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Recreational Hunting and Wildlife Conservation Plan

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Plan Overview

  • Initiative 1 - Sporting Conservation Council
    • I. - Legislation Regarding Sporting Conservation Council
      • 1. - Pass legislation authorizing the Sporting Conservation Council
        • 1.1 - Provide a ten-year term for the Council.
        • 1.2 - Consider amending the Federal Advisory Committee Act to allow non-governmental, nonconsensus advice to federal land managers
        • 1.3 - Consider an exemption for information provided by landowners about species of concern under the Freedom of Information Act
        • 1.4 - Identify opportunities to promote cooperating agency status for state agencies
  • Initiative 2 - Increasing Public and Private Funding for Wildlife Conservation
    • I. - Renew, Extend, and Create Tax Incentives for Conservation and Access
      • 2. - Draft and enact comprehensive tax incentives legislation
        • 2.1 - Authorize permanently the conservation tax incentives, enacted for two years in the 2008 Farm Bill
        • 2.2 - Expand AGI deductability for conservation easements
        • 2.3 - Classify hunting and fishing leases as working farms
        • 2.4 - Increase the period for donations of access easements
        • 2.5 - Change excise tax reports to quarterly
        • 2.6 - Establish a more consistent approach to valuing land with tax breaks
    • II. - Increase Federal Funding for State Conservation and Access Programs and Initiatives
      • 3. - Recommend new programs and authorities to promote hunter access.
        • 3.1 - Create a tax credit for fish and wildlife protections, restoration and enhancement and wildlife dependent recreation
        • 3.2 - Revive proposal for a 50 percent capital gains exclusion for conservation land sales
        • 3.3 - Provide federal funds to state-based programs that open private lands to hunters and anglers
        • 3.4 - Authorize the use of non-federal funding to match federal funding for State Access Programs
        • 3.5 - Increase structured hunting programs and recreational shooting opportunities
        • 3.6 - Provide federal technical assistance to states to expand and enhance private land conservation projects on lands enrolled in state access programs
        • 3.7 - Encourage federal or state governments to purchase easements on lands needed to open wildlife corridors
        • 3.8 - Facilitate National Park Service (NPS) purchase of conservation and access easements from willing sellers
        • 3.9 - Provide funding for the necessary infrastructure for enrollment in state access programs
        • 3.10 - Establish formal arrangements with states and 501(c)3 organizations to fund public relations and marketing programs for hunting and fishing
      • 4. - Improve the Federal Land Transfer Facilitation Act (FLTFA).
        • 4.1 - Develop a Conservation and Recreation Benefits Index (CRBI)
        • 4.2 - Consider how receipts could be directed to a non-federal account where they would be leveraged by nonfederal funding and obligated to a prioritized list of projects chosen based on their CRBI score
        • 4.3 - Establish priorities for acquisition that would include purchase of title and/or easements on lands
      • 5. - Draft and enact an Upland Conservation Act.
      • 6. - Establish the Impact Directed Environmental Account (IDEA).
      • 7. - Identify, in cooperation with state agencies, options for improving Federal Excise Taxes (FET).
        • 7.1 - Seek information from Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Excise Tax working group
        • 7.2 - Consider expanding or reducing the categories of hunting and fishing equipment currently subject to FET
        • 7.3 - Consider including or excluding categories of wildlife dependent recreation and associated equipment
        • 7.4 - Educate consumers and the public about the categories currently subject to FET
        • 7.5 - Develop legislative recommendations to reduce the costs and administrative burdens on manufacturers subject to the FET
      • 8. - Establish a Blue Ribbon panel of experts on wildlife funding
        • 8.1 - Establish and dedicate funding for implementing State Wildlife Action Plans
    • III. - Identify Potential Partnerships for Voluntary Funding for Conservation
      • 9. - Recommend funding arrangements that pool federal, state, and private funds.
        • 9.1 - Create a new partnership between state and federal agencies, equipment manufacturers and retailers to collect manufacturers’ rebates as funding for wildlife habitat and enhanced outdoor recreation
        • 9.2 - Expand the allowable uses of State Wildlife Grants and new grant programs to include communication and education projects and programs
      • 10. - Develop a model state ballot initiative to increase funding for wildlife.
  • Initiative 3 - Improving Wildlife Habitat Conservation
    • I. - Develop Baseline Data for Long-Term Goals and Measurable Results
      • 11. - Expand existing wildlife and habitat databases
        • 11.1 - Create measurable goals and outcomes for implementation of Executive Order 13443
        • 11.2 - Populate a standardized, web-based, one-stop-shop to disseminate population data
        • 11.3 - Coordinate wildlife population and habitat modeling protocols
        • 11.4 - Develop, support, and advertise a web-based capability to help identify public lands available for hunting
        • 11.5 - Review current predator control policies at the state level
    • II. - Create Financial Incentives for Private Lands Conservation and Access
      • 12. - Recommend updates to the timing and amount of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) payment rates
        • 12.1 - Increase rental payments to CRP enrollees who donate or sell hunting access easements on their CRP lands
        • 12.2 - Promote and support added incentives to programs
        • 12.3 - Review CRP rental rates on a more frequent basis
        • 12.4 - Consider new incentives for keeping properties with the best wildlife habitat enrolled in the CRP program
        • 12.5 - Provide incentives to maintain the continuity of large landscapes
      • 13. - Create a grasslands conservation initiative
        • 13.1 - Develop common metrics and priorities for each state
        • 13.2 - Develop a conservation funding source for a grassland conservation initiative
        • 13.3 - Coordinate a model National Grassland/Shrubland Restoration Act
      • 14. - Create new options for keeping family-owned private lands intact when inherited
        • 14.1 - Create programs that identify lands and important wildlife habitat that are at risk of fragmentation
        • 14.2 - Develop new incentives to maintain continuity of large landscapes
        • 14.3 - Consider exemptions and transferable credits that could be enacted in the years remaining before the inheritance tax expires
    • III. - Improve Habitat on Federal Land: Biofuels and Invasive Species
      • 15. - Recommend projects, initiatives and new or improved authorities to enhance wildlife habitat on federal lands by promoting biofuel production
        • 15.1 - Initiate a biofuels initiative to reduce risks of catastrophic wildfire causing habitat loss
        • 15.2 - Develop investment tax credits that encourage the development of improved technologies for utilizing woody biomass for cellulosic ethanol
        • 15.3 - Ensure that mechanisms that will ensure long-term provision of biomass from federal lands are in place
        • 15.4 - Authorize federal agencies to retain receipts from the sale of woody biomass to provide priority funding toward habitat restoration in areas impacted by harvest
        • 15.5 - Develop a national strategy for wind farm siting that will protect the grassland/shrubland steppe and associated wildlife
        • 15.6 - Create bond authority to facilitate the use of timber receipts for improved forest health
      • 16. - Recommend improvements for controlling species that have detrimental impacts on hunting and fishing opportunities and targeted species
        • 16.1 - Assess the extent and severity of habitat loss and degradation resulting from outbreaks of native pests, diseases, or invasive species encroachment
        • 16.2 - Assess the existing infrastructure and capacity to combat the most prevalent threats
        • 16.3 - Identify the issues most relevant to hunting access and game species conservation
        • 16.4 - Draft recommendations for addressing the threats identified
        • 16.5 - Target specific conservation education programs for urban landowners and ranchette owners
  • Initiative 4 - Expanding Access to Public and Private Lands
    • I. - Reduce Liability for Access to Private Land
      • 17. - Draft model state legislation on liability for landowners who provide public access to their property
      • 18. - Evaluate and assess public safety risks and risk liability associated with shooting and hunting, commensurate and consistent with other public land recreational activities
    • II. - Expand Wildlife-Dependent Recreational Opportunities on Federal Land
      • 19. - Integrate conservation and hunting opportunities into the next Transportation Bill
        • 19.1 - Establish a Federal Open Trails public land access program with federal, state, private, tribal, conservation organizations, and landowner partners
        • 19.2 - Create a fund to assess current practices
      • 20. - Establish a one-stop-shop website of information on hunting on federal land
        • 20.1 - Create uses of advertising profits from websites
        • 20.2 - Offer a “vertical” search engine with information regarding structured hunting programs
        • 20.3 - Establish a map page that will allow users to identify opportunities to hunt on public lands
      • 21. - Recommend improved and enhanced access to public lands where hunting is allowed
        • 21.1 - Assess interagency opportunities for improving and enhancing hunting opportunities for the disabled
        • 21.2 - Request an interagency data call for a compilation of opportunities to access adjacent public lands through lands they oversee
      • 22. - Establish shooting ranges in urban areas as a part of urban centers for outdoor activities
        • 22.1 - Improve connectivity of school groups to the outdoors
        • 22.2 - Develop a model “hunting easement” similar to a conservation easement for use in providing or protecting hunting opportunities
        • 22.3 - Expand and develop partnerships among federal agencies to determine accessible federal lands for hunting and recreational shooting
        • 22.4 - Explore shooting range and hunting opportunity potential assessed as part of the military Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process
        • 22.5 - Fund or implement programs resulting from the call for proposals improving federal land access
        • 22.6 - Facilitate an effective federal government-wide process to use non-federal funds for acquiring hunting and shooting access to federal lands
    • III. - Provide Specialized Training for Federal Employees
      • 23. - Recommend and implement a training curriculum for federal employees on the history, ecology, and management of hunting on public land
        • 23.1 - Explain the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation and the American system of conservation funding
        • 23.2 - Communicate a consistent framework that will assess the impacts of project proposals on wildlife populations and hunting opportunities
        • 23.3 - Market strategies to better communicate the availability of existing programs designed to provide educational outreach and technical assistance for private landowners.
        • 23.4 - Establish more scholarships and stipends from private entities to bring new people, youth, and minorities to outdoor/hunting/wildlife conferences
      • 24. - Require all federal land management supervisory personnel to complete a state-sanctioned hunter education course, or an equivalent program
      • 25. - Teach best practices for hunting programs in formal training for federal land Managers
  • Initiative 5 - Educating, Recruiting, and Retaining Hunters
    • I. - Promote Hunting Among Various Demographic Groups
      • 26. - Waive or discount entrance fees for federal hunting lands for veterans and active duty military personnel
        • 26.1 - Identify opportunities to expand and enhance hunting on DOD bases
        • 26.2 - Develop a Wounded Warrior Hunting and Fishing Program
        • 26.3 - Expand opportunities for disabled veterans to hunt on federal land
      • 27. - Recommend new and better means of communicating with youth and minorities
        • 27.1 - Engage Americorps volunteers to be mentors
        • 27.2 - Use new technology to reach a new generation
        • 27.3 - Create electronic games that involve hunting and fishing, plant and animal identification, and promote nature acronyms for texting
        • 27.4 - Promote geocaching for youth and minorities.
        • 27.5 - Establish a speakers’ bureau for school lectures and activities
        • 27.6 - Develop an image for media use of a young or minority person that enjoys the outdoors
        • 27.7 - Include a teacher or a teachers’ council to advise a hunting foundation
        • 27.8 - Create and support an exchange program for federal and state employees to teach once a week or once a month in the local schools
      • 28. - Develop and fund a hunting access and conservation program within the Youth Conservation Corps
        • 28.1 - Initiate a mentoring corps and engage former hunters
        • 28.2 - Create a national coalition consisting of NGOs, industry, state, and federal agencies
        • 28.3 - Create a national youth and minorities hunting coalition
    • II. - Promote Hunting Through Public-Private Partnerships
      • 29. - Commission a Presidential Hunting and Shooting Sports Partnership Council
        • 29.1 - Imitate the structure of the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation
        • 29.2 - Focus on recruitment and retention of hunters and shooters
        • 29.3 - Seek other funds beside the Pittman-Robertson funds
        • 29.4 - Promote hunting to young and minority people, the disadvantaged and handicapped through structured hunting, shooting mentoring, and education programs
        • 29.5 - Place curricula on the role of hunting in conservation and wildlife management
        • 29.6 - Provide family programs and teaching camps on a variety of outdoor and adventure activities
        • 29.7 - Engage energy companies on opportunities for youth and minorities hunts on company properties
        • 29.8 - Develop ideas and mechanisms for capturing the imagination and interest of young and minority people and demographics
        • 29.9 - Achieve overall gains in career conservationists.
        • 29.10 - Promote the ten-year Recreational Hunting and Wildlife Conservation Plan and measure progress
        • 29.11 - Provide funding incentives to states that have effective programs in hunter recruitment and retention
        • 29.12 - Administer grants to state agencies for programs directed at generating youth and minorities involvement in hunting
        • 29.13 - Report periodically on progress toward increasing recruitment and retention
      • 30. - Issue new regulations to promote responsible filming and photography on public land
        • 30.1 - Clarify how commercial crews can seek permission to film on public land
        • 30.2 - Involve the public in reviewing filming proposals
        • 30.3 - Ensure that the media continues to have the ability to inform the public about public lands
      • 31. - Amend Executive Order 13443 to require specific performance, reporting, and updates to the Action Plan
        • 31.1 - Develop a requirement for relevant federal agencies to ensure that federal staff are hired, trained, and rewarded in a manner that promotes hunting and fishing
        • 31.2 - Incorporate opportunities for hunting and recreational shooting into public land management, planning, and decision-making
        • 31.3 - Charge the Sporting Conservation Council with issuing annual recommendations for implementing Executive Order 13443 and this action plan
  • Initiative 6 - Coordinating Federal, State, Tribal, and International Action
    • I. - Assess Existing Lines of Coordination
      • 32. - Produce and act on a rigorous assessment of existing authorities related to hunting and game conservation
        • 32.1 - Convene an expert panel of natural resource management and legal professionals
        • 32.2 - Identify relevant authorities and craft a user-friendly compendium for use by relevant federal employees
        • 32.3 - Identify conflicting authorities and craft potential statutory and regulatory language to clarify and/or reconcile these conflicts
        • 32.4 - Develop a user-friendly compendium of relevant authorities that will be shared with federal employees and non-federal partners
        • 32.5 - Collect and update formal coordination agreements that should be established or updated
        • 32.6 - Produce a detailed proposal for a Public Land Law Review Commission
    • II. - Enact Improvements
      • 33. - Expand and enhance cross-boundary efforts to use hunting as a wildlife management tool
        • 33.1 - Identify a population control issue
        • 33.2 - Agencies will work with states to assess the possibility of utilizing qualified volunteers to assist in culling operations
        • 33.3 - Authorize the use of contraceptives only upon a joint conclusion that none of the above alternatives are available and/or adequate
      • 34. - Recommend improvements and enhancements to state-federal coordination on wildlife conservation and hunting opportunities
        • 34.1 - Improve the ability of states to match federal funds with a model state law creating new dedicated state funds
        • 34.2 - Complete an objective report on liability and other legal impediments to supervised participation in youth and minorities hunting
        • 34.3 - Establish a formal, routine coordination and communication among federal, state, and tribal wildlife managers
        • 34.4 - Clarify and simplify state and federal regulations on hunting
        • 34.5 - Develop best management practices for hunting and wildlife conservation consistent across both state and federal agencies
        • 34.6 - Promote federal legislation that clearly enhances the state fish and wildlife agencies’ role, their right and jurisdiction to manage wildlife
        • 34.7 - Distribute drafts of model legislation that ensures wildlife species remain the jurisdiction and responsibility of states, provinces, and federal wildlife management agencies
      • 35. - Convene an International Congress on Wildlife Conservation among heads of state and their representatives
  • Initiative 7 - Understanding Climate Change and Wildlife Effects
    • I. - Establish Lines of Communication
      • 36. - Establish an advisory relationship among federal land management agencies, state agencies and conservation organizations on climate change
        • 36.1 - Assess the potential of forests and wetlands on federal lands to sequester carbon biologically
        • 36.2 - Identify the programs and/or authorities necessary to create an insurance pool against carbon loss during sequestration contracts
        • 36.3 - Work with private sector partners to determine whether a market would exist for the proposed insurance pool
        • 36.4 - Develop mechanisms that would enable receipts from private sector insurance payments to be retained for improving or expanding wildlife species habitat
        • 36.5 - Direct revenue from future climate change initiatives such as “cap and trade” to wildlife, habitat, and conservation education
        • 36.6 - Incorporate carbon exchange rates in creating incentives for landowners to conserve habitats
    • II. - Improve Data and Policy
      • 37. - Publish guidance to ensure federal agencies consider effects of climate change on wildlife, habitat and wildlife-dependent recreation
      • 38. - Refine CCSP data to describe climate effects on wildlife populations and habitats
        • 38.1 - Ensure that CCSP and other available data are made available for inclusion into the various agency management planning and decision-making processes
        • 38.2 - Develop models and forecasts that will relate climate-related changes to biological responses of at risk game species, populations, and habitats
        • 38.3 - Use expanded research partnerships with natural resource agencies to assist in the design, construction, and implementation of adaptation strategies
        • 38.4 - Analyze species requirements and habitat dependencies in relation to projections for climate change effects and impacts
        • 38.5 - Include state, university, and tribal partnerships in determining effects of climate change on at risk wildlife
        • 38.6 - Develop monitoring programs by federal biological research and management agencies for incorporating climate change effects on at risk game species, populations, and habitat
  • Initiative 8 - Conserving Wildlife and Developing Oil and Gas on Public Land
    • I. - Develop and Use Landscape-Level Assessments of Wildlife
      • 39. - Continue the Healthy Lands Initiative
        • 39.1 - Seek full funding for the Healthy Lands Initiative
        • 39.2 - Consider other landscape-scale initiatives in new project areas
      • 40. - Publish standards and protocols for on-site and off-site considerations for oil and gas development and impacts for wildlife
        • 40.1 - Include statewide mapping efforts to identify areas of high importance to wildlife habitat in pre-lease planning
        • 40.2 - Use the USGS Healthy Lands Initiative geospatial framework to assess the health of habitats and their resources and monitor changes in landscapes
        • 40.3 - Use the USGS estimates of the oil and gas resources of all onshore federal lands to identify areas of imminent conflict
    • II. - Improve Collaboration on Project Design
      • 41. - Establish specific game and wildlife population and habitat goals and objectives for oil and gas development projects
        • 41.1 - Issue a joint Secretarial Order to form a team whose goal is to assess landscape-level assessment units on all federal, state, and local units
        • 41.2 - Direct existing planning policy to reinforce the desirability of having all interested state and tribal governments involved in plan development
        • 41.3 - Conduct pre-development assessments prioritized by energy potential
        • 41.4 - Require consideration of state/tribal established fish and wildlife habitat/population goals and objectives in formal planning processes
        • 41.5 - Require annual coordination and map sharing between state and federal agencies
        • 41.6 - Require annual federal agency consultation with state agencies to review new data prior to new leasing offerings and decisions to avoid or mitigate impacts to wildlife
      • 42. - Produce a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between federal agencies and western governors
        • 42.1 - Establish agreement between states and federal agencies to share uniform mapping information on wildlife migration corridors
        • 42.2 - Seek opportunities to work with land trusts and NGOs for conserving wildlife corridors
        • 42.3 - Create incentives for federal land managers to partner on wildlife corridor conservation with private landowners and industry
        • 42.4 - Establish and utilize mitigation accounts for funding for wildlife friendly fencing and conservation easements
      • 43. - Establish a formal working relationship between federal agencies and state wildlife managers
        • 43.1 - Discuss specifics involving the AFWA and its Energy and Wildlife Policy Committee to determine needs and opportunities to refine EPACT 2005
        • 43.2 - Establish and fund an energy liaison position among the BLM, USDA Forest Service, and AFWA
        • 43.3 - Support an Energy Wildlife policy workshop focused on seeking solutions and promoting joint understanding of process, policies, goals, and objectives
      • 44. - Authorize a program to formalize the BLM Pilot Oil and Gas Offices that were established by the Energy Policy Act, 2005
      • 45. - Collaborate with industry and wildlife biologists on updating best management practices as new technologies are developed
    • III. - Formalize Wildlife Expertise in Leasing
      • 46. - Reissue policy guidance contained in IM 2004-110 Change 1
      • 47. - Collaborate on development of pre-project conservation plans for sustaining wildlife in conjunction with landscape-scale assessments on energy development
      • 48. - Ensure timely preparation of NEPA analyses
      • 49. - Develop a national strategy for wind farm siting that coordinates with conservation goals for the grassland-shrubland steppe wildlife community
      • 50. - Improve cross-jurisdictional geo-spatial tools to support pre-planning decisions
      • 51 - Incorporate state and regional wildlife plans into federal land use planning
    • IV. - Create Incentives to Improve Wildlife Outcomes
      • 52. - Recommend new incentives for identifying lease areas and using new technology
        • 52.1 - Investigate options for federal lease trades and buy-backs
        • 52.2 - Identify or support incentives for industry to avoid development in migration corridors and crucial habitats
        • 52.3 - Seek partnerships for increased donation of conservation easements and wildlife-friendly fencing
        • 52.4 - Develop year-round drilling proposals with industry in exchange for less surface impact through use of best management practices
        • 52.5 - Enhance conservation in key areas using credits off-site
        • 52.6 - Create a Conservation Challenge Fund for every acre disturbed
        • 52.7 - Educate oil and gas company staff on the benefits of wildlife conservation
    • V. - Establish a Monitoring Protocol for Adaptive Management
      • 53. - Publish a standardized, peer-reviewed, monitoring protocol to guide all land management and wildlife agencies and industries in adaptive management
        • 53.1 - Conduct necessary budgetary analysis to consider using federal and state onshore oil and gas revenue to fund monitoring
        • 53.2 - Include information on wildlife corridors and other particular habitat features
        • 53.3 - Build upon and expand existing monitoring and data storage for adaptive management and development of best management practices
        • 53.4 - Establish panels to review data under OMB’s Data Quality Act guidelines and make recommendations on adaptive management.
        • 53.5 - Apply a monitoring plan based on the protocol to each record of decision
    • VI. - Accomplish More Off-Site Conservation
      • 54. - Identify opportunities for off-site conservation
      • 55. - Recommend new policy to promote off-site conservation
        • 55.1 - Establish clear authority by statute and have new regulations developed defining science experience based mitigation practices
        • 55.2 - Clarify further implementation of off-site conservation strategies and practices to be accomplished
    • VII. - Optimize Funding for Federal Land Energy Programs
      • 56. - Recommend optimal allocations of funding for operation, training, and cost recovery
        • 56.1 - Complete an overall review of the BLM budget
        • 56.2 - Ensure the maximum use of BLM training
        • 56.3 - Develop proposed cost recovery authorities for the USDA Forest Service and BLM
      • 57. - Assess options for a Wildlife Mitigation/Habitat Enhancement Fund
        • 57.1 - Collect a percentage of fees from drilling permits and allocate these funds for mitigation, monitoring, and conservation
        • 57.2 - Share oil and gas revenues with the states to benefit displaced or affected wildlife
        • 57.3 - Consider using federal and state on-shore oil and gas revenue to fund monitoring
      • 58. - Develop cellulosic energy crops

Actions for Create Incentives to Improve Wildlife Outcomes

  • 52. - Recommend new incentives for identifying lease areas and using new technology
    • 52.1 - Investigate options for federal lease trades and buy-backs
    • 52.2 - Identify or support incentives for industry to avoid development in migration corridors and crucial habitats
    • 52.3 - Seek partnerships for increased donation of conservation easements and wildlife-friendly fencing
    • 52.4 - Develop year-round drilling proposals with industry in exchange for less surface impact through use of best management practices
    • 52.5 - Enhance conservation in key areas using credits off-site
    • 52.6 - Create a Conservation Challenge Fund for every acre disturbed
    • 52.7 - Educate oil and gas company staff on the benefits of wildlife conservation

Supporting documentation and findings

Interview with Melissa Simpson 3.18.13

An interview of Melissa Simpson, Director of Government Affairs at the Safari Club International, provided information and direction on this action.

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Assessment conducted by
DJ Case & Associates