Earlier right this moment, Secretary Tom Vilsack of the US Division of Agriculture (USDA) issued a Secretary’s Memorandum that can direct companies inside USDA to enhance and preserve terrestrial wildlife habitat connectivity throughout the nation.
This effort will assist bolster the conservation of migratory wildlife habitat by offering route to reinforce interagency coordination throughout the USDA in addition to interdepartmental coordination with different vital entities such because the Division of the Inside and state fish and wildlife companies. This memo supplies route to vital USDA companies such because the U.S. Forest Service, the Pure Assets Conservation Service, the Farm Service Company, and the Animal and Plant Well being Inspection Service to implement science-based decision-making because it pertains to conserving and restoring wildlife habitat connectivity. This effort builds upon different actions by USDA to preserve migratory wildlife habitat such because the USDA Migratory Huge Sport Initiative, which has leveraged current programmatic funding to conduct voluntary conservation efforts in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming.
“CSF thanks the USDA for initiating this effort that can assist improve conservation for migratory wildlife and their related habitats,” stated CSF President and CEO Jeff Crane. “CSF will proceed to prioritize wildlife connectivity by means of Inside Secretarial Order 3362, the Wildlife Freeway Crossings Pilot Program, USDA’s Migratory Huge Sport Initiative, the Wildlife Motion Via Partnerships Act, and now the USDA Secretarial Memo.”
Wildlife migration and habitat connectivity continues to be a prime precedence of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Basis (CSF). In September, CSF’s Director of Federal Relations, Taylor Schmitz, testified earlier than the Home Pure Assets Committee Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries on the Wildlife Motion Via Partnerships Act (H.R. 8836). This laws seeks to solidify Division of the Inside Secretarial Order 3362, which seeks to preserve massive sport migration corridors and winter vary throughout 11 western states, by offering much-needed funding and increasing this effort nationwide. Moreover, CSF was a important driver behind the Wildlife Crossing Pilot Program contained within the Infrastructure Funding and Jobs Act, which marked the primary time that federal funding was devoted by Congress to construct important infrastructure for wildlife throughout roads and highways. Moreover, Taylor Schmitz serves because the Chairman of the American Wildlife Conservation Companions. Throughout his chairmanship, AWCP launched Wildlife for the 21st Century, which features a standalone advice associated to the problem of wildlife migration.
CSF seems ahead to persevering with to work with USDA by means of the Searching and Wildlife Conservation Council to which Jeff Crane is a member of, and different venues, to ship conservation for our nation’s wildlife.
