• GRASSROOTS SUPPORT NEEDED
• WILDLIFE LANGUAGE SENT TO HILL

GRASSROOTS SUPPORT NEEDED
Thanks to all of our hard work on Teaming With Wildlife and LWCF over the years, we actually have the potential to see positive conservation funding legislation move this year in Congress. In order for this historic legislation to pass, there must be a strong showing of public support. We still believe that this year is our best opportunity to make something happen - but we only have a few working weeks left in this congressional session. NOW IS THE TIME TO STEP UP THE LETTERS AND CALLS TO YOUR REPRESENTATIVES!!! Please access our sample letter to Congress for support on making contact with your representatives. Also, the more you can do to spread the word to friends and family the better. Thanks in advance for your help, and best of luck! If you have any questions or need any help please contact our program staff.

WILDLIFE LANGUAGE SENT TO HILL
The following letter was sent to members of the House Resources Committee earlier this week. This letter, and the attached amendment asking for the development of state wildlife plans, was the result of weeks of talks between NWF and a variety of wildlife and conservation organizations. We are very supportive of this language being included in the legislation. We do still think that there is a need for clearer language for non-game wildlife and are working with bill sponsors on that issue as well. But the attached language is a very positive step forward.

August 31, 1999

Honorable Don Young, Chairman
Committee on Resources
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Congressman Young:

We write to express our sincere appreciation for your continued efforts to come to consensus language on the *Conservation and Reinvestment Act* (HR701) which can be reported out of the Resources Committee with a strong, bipartisan vote. Your efforts over the last year to move ahead will result ultimately, we believe, in the most comprehensive and significant conservation funding initiative in the last half of this century. President Theodore Roosevelt's efforts on one end, and yours on the other, will provide the conservation *bookends* for this century. We appreciate your willingness to work with us and others to achieve this objective.

Toward this end, we enclose a product of several weeks of deliberation within the wildlife conservation community, which includes a new finding and sets forth in more detail the strategy for a wildlife conservation program called for in Title III of HR701. This language simply outlines a process of assessing species population status and distribution, habitat availability, and factors contributing to the decline of species or habitat, which the State fish and wildlife agencies will use in determining the needs for fish and wildlife conservation in their States. Through this process, the States will then determine what their priorities are for spending funds available under CARA (Title III) to address the needs of the diverse array of fish and wildlife species in their State. HR 701 calls for a State process for public involvement as program decisions are made and implemented. We urge you to ensure that the opportunity for broad public involvement is retained in the final legislation. We, as do you, recognize substantial unmet conservation needs for so called *nongame* species, and this language outlines a process for unmet needs to be identified and spending priorities decided by the States. The strategy language anticipates that low population and declining species in most cases will be nongame species. The undersigned organizations strongly support the attached language and believe it will significantly improve Title III. We encourage you to incorporate this language during markup.

A few organizations are interested in further improvements to Title III. All of our organizations are committed to working with you to achieve successful legislation this year.

Thank you again for your efforts.

Sincerely,

Roger Holmes
President
International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies

Bruce Shupp
National Conservation Director
BASS, Inc.

Charles Duncan
President
Association of Field Ornithologists, Inc.

Craig Harrison
Vice Chair for Conservation
Pacific Seabird Group

Paul Green
Executive Director
American Bird Association

Coordinator
U.S. Shorebird Conservation Plan

James Corven
Director
Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network

Steve Walker
Associate Executive Director
Bat Conservation International

John Flicker
CEO
National Audubon Society

Daniel Pedrotti
President
Boone & Crockett Club

Mike Dennis
General Counsel
The Nature Conservancy

Paul Baicich
President
Birders*s Exchange

Mark Van Putten
President & CEO
National Wildlife Federation

Rodger Schlickeisen
President
Defenders of Wildlife

Doug Grann
President & CEO
Wildlife Forever

Rollin Sparrowe
President
Wildlife Management Institute

Thomas Franklin
Wildlife Policy Director
The Wildlife Society

Paul Hansen
Executive Director
Izaak Walton League of America

Rob Keck
Executive Vice President & CEO
National Wild Turkey Federation