Fish and Animal Wildlife Conservation

While hiking in north Wisconsin’s wilderness in June, this Eastern Screech Owl was flying around looking for lunch. It had a large wingspan and took us by surprise. Then it landed on top of this tree and keep it’s eye on us. Photo by Kevin.

Fish and animal wildlife conservation could get a boost if the 2007 budget request makes it through the bureaucratic hoops. In the President’s 2007 budget there is a request for 2.1 billion set-aside for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In this budget request the following.

An increase of $7.2 million for a total of $74.7 million for the State and Tribal Wildlife Grants Fund that aids wildlife conservation on State and Tribal lands. This includes $5.0 million for a new competitive grant program.
An increase of $2.2 million for a total of $41.6 million for the North American Wetlands Conservation Fund, which provides matching grants to private or public organizations and individuals to carry out wetlands conservation projects that benefit waterfowl resources in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
An increase of $2.7 million for a total of $24.4 million for Landowner Incentive Grants that provide State and Tribal fish and wildlife agencies funds needed to establish or expand habitat protection and restoration programs on private land for "at risk" species.
An increase of $2.1 million for a total of $9.4 million for Private Stewardship Grant program that provides cost-share grants to landowners for conservation actions to benefit Federally listed, proposed or candidate or other at-risk species.
The request includes $80.0 million for the Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund to help States support a wide array of conservation projects for candidate proposed and listed species.
A total of $42.7 million for the successful Partners for Fish and Wildlife program. This program works with private landowners on a voluntary basis to restore habitat on private land. This total includes a requested increase of $2.0 million for restoration work in the Klamath Basin and nearly $1.3 million for wolf monitoring and Yellowstone grizzly bear conservation efforts.

An increase of $2.0 million for the National Fish Habitat Initiative for a total of $3.0 million. The National Fish Habitat Initiative is a nationwide effort that harnesses the energies, expertise and existing partnerships of state and federal agencies and conservation organizations to improve aquatic habitat health.

Increases of $4.3 million for a total of $8.6 million for the National Wildlife Refuge System's Challenge Cost Share program, which provides grants that match Federal and private funds for conservation projects on refuges.

A programmatic increase of nearly $1.0 million, for a total of $11.8 million, to implement the North American Waterfowl Management Plan to manage waterfowl and diverse migratory bird species by supporting the existing 19 Joint Ventures and initiating four new ventures in 2007. This successful and highly cooperative program protects and restores vital habitats for diverse migratory bird species across North America.

$7.4 million for Service efforts monitoring Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in wild migratory birds.

$41.3 million for the Migratory Bird Management program, a $2.5 million programmatic increase. This includes the Joint Ventures discussed above. This increase will go to monitoring the Nation's waterfowl population.

$61.1 million for the National Fish Hatchery System, including a $1.9 million programmatic increase for hatchery operations.

$5.0 million for fish passage improvement, a $1.4 million increase.

(Source US Fish and Wildlife)

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife is the driving force for fish and animal wildlife conservation in the United States.

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