routine coordination and communication among ederal,

state, and tribal wildlie managerspossibly relying on the Cooperative

Conservation Task Force.

Clariy and simpliy state and ederal regulations on hunting.

Develop best management practices or hunting and wildlie conservation

consistent across both state and ederal agencies.

Promote ederal legislation that clearly enhances the state sh and wildlie

agencies role, their right and jurisdiction to manage wildlie, which includes

the timing, manner, and place o take o wildlie.

Distribute drats o model legislation that guides implementation o laws andregulations ensuring wildlie species, whether ree-ranging or in captivity,

remain the jurisdiction and responsibility o states and provinces, and, where

appropriate, ederal wildlie management agencies.

35. Convene an International Congress on Wildlie Conservationamong heads o state and their representatives.

The purpose o such a gathering would be to review, share, and propose better

coordination among the domestic wildlie conservation programs o the par-

ticipating nations. A possible outcome could be an in-service learning exchange

program between U.S. Fish and Wildlie Service sta and their counterparts in

oreign countries.

Promote ederal legislation that

clearly enhances the state sh

and wildlie agencies role, their

right and jurisdiction to manage

wildlie, which includes the

timing, manner, and place

o take o wildlie.


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Understanding ClimateChange and WildlieEects

Success in implementing Executive Order 13443 means expanding and enhanc-

ing wildlie conservation in a manner that integrates emerging scientic data and

related climate change policy into the management o wildlie habitat and wildlie

dependent recreation.The United States Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) highlights recent

advances and uture directions or climate change research. These eorts need

to be integrated into consideration o how climate change aects game species,

populations, individuals, and habitats in the uture. Opportunities exist to bet-

ter utilize observed eects o climate change in habitat conservation and adap-

tive management. It is also important to ensure that the

the recreational hunting and wildlife conservation plan as directed by executive order 13443 -...

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