On March 20, the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) joined 32 partner organizations from the American Wildlife Conservation Partners (AWCP) in signing onto a letter in support of the North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) in Fiscal Year (FY) 2019.
NAWCA is a unique program that leverages federal grants in coordination with non-federal dollars in order to conserve wetland habitat benefitting various waterfowl species, enhancing water availability, and reducing soil erosion. For every federal dollar spent, one non-federal dollar must be spent as a match, however, the match of non-federal dollars often triples the required one to one match.
Since its inception in 1989, over 33.4 million acres of critical wetland habitat has been conserved by leveraging $1.4 billion in federal grants and $4.34 billion in non-federal dollars. Furthermore, NAWCA has provided funds to carry out over 2,600 projects spanning across all 50 states, which will create an estimated 7,500 new jobs annually.
Reauthorization of NAWCA has been included in a number of sportsmen’s packages in the 115th Congress including the SHARE Act (H.R. 3668), HELP for Wildlife Act (S.1514), and the Energy and Natural Resources Act (S.1460). Additionally, H.R. 1099, the North American Wetlands Conservation Extension Act, was introduced in the House of Representatives by Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus (CSC) Member Rob Wittman in order to reauthorize NAWCA for $50 million annually through FY 2022.
Studies conducted at both the state and federal level have found that the number of hunters and trappers have been on a generally declining trend over the past several decades. To increase recruitment, retention, and reactivation (R3) of hunters and trappers, which initiative do you think would have the greatest impact?
