AFWA is Seeking an Agricultural Conservation Coordinator

The Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies is looking for a talented individual (super hero) to manage our Farm Bill conservation, forestry and bioenergy portfolio in Washington, DC.

The coordinator, under direct supervision of the Government Affairs Director, works with state fish and wildlife agencies and other Association members to enhance fish and wildlife habitat and encourage sustainably managed fish and wildlife resources through the reauthorization and implementation of conservation, forestry, energy and other provisions of the 2014 and future Farm Bills. The incumbent will work closely with the state agencies, AFWA's Agricultural Conservation Committee and its seven programmatic working groups to troubleshoot Farm Bill conservation implementation challenges and work with federal agencies and conservation partner organizations to develop policy recommendations for achieving desired outcomes. The coordinator also works with Congress during the Farm Bill reauthorization process and appropriations cycles to advance the state fish and wildlife agencies’ Farm Bill priorities.

This is a full-time position located in AFWA's Washington, DC office. 

> View the full position announcement

New Practitioner’s Guide Available for Fish and Wildlife Conservation Providers to Help Landowners Access Farm Bill Programs

The Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies supported the North American Bird Conservation Initiative in producing the 2014 Farm Bill FieldGuide to Fish and Wildlife Conservation. Now available, this field guide is a tool to assist the staff of federal and state fish and wildlife agencies, nongovernmental conservation organizations, joint ventures and other conservation partners in implementing Farm Bill conservation programs.

More than two-thirds of the land area in the United States is privately owned, with 914 million acres in farms or ranches and approximately 300 million acres in private forest. These working lands, which represent much of the country’s remaining open space and habitat, are vitally important to the conservation of soil, water and fish and wildlife resources. The Agricultural Act of 2014, the most recently enacted Farm Bill, dedicates approximately $28 billion dollars until 2018 for conservation.

The 2014 Farm Bill Field Guide to Fish andWildlife Conservation was designed primarily as an introduction for fish and wildlife conservation providers—the on-the-ground biologists and conservation partners who help deliver Farm Bill conservation programs to landowners. The goal is to provide these practitioners with a tool to better understand the Farm Bill and how its programs can help landowners conserve fish and wildlife habitat.

The guide provides an overview of the Conservation Title in the 2014 Farm Bill as well as Farm Bill history, program delivery, the role of partnerships and priority setting. It also features case studies and details on the following programs: the Conservation Reserve Program, Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Conservation Innovation Grants, Conservation Stewardship Program, Healthy Forests Reserve Program, Regional Conservation Partnership Program and Voluntary Public Access and Habitat Incentive Program.

To download the Farm Bill Field Guide or to request a printed copy, go to http://amjv.org/index.php/2014farmbillfieldguide.

A diverse coalition of habitat conservation organizations helped the North American Bird Conservation Initiative prepare and publish this guide, including:

Appalachian Mountains Joint Venture

Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies

Intermountain West Joint Venture

The Nature Conservancy

Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever

Point Blue Conservation Science

Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory

> Learn more about AFWA’s Agricultural Conservation Focus Area

Increased Opportunities for Public Outdoor Recreation Coming Thanks to the 2014 Farm Bill’s Voluntary Public Access and Habitat Incentive Program

Photo by George Andrejko

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) today opened a new application period under the Voluntary Public Access and Habitat Incentive Program (VPA-HIP), which harnesses the power of partnerships to create win-win opportunities for private landowners, science-based fish and wildlife conservation and the public.

The 2014 Farm Bill reauthorized the VPA-HIP with $40 million in total funding for state and tribal government programs to encourage owners and operators of privately held land to voluntarily make that land available for wildlife habitat improvements and public access for hunting, fishing and other wildlife-dependent recreation. 

The Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies commends the leadership of Senators Debbie Stabenow (MI) and Thad Cochran (MS) and Congressmen Frank Lucas (OK) and Collin Peterson (MA) for supporting funding this program.

By helping to increase access and opportunities for hunting and fishing, the VPA-HIP in turn also helps to generate financial resources for state agencies to manage fish and wildlife and their habitats in the public interest.

Hunters and anglers are the nation’s foremost funders of state-based conservation as a result of their purchases of licenses and specially taxed gear. America’s sportsmen and women also deliver a more than $200 billion economic impact to the U.S. economy, especially in many rural and local communities.

NRCS is accepting applications for this round of the VPA-HIP through April 24, 2015 and the agency anticipates that up to $20 million will be available for this important competitive block grant program. If all $20 million available in this round is allocated, it will be the last VPA-HIP funding opportunity under this Farm Bill—which expires September 30, 2018—unless Congress appropriates additional funds.

The full announcement from NRCS is available at

www.grants.gov/web/grants/search-grants.html?keywords=voluntary%20public%20access%20and%20habitat.

New Regional Conservation Partnership Program Empowers State Agencies to Focus on Priority Species

The Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies applauds today’s $370 million funding announcement from U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Vilsack on the new Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP).  RCPP was created by the 2014 Farm Bill to support partnership-driven, innovative conservation projects on farms, ranches and private forest land.

In this first RCPP announcement, 24 percent of funds – approximately $90 million – are going to projects that name fish and wildlife habitat as the primary resource concern.  At least 13 state fish and wildlife agencies are contributing partners on at least 16 successful RCPP projects, totaling more than $65 million in Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) funds. RCPP project partners are expected to leverage the USDA contribution with their own resources, bringing the total investment from today’s announcement close to $800 million.

State fish and wildlife agencies and their partners will be using RCPP project funds to address a variety of priority fish and wildlife species and habitats: from Arizona pronghorn antelope to Gopher Tortoise in Florida, to Cerulean Warblers in Appalachian states. The states and their partners will innovatively use RCPP funds to help agricultural producers sustainably manage forests, restore grasslands, improve water quality, protect farms and ranches and enhance irrigation efficiency, to name a few.  

RCPP allows partners to decide which resource concerns to focus on, and where and how to target program funding. Partners from the 115 successful projects announced today will coordinate with the NRCS to deliver their projects, providing financial and technical assistance to agricultural producers through voluntary programs to enhance conservation. 

This first application round for RCPP was highly competitive. Of approximately 600 pre-proposals, 231 projects were invited to submit full proposals. The 201 submitted full proposals requested about four times the available funding. NRCS is expected to announce another funding round with approximately $200 million available this spring.

> Read the full RCPP announcement

> Learn more about AFWA's Agricultural Conservation Focus Area

AFWA Joins Sportsmen and Conservation Community in Appeals to House Members for Proportional Budget Cuts

The Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies joined with 31 organizations in the hunting, angling and conservation community to urgently appeal to U.S. House Members for fair and proportional cuts to conservation funding proposed in House Continuing Resolution for FY11 (HR1). The CR proposes, among other cuts, to zero-fund the North American Wetlands Conservation Act and the State and Tribal Wildlife Grants programs, which are vital to helping state fish and wildlife agencies meet their conservation objectives. Other programs such as Farm Bill Conservation programs, the Land and Water Conservation Fund, Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund, Forest Legacy and the National Fish Habitat Action Plan would be severely reduced or eliminated.

While the CR cuts spending to many programs valued by Americans, zero-funding fish and wildlife conservation programs is disproportionate to cuts endured by most other programs, and the deep cuts are magnified because these are matching grant programs where state and NGO partner dollars are leveraged with federal dollars to put more conservation on the ground.

The letter to Representatives states:
We, the hunting, fishing and conservation community, are writing you with great urgency to ensure that you understand that various provisions of HR 1 and several amendments to that bill strike directly at America’s longstanding tradition of federal support for conservation and management of fish, wildlife and their habitat. Among these are the elimination of funding for State and Tribal Wildlife Grants, the elimination of funding for the North American Wetlands Conservation Act, significant cuts to Farm Bill Conservation Programs, the drastic reduction or elimination of funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, Forest Legacy, the Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund, and the National Fish Habitat Action Plan, and the elimination of federal funding for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

While we fully acknowledge that conservation programs should shoulder a fair and proportional burden of reductions to the Federal budget as required to address the budget deficit, these provisions of HR 1, in our view, represent a deliberate move away from America’s long conservation tradition and, specifically with respect to the interests of the hunting, fishing and outdoor community. We are very disappointed that the Congress would consider these actions without consultation with the hunting, fishing and conservation community. These vital programs with long-standing track records of success are foundational to fish, wildlife and habitat conservation, good for the economy in creating jobs particularly in rural communities, and critical to providing opportunities for America’s sportsmen and women.

We urge that before acting on HR 1, you alter the deep cuts cited above to reflect a proportional share of the budget reductions you are seeking. Thank you for your sincere consideration of our views.

Farm Bill Seeds On-the-ground Conservation Benefits for Wildlife and Wildlife Habitat

Four billion dollar increase in conservation spending for critical new and renewed programs will enhance states’ ability to manage public trust resources

WASHINGTON, DC -- A four billion dollar increase in funding for programs that maintain and advance conservation of vital fish and wildlife habitat passed today as part of the 2007 Farm Bill Conference Report by an 81-15 vote in the Senate and a 318-106 vote in the House yesterday. Pay-as-you-go rules, a declining Congressional baseline budget and a promised Presidential veto have threatened the report’s passage before both chambers came to an agreement this week. The votes are sufficient to override a veto.

“While 70 percent of U.S. land is privately owned, all fish and wildlife is held in the public trust,” said Corky Pugh, President of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (AFWA) and Director of the Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division. “Landowners work in partnership with state fish and wildlife agencies to undertake wildlife-friendly habitat management on their properties. The Farm Bill delivers important funding that enables these tremendous opportunities for on-the-ground conservation.”

Provisions in the bill renew the Wetland Reserve Program, an easement process for landowners to retire and restore drained wetlands; the Grassland Reserve Program to protect native grasslands; and the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program to address priority fish and wildlife concerns within states such as early successional dependent species like the woodcock in Northeast states or critical salmon habitat in the Pacific Northwest.The bill significantly ramps up the funding for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and the new Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP). The EQIP provision has specific language mentioning wildlife, while both programs contain language directing the Secretary of Agriculture to consider national, regional and state conservation priorities.

“This is great news for national wildlife conservation initiatives like the North American Waterfowl Management Plan and the Northern Bobwhite Conservation Initiative,” said Dan Forster, Vice-Chair of AFWA’s committee on Agriculture Conservation, and Director, Georgia’s Division of Wildlife.

The 2007 Farm Bill also introduces the new “Open Fields” Programs. Open Fields expands upon USDA’s Conservation Reserve Program to assist states with voluntary programs providing public access to private lands for fishing, hunting and other wildlife-related recreation. The Farm Bill further provides new federal tax deductions for landowners who make efforts to protect endangered species, as well as extending federal tax deductions to individuals who donate easements on their land for conservation purposes.

In addition to the conservation and environmental gains, the economic results derived from increased hunting, fishing and outdoor recreational opportunities are particularly important to rural agricultural families and communities. Hunters and anglers nationwide are a $76 billion market force.

“While the bill did not include all the things for conservation we had worked for, like a strong Sodsaver provision, we applaud Congress for passing this critically important bill and look forward to working with our partners in USDA to deliver these new conservation programs across all 50 states,” said Jennifer Mock Schaeffer, Agriculture Conservation Policy Analyst, Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. “When fish and wildlife benefit from improved habitats, all Americans benefit from the healthier environment, improved quality of life and benefits to the economy.”

The Farm Bill is reauthorized every five years to support American producers, ensure consumers an abundance of food and fiber at reasonable prices and provide various conservation opportunities for farmers, ranchers and landowners. It is the single largest federal investment in conservation on private land, covering more than half of the landscape of the lower 48 states.

Press release: Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies