Major victory for birds and wildlife as House committee in Washington passes the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act

The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act may provide funding to protect and improve the shrublands required by Blue-winged Warblers. Photo by Jesse Chavz.

January 20, 2022 — An environmental bill that would bring almost $12 million a year to Connecticut for the protection of birds and other wildlife was approved by the House Natural Resources Committee yesterday and now moves to the full House of Representatives for a vote.

The bill — the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act — sets aside $1.3 billion to be distributed annually nationwide to help states carry out their federally-mandated wildlife action plans. The current level of funding is $61 million spread among all 50 states.

Wildife action plans focus on species of greatest conservation need  and their habitats. In Connecticut these include Piping Plovers and the beaches they nest on, Saltmarsh Sparrows and tidal marshes, and Blue-winged Warblers and shrublands.

The bill has been proposed for several years in a row. Until yesterday, it had never made it out of committee. A companion bill is currently before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

Conservation groups throughout the country collaborated with to support the legislation.

Connecticut Audubon submitted testimony that was also signed by the leaders of the Connecticut Ornithological Association, Audubon Naturalist Society in Washington D.C., Mass Audubon, Audubon Society of Rhode Island, Montana Audubon, New Hampshire Audubon, Illinois Audubon, New Jersey Audubon, Maine Audubon, and the Alliance for America’s Fish and Wildlife.

“The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act is of the highest importance to birds and other wildlife in Connecticut and throughout the country,” Patrick Comins, Connecticut Audubon’s executive director, said today. “This is huge good news.”

Funding provided by the new law could be used ti help protect the tidal wetlands needed by Saltmarsh Sparrows. Photo by C.S. Wood

The act is sponsored in the House by U.S. Representatives Debbie Dingell, Democrat of Michigan, and Jeff Fortenberry, Republican of Nebraska. Senators Martin Heinrich, a New Mexico Democrat, and Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican, are chief sponsors of the Senate bill.

If passed and signed into law, the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act would provide $1.3 billion a year to the 50 states to carry out Wildlife Action Plans that have been in place but under-funded for years — the annual total now is only $61 million.

Connecticut Audubon has been pushing for the passage of the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act since at least 2018. It was the first recommendation in the 2021 Connecticut State of the Birds report and was included in the 2020 and 2019 reports as well.

What follows is the testimony submitted by the coalition of conservation groups:

Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
410 Dirksen Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC, 20510

Dear Mr. Chairman and Members,
As Executive Director of the Connecticut Audubon Society (CAS), I am respectfully submitting the following comments on behalf of CAS and eight additional independent Audubon organizations (listed as signatories) and the Alliance for America’s Fish & Wildlife to urge approval of S. 2372, a bill to authorize funding for the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act. Please incorporate these comments into the record of the hearings.

The signatories represent more than 200,000 residents in our respective states of Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. 

The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act (RAWA) is the most important fish and wildlife legislation to come before Congress in the last 30 years.  RAWA, combined with enactment of the Land and Water Conservation Fund of 2020, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, and funding for regional conservation issues, will usher in a new golden age of conservation in the country and will cement a commitment to conserve this nation’s wildlife heritage for future generations. It will fund protections for more than 12,000 species in greatest conservation need nation-wide.  

Currently, Congress appropriates a total of only $61 million annually to the 56 states, territories, and the District of Columbia to implement their congressionally mandated and approved State Wildlife Action Plans.  However, as reported by the US Fish & Wildlife Service, $1.3 billion is needed annually to fully implement these plans. Current funding is inadequate to address the critical need – to address threats to species before they decline to threatened or endangered status. 

RAWA will benefit our nation’s fish and wildlife and habitats on land, in freshwater, and in the ocean by providing the much-needed $1.3 billion annually in mandatory funding for states to conserve species identified in each state’s Wildlife Action Plan. RAWA funding will ensure protection against habitat loss, which is the greatest threat to our nation’s wildlife and especially so in states like Connecticut, Maryland, and New Jersey where habitat loss is so severe.  Protecting species and land on the Connecticut River, Delaware River watershed, Chesapeake watershed, Long Island Sound and its watershed, the Kootenai Forestlands of Montana, the prairies of Illinois, the Highlands and other important regional projects.  

The funding enabled by RAWA will go directly to state wildlife agencies to implement their State Wildlife Action Plans which will also lead directly and indirectly to job creation and will be directed to the areas most needed by the people who know their states the best.  The proposed funding will also support better understanding of the spatial distribution of our important wildlife resources so that we can both be more effective at conservation and also expedient in the review of proposed projects such as renewable energy development.

Investment in wildlife will pay multiples as a return on the initial investment.  If simply for the fact that wildlife associated recreation is a multi-billion-dollar industry of the utmost importance to states and their unique juxtaposition of wildlife and population.  A study by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2016, showed that more than 103 million Americans—a staggering 40 percent of the U.S. population 16 years and older—participated in some form of fishing, hunting, or other wildlife associated recreation such as birdwatching or outdoor photography. And in doing so, we spent an estimated $156.9 billion on equipment, travel, licenses, and fees. According to the US Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, the new U.S. data (2020) show that the outdoor recreation economy accounted for 1.8 percent ($374.3 billion) of current-dollar gross domestic product (GDP) for the nation in 2020. Additionally, the National Shooting Sports Association estimates that from hunting revenues alone: comparing Sport Fish Restoration excise tax collections and angler purchases of tax-related equipment items for the last twelve cycles of the National Survey (conducted every five years between 1955 and 2016), the estimated Excise Tax-Related ROI to the Sport Fish Restoration Program (alone) ranges between a low of 1,459% in 2001 to a high of 2,643% in 1980.

RAWA is a proactive solution to our nation’s fish and wildlife conservation challenges.  One of the essential objectives of RAWA is to enable states to address species and habitat issues before they require action under state or federal endangered and threatened species laws.  To achieve these ends the proposed legislation aims to enable states to conserve both listed endangered/threatened species and species of greatest conservation need that are not yet listed (as identified in State Wildlife Action Plans), and their critical habitats.  This monumental effort will need to involve a host of conservation partners including state agencies, federal partners, NGOs, and academia, and will require regional collaboration and local implementation.  RAWA will provide sufficient resources to enable states to build the necessary coalitions and partnerships and to accomplish essential on-the-ground conservation.  An important premise, which we strongly support, is that state natural resource professionals are best positioned to understand and address conservation needs within their home state.  We also understand that this premise is central to the strong bipartisan support this legislation enjoys and to the broad support it has among both conservation and economic development interests. 

The Connecticut Audubon Society and the signatories below strongly recommend action to approve S. 2372, the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act. 

Thank you for the opportunity to submit our views on this critical legislation that will truly ensure that America’s rich wildlife heritage is sustained for all future generations. 

Respectfully submitted, 

Patrick M. Comins
Executive Director
Connecticut Audubon Society