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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 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
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Assessment conducted by
DJ Case & Associates