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. 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