A coalition of 52 conservation groups wants the Trump administration to preserve citizens’ access to public lands and improve the government’s relationship with private landowners while protecting the wildlife and natural resources on those lands.
Since its founding in 2000, AWCP has issued recommendations to presidents and Congress every four years.
The latest list includes improving funding for conservation programs, expanding and preserving public access, and coordinating public and private wildlife conservation efforts.
The first of the nine recommendations calls for adequate and reliable funding for existing programs.
Matt Lindler, director of government affairs for the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF), said the answer isn’t always more money. Often, the problem is political, he said.
He said much of the federal funding for conservation projects is in the Omnibus Farm Bill. This massive piece of legislation covers many federal programs related to agriculture, food production, food safety, nutrition, forestry, and wildlife conservation, among others.
“Recent farm bills have faced legislative hurdles for enactment, such as insufficient votes to pass the House floor, presidential vetoes, and delays resulting in short-term extensions,” the report reads.
Lindler said ideological differences over other programs in the Farm Bill have held up the bill’s progress. He believes the 2024 election has set the stage for the current Farm Bill to reach the president’s desk.
Lindler said he is optimistic.
“It’s the largest vehicle for private lands conservation in our government. So it funds all of the private land incentive programs that are implemented by the Natural Resources Conservation Service,” he told The Epoch Times. “I feel like a bill will happen. I don’t think it will be, you know, the perfectly ideal bill, but it'll be a good bill.”
However, funding is only one of the issues listed by AWCP. The organization is also calling for regulators to work closely with landowners and conservationists.
John Devney is AWCP’s incoming chairman and the chief policy officer for Delta Waterfowl, a research organization started in 1911.
He said that historically, government agencies have defaulted to restricting the use of public lands as a method for conservation.
According to Devney, the AWCP’s objective is to involve all parties—government agencies, landowners, hunters, business interests, and outdoor sports enthusiasts—in developing conservation plans that allow for public use while protecting natural resources.
The recommendations include a call for incentive programs for private landowners to preserve wildlife habitat. This includes paying landowners and developers to protect habitat, such as migration corridors for sheep, deer, and elk.
Ranchers, oil companies, developers, and other landowners would be compensated for preserving areas and providing access to hunters, fishers, hikers, and campers.
In addition, the recommendations call for government agencies to be more specific about their closures. Under the AWCP’s guidelines, an agency would have to specify why land was being closed, how long it was expected to remain closed, and provide alternative facilities.
For example, if forestland is closed to recreational shooting, such as for target practice, the agency closing the property would have to provide another place that people could shoot. This could include building a public firing range for marksmen displaced by the closure.
Devney said that the recommendations also cover wildlife refuges and wildlife management areas, many of which are closed to the public.
Last year alone, the government received $3.3 billion in licensing fees and excise taxes to fund conservation programs.
Devney said outdoors enthusiasts support conservation because without the land and water, they would not be able to pursue their interests.
A Holistic View
Brendan Beatty is director of the Montana Department of Revenue and a rancher. He had not seen the AWCP’s recommendations but said he liked the idea of getting outdoor sports enthusiasts, landowners, and the government working together.Beatty said the government has taken a “my way or the highway” approach to conservation without really considering the impact of policies from all perspectives. This can have unintended consequences, he said.
He talked about the sage grouse, which nests on the ground. Beatty said that in an effort to protect the bird, the government banned all mineral extraction and oil exploration in its habitat.
“The same people that chose to do that picked half a million acres in Montana suitable for solar panel development for clean electricity. ... If you think an oil well is going to disrupt a bunch of sage hens, imagine a few thousand acres of solar panels covering the sagebrush,” Beatty told The Epoch Times.
He said each parcel of land should be evaluated to determine its best use.
“We need a holistic view, and we need more public tolerance of many uses. There are some places that should be wilderness. There are some places that should be mined or drilled or hunted,” he said.
