The "Recovering America's Wildlife Act" (HR 4647) was recently introduced in the United States House of Representatives by Representatives Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska and Debbie Dingell of Michigan. HR 4647 would dedicate $1.3 billion of revenues annually toward conservation in all 50 states and five U.S. territories. The bill would include funding for efforts to help hundreds of bird species in decline across the United States and its territories.

Current Funding for Game Species

United States game species currently benefit from two revenue streams that come from hunting:

• The Pittman-Robertson excise tax on sporting arms and ammunition.
• The federal Duck Stamp program.

Proposed Dedicated Funding Stream

The "Recovering America's Wildlife Act" creates the first revenue stream for nongame wildlife without tapping U.S. tax payers. The "Recovering America's Wildlife Act" funding comes from a fraction of the revenue stream the U.S. government receives from mineral and energy leases on federal lands and waters.

The new conservation funding stream was the idea from a national panel of business and conservation leaders. The panel was chaired by John L. Morris (founder of Bass Pro Shops), Dave Freudenthal (former governor of Wyoming), John Fitzpatrick (director of Cornell Lab of Ornithology), executives from the National Wildlife Federation, Ducks Unlimited, Audubon, Hess Corporation, Toyota, and Shell Oil Company.

New Conservation Funding Stream

The "Recovering America's Wildlife Act" will provide a new funding stream to help stem the population declines for more than 12,000 species of fish and wildlife, including more than 800 birds. It is hoped that conservation efforts will help to keep many species off the endangered species list.

This graphic shows the number of birds that could be help in each state.

Source and Full Article

Recovering America’s Wildlife Act: Bill Would Boost Bird Funding, All About Birds, The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 13 June 2018

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