[TN-Bird] FW: President Bush discusses bird conservation - news and analysis

Many of you probably saw a photo of President Bush posing with a screech-owl
in your Sunday newspaper.  This was part of the coverage of a short talk on
bird conservation that he made at Patuxent Research Refuge in Maryland on
Saturday.  Following is an analysis of the points he made in his speech,
along with the full text of his speech.  This analysis was assembled by
Ellen Paul of the Ornithological Council.  While President Bush did not
propose very much in the way of new initiatives or increased funding for
existing programs, let's hope he and Congress follow though and implement
and fully fund the programs he discussed.

Chuck Nicholson
Norris, TN


-----Original Message-----
From: Ornithological Council Legislative Alert System
[mailto:OCNET-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Ellen Paul
Sent: Monday, October 22, 2007 8:38 AM
To: OCNET-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: President Bush discusses bird conservation - news and analysis

On Saturday, 20 October 2007, President Bush gave a short speech about 
bird conservation programs and efforts supported by his Administration. 
The full text appears below.

Analysis: The following information is offered to give everyone 
background on the programs and initiatives that are mentioned in the talk.

The specific programs or initiatives described by the President are 
listed here, with dates created and status since 20 January 2001:

NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGES (first refuge created 1903; National Wildlife 
Refuge System Administration Act 1966, refuges created since 20 January 
2001= 17 (three of these in January 2001, meaning that they should 
probably be credited to the prior Administration). I haven't been able 
to determine how many acres have been added to the system since 2001. In 
2004 and 2005, 322,000 acres were added.

The system comprises about 96 million acres (19 million in ANWR); about 
20% is designated as Wilderness (8 million acres in ANWR).

Having acres is only half the story. How you manage those acres matters, 
too.

FY2008 Budget request (from www.refugenet.org, the website of the 
National Wildlife Refuge Association):
The FY 2008 budget request proposes $394.8 million for the operations 
and maintenance (O&M) account for the Refuge System - approximately 
$13.1 million more than the administration's FY 2007 request a small 
increase in funding for the Refuge System. However, the Refuge System 
needs a $15 million increase each year to fully cover actual increased 
costs. To simply keep pace with inflation and cost of living increases, 
the System needs a minimum of $451 million for FY08. Severe funding and 
staffing shortfalls have led to the decline of refuge habitats and 
wildlife populations and have put popular wildlife-dependent recreation 
programs at risk. Aging facilities and equipment, invasive species, 
human encroachment, pollution, inadequate water supplies and other 
problems plague the Refuge System, making it nearly impossible for 
refuges to meet their conservation mission. Management programs that 
help recover endangered species, restore damaged habitats, address 
threats to water quality and other problems are left unaccomplished on 
an alarming number of refuges. Funding for the Refuge System translates 
to less than $4.00 per acre! Most refuges are operated with only minimal 
staffing, and approximately 200 refuges have no staff on-site. 
Unfortunately, the forecast is for this to get worse before it gets better.
Without the support of local Friends and support groups nationwide, the 
Refuge System will continue to experience budget cuts in the foreseeable 
future. The Refuge System needs $451.5 million for operations and 
maintenance (O&M) in FY08 to keep up with inflation and fixed costs.

Without funding increases, FWS will need to eliminate staff, allowing 
invasive species and other threats to go unchecked. With little or no 
law enforcement protection, crime on refuges will increase, and local 
communities will begin to see their refuge as a place to avoid, not as a 
place to take their children to experience nature. As public support 
dwindles, so will support in Congress. Ultimately, we must ask ourselves 
if we can afford these budget cuts.

Good summary - 10 October 2007 AP article: 
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/outdoors/2003939141_webrefuges10.html

See also: http://www.fundrefuges.org/CARE/CareHome.html to see how the 
funding situation affects refuges in your state.

JOINT VENTURES - regionally based coalitions of public and private 
organizations developed under the North American Waterfowl Management 
Plan, are accepting the challenge of carrying out multiple bird 
conservation plans using an integrated approach. Created under the North 
American Waterfowl Conservation Plan in 1986. Initially limited to 
waterfowl conservation, the joint ventures accepted responsibility for 
serving as a vehicle for all-bird conservation in 2004-2005, as 
formalized in a 2003 USFWS Director's Order (now 721 FW 6; 
http://www.fws.gov/policy/721fw6.html).

The federal government, through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, may 
or may not be involved in a given joint venture and may or may not 
provide financial support. Last year, federal support for JVs was about 
$11 million (it pays for staff and administrative support). That number 
has remained stable for several years. The fact that a new joint venture 
is being formed does not necessarily mean that there will be federal 
support for the joint venture.

CONSERVATION EASEMENTS - A conservation easement (or conservation 
restriction) is a legal agreement between a landowner and a land trust 
or government agency that permanently limits uses of the land in order 
to protect its conservation values. It allows you to continue to own and 
use your land and to sell it or pass it on to heirs. When you donate a 
conservation easement to a land trust, you give up some of the rights 
associated with the land. For example, you might give up the right to 
build additional structures, while retaining the right to grow crops. 
Future owners also will be bound by the easement's terms. The land trust 
is responsible for making sure the easement's terms are followed.

This federal tax incentive has been around for a hundred years, though 
few existed until the 1950s. In 2006, Congress enacted a one-year 
expansion of this tax-credit program (raising the credit from 30% to 50% 
and to 100% for ranchers and farmers....) and President Bush supports 
making this permanent.

FARM BILL CONSERVATION PROGRAMS (SPECIFICALLY THE CONSERVATION RESERVE 
PROGRAM) - the Farm Bill conservation programs have been around since 
1985. The habitat that is protected comprises a wide range of vegetation 
types in plots of varying sizes and shapes, and some undoubtedly serve 
bird conservation better than others. Research shows that birds use this 
habitat, but it is harder to know if these plots support self-sustaining 
populations. The acreage is enrolled for only 15 years (though 
enrollment can sometimes be renewed). What the Farm Bill giveth, 
however, the Farm Bill also taketh away, in the form of other policies 
that encourage the planting of too many acres of various crops, without 
regard for the conservation impact in the United States or elsewhere. 
The Farm Bill subsidies are widely considered by economists across the 
political spectrum to be major contributors to continuing poverty in 
undeveloped or underdeveloped countries, forcing the perpetuation of 
shifting agriculture and unsustainable take of wildlife for food as well 
as the inability of governments to create and support conservation in 
these countries.

URBAN BIRD CONSERVATION TREATY - 
http://www.fws.gov/birds/urbantreaty.html. Created in 1999.

*How to Apply*

*Due to lack of funding, we are not able to take new applications for 
challenge-cost-shares at this time. We are still open to future 
partnering with cities. We are currently looking for ways to put City 
staff and Service personnel together to discuss opportunities for Treaty 
Cities by utilizing partnerships and funding from outside sources.
*

FUNDING FOR FIVE PRIORITY HABITATS IN MEXICO** - **Presumably, under the 
aegis of the North American Bird Conservation Initiative and/or the 
Trilateral Agreement for Wildlife and Ecosystem Conservation and 
Management <http://www.trilat.org/general_pages/background_eng.htm>.

NABCI has evolved a great deal since it began as a project funded under 
the environmental side-agreement to the North American Free Trade 
Agreement in 1989 (which is why it was limited to the US, Canada, and 
Mexico). That funding no longer exists. In the US and Canada, funding is 
provided (mostly in kind, I think, through staffing) by federal and 
state agencies and by private partners who take part in specific 
projects. In most, if not all, of the US, NABCI reaches the ground 
through the Joint Ventures. The other major implementation effort in the 
US is provided by the states, funded in part by various federal funding 
programs. The President did not mention in his speech. The largest of 
these are the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration, aka 
Pittman-Robertson, a program created in 1937, and the State Wildlife 
Grants program, an annual appropriation that evolved out of the Teaming 
With Wildlife effort to create a permanent fund for state wildlife 
conservation (it later morphed into the Conservation and Reinvestment 
Act or "CARA" which, despite strong support in the House and the Senate, 
was never enacted).

Looking at the fact sheet that accompanies Mr. Bush's speech, it appears 
that the five projects to which he alludes are those created under NABCI:

http://www.nabci-us.org/trinationalprojects.htm

STATUS OF MIGRATORY BIRD POPULATIONS - This is actually a management 
exercise in which all federal agencies are required to take part. Known 
as the PART, or Performance Assessment Ratings Tool, it requires every 
agency to set annual goals based on the agency's five-year strategic 
plan, and then to assess the extent to which that goal was met. As you 
might guess, the extent to which we can actually determine the 
population size, or change in population size, of any species, is 
limited, and the biological significance of annual change is ... well ....

But as to the comment "we just don't want to be guessing about bird 
populations, we want to measure" - go ask anyone who works for the U.S. 
Geological Survey Biology Discipline, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service, the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the National 
Park Service, etc. just how much funding is allocated to monitoring 
(whether simple counts or question-driven monitoring...that debate is 
scientifically fascinating but essentially moot at current funding levels).

Ellen
-----

Ellen Paul
Executive Director
The Ornithological Council
Mailto:ellen.paul@xxxxxxxxxxx
"Providing Scientific Information about Birds"
Ornithological Council: http://www.nmnh.si.edu/BIRDNET


*President Bush Discusses Migratory Bird Conservation *
Patuxent Research Refuge - Endangered Crane Complex
Laurel, Maryland

9:01 A.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Listen, thank you all for coming. I appreciate the 
hospitality you've shown us here at Patuxent Research Refuge. I want to 
thank all the good folks who work here from the Fish and Wildlife 
Service, as well as the U.S. Geological Survey.

One of the things we've discussed here is a significant environmental 
challenge we face here in America, and that is birds are losing the 
stopover habitats they need and depend on for their annual migrations. 
And therefore I've come to discuss a strategy to enhance those habitats, 
without which many birds could become severely challenged.

me, this is a national issue that requires national focus. And so I 
appreciate very much you all giving me a chance to describe our strategy 
and thanks for your -- thanks for working for the country.

I am proud to be here with Laura, bird-watcher extraordinaire. I 
appreciate Secretary Dirk Kempthorne running our Interior Department. I 
do thank Wendy Paulson, who's joined us. She's on the board of the 
Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Some of the recommendations -- or all the 
recommendations that I'm describing today were brought to our attention 
by Wendy and a friend of mine from Texas named Rusty Rose, both of whom 
serve on this important university lab -- the board of the lab. I 
appreciate Judd Howell, the director, who gave us a tour. And Brad, 
thank you very much for joining us.

I also want to thank George Fenwick, he's the President of the American 
Bird Conservancy, for joining us as well. Appreciate the staff members 
here who worked on this initiative. Thanks for your hard work and your 
-- and bringing what I believe the American people will find is a 
commonsense policy that makes sense for our future.

I don't know if you know this or not, but each year more than 800 
species of migratory birds brave stiff winds, harsh weather and numerous 
predators to fly thousands of miles. Their final destination is the warm 
climate of the American south, or the Caribbean or Mexico, where they 
stay for the winter. These amazing travelers will then return to their 
breeding grounds in the north. And as they span these distances, they 
fascinate and bring joy to millions of our citizens. A lot of folks 
across the country love to watch birds.

For these migratory birds, surviving their long journey depends on a 
stopover habitat. That basically means they got to find a place to rest, 
a safe place to prepare to continue their journey. Unfortunately, 
expanding civilization has made it harder for these birds to find places 
to stop and to rest.

And so that's the challenge we face and, you know, one area that -- one 
reason we came here is because the National Wildlife Refuges like this 
one provide stopover habitat, and they play a really important role in 
our conservation efforts. My administration has supported the National 
Wildlife Refuge system. We've expanded some of the existing sites, we 
created 10 new ones, and we restored and improved hundreds of thousands 
of acres of habitat for migratory birds. In other words, we recognize 
the refuge system is an important part of preserving our bird populations.
And we've set a goal that by the time I leave office we will improve 
another 200,000 acres. And I appreciate, Mr. Secretary, you joining us 
and committing your Department to achieving that goal.

In addition to the wildlife refuges, we're also working to improve 
habitat for migratory birds in our national parks. We've increased 
funding. But we've got a new initiative that I want to -- want the 
American people to be aware of, and it's called the National Parks 
Centennial Initiative. And the idea is to match taxpayers' money with 
private donations to the tune of $3 billion, so that we can improve our 
national parks. And some of that money is going to go to restoration, to 
the restoration of a variety of wildlife habitats, including some that 
directly benefit birds.

Improving our nation's long-term protections for migratory birds 
requires conservation beyond the boundaries of our national parks and 
refuges. And so one of the things this administration has done is to 
bring together citizens and private groups and officials from every 
level of government in the spirit of cooperation. In other words, we 
recognize that the federal government alone cannot provide the habitat 
necessary for migratory birds. We call this program cooperative 
conservation, and part of the emphasis is to restore critical habitat.

One of the most important cooperative conservation efforts has been what 
they call joint venture programs for water fowl. This program has 
brought together federal, state and tribal agencies with private groups 
and corporations to improve habitat on private lands. It's worked so 
well for water fowl that we're now using it for other migratory birds. 
We've had -- we have 18 joint ventures now underway, and next year we're 
going to add three more to help conserve birds along the Rio Grande 
corridor, the Appalachian Mountains and on the Northern Great Plains.

Here's the way they work. Each venture, joint venture brings together a 
team of biologists and land managers -- these are the experts -- and 
they make -- and then they work with the bird conservationists in a 
particular region to design and carry out critical habitat improvement. 
To enhance habitat conservation we're going to put forth next week an 
innovative policy called recovery credit trading. This policy will 
provide incentives for landowners to improve habitat for migratory birds 
and other species. Landowners can earn recovery credits for the habitat 
they improve and then they can sell those credits. The idea is to 
provide incentive for our private landowners to help deal with the 
concern that I started the speech with, and that is to make sure there's 
critical habitat available for migratory birds.

There's something else we can do. I asked Congress to provide tax 
incentive to reward landowners who donate conservation easements. 
Conservation easements are a good way to ensure the long-term 
preservation of habitat. They allow people to give up the right to 
develop parts of their land and then count the value of that right as a 
charitable contribution. The proposal would allow good citizens who give 
these conservation easements -- allow them to deduct a higher portion of 
the donation from their income taxes, both in the year they donated and 
the years that follow. In other words, this is additional incentives for 
landowners to become a part of this comprehensive national strategy and 
Congress needs to pass this piece of tax legislation.

You know, another important measure we've taken is in the conservation 
title of the farm bill. This title encourages farmers and ranchers to 
set aside critical habitat through a program called Conservation Reserve 
Program, or the CRP. And our proposal to Congress as they rewrite the 
farm bill, we're asking them to dedicate $50 billion over five years to 
make sure that this program continues in effect. The program has been 
effective for our farmers and ranchers and, equally importantly, for our 
bird populations. And my hope is that Congress recognizes its 
effectiveness and will continue to fund this program.

We're making progress in rural areas, but there needs to be some work in 
urban areas. And so we've got an interesting program underway to help 
five cities turn parks and local backyards into stopover bird habitats 
over the next two years. In other words, what we're trying to do is to 
make sure that we have a successful strategy in five cities that could 
become the blueprint for cities all around the country.

Many species of birds live part of their lives here in the United States 
and part in Mexico. So we have a strategy to work with Mexico to enhance 
bird habitats in their country. I've talked about -- I've talked about 
this issue with President Calder n. He shares my concern about making 
sure there's critical habitat available for our migratory birds. The 
Secretaries of State, Interior and Commerce are working with their 
counterparts in the Mexican government. Non-governmental partners are 
working to undertake important habitat projects in Mexico as well.

One of the things we have done is we've identified five priority 
habitats in Mexico. We listened to the experts who pointed us to five 
important areas and we have provided $4 million to support conservation 
initiatives there. I also directed federal agencies to increase our 
nation's participation in an international effort to protect coastal and 
marine migratory birds such as albatrosses and petrels. Restoring 
habitats at home and abroad is going to help us achieve the objectives 
and goals I have set out, which is providing critical habitat for 
migratory birds.

Our efforts to restore habitats are strengthening bird populations. 
Since 2004, the Department of Interior has improved the status of five 
migratory bird species, and the Department is helping ensure that more 
than 62 percent of our nation's migratory bird species are healthy and 
at sustainable levels. But that's not good enough -- 62 percent is good, 
but we can do better. And so I've asked the Secretary to -- Secretary 
Kempthorne to focus on the status of five more species over the next 
five years. And to achieve this goal we need good data. I mean, we just 
don't want to be guessing about bird populations, we want to measure. 
And so I've asked the Secretary to produce a State of the Birds Report 
by 2009. This report will chart our progress, it'll identify species 
that need additional protections, and help us bring more of America's 
bird species into a healthy and sustainable status.

And Mr. Secretary, I appreciate your commitment. I appreciate the fact 
that you understand America's greatness is not measured by material 
wealth alone; it's measured by how we manage and care for all that we 
have been given. We're people united by our belief that we must be good 
stewards of our environment. The cooperative conservation policies that 
we have put in place show our commitment to protecting America's 
migratory birds, conserving the habitat they depend on and ensuring that 
generations of Americans will enjoy the beauty of birds for decades to 
come.

I appreciate you all joining me. I want to thank you for your interest. 
God bless our country.

END 9:13 A.M. EDT

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