We Need To Get Serious About Habitat, RAWA is A Start

Recently there has been a significant uptick in discussion about America’s wildlife and how we are going to conserve it.  This is not a new conversation but as the climate crisis continues to unfold daily around the world these types of topics are getting a boost in discussion.  The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act (RAWA) is just one of many bills being discussed to help save wildlife and fight climate change.  

The bill is working its way through congress now with the House of Representatives passing it back in June 2022.  Now it is up to the Senate to do their part and get RAWA on the President’s desk.  If it is passed it would provide over a billion dollars in dedicated funding to support wildlife action plans in every state.  Additionally, there would be $97 million in dedicated funding for tribal agencies. 

Over the last 100 to 150 years the United States has made great strides at recovering wildlife populations in this country.  However, the fight is far from over.  As of today one-third of bird species, 50% of freshwater fish, 42% of amphibians, 33% of turtles, 17% of butterflies, one-quarter of bumblebees, 18% of bats and 70% of freshwater mussels are either extinct or imperiled.  Obviously, the work needs to continue and we are undoubtedly in desperate need of real conservation work at the national level. 

So why do I say that RAWA is a good start?  Well as I told Land Tawny recently, it really should be about recovering America’s habitat.  So much of what is important in wildlife conservation has to do with habitat.  If we focus on habitat solutions then the wildlife is going to come with it.  Just recently the Monarch Butterfly was added to the Endangered Species list.  Well look at all the discussion around the Monarch and how we are going to protect it.  All of that discussion is on habitat solutions.  Things like pollinator gardens being a good example.  

Out west there are efforts to deal with invasive species such as cheatgrass.  This is in combination with planting efforts to bring back sage to the landscape.  Again, this is habitat work that directly effects wildlife populations such as Mule Deer and Sage Grouse.  This is why I am so adamant about habitat over wildlife in how we characterize the discussion.  It is all about making the “the main thing the main thing” as we often say in the Marine Corps.  

This is not to say that RAWA has it all wrong.  That if far from the truth.  The dedicated funding it will provide to state agencies for their wildlife action plans is significant.  Those wildlife action plans include a lot of habitat work and the fact that habitat is the key to wildlife conservation is not new to any of them.  These agencies do great work and are extremely underfunded.  So I am very grateful that we are so close to getting this done to provide all the passionate people that work for those agencies with the resources they need.  

Building on this theme of habitat is the key to wildlife conservation let us briefly discuss the North American Grassland Conservation Act.  This bill is modeled after the North American Wetlands Conservation Act and if you are not familiar with that piece of legislation I encourage you to read up on it.  Millions of acres of grassland have been lost, 50 million in just the last decade.  We need to do something now to stop the tide and hopefully reverse the damage.  Our grasslands are integral part of the fight against climate change but also play a major role in wildlife conservation.  

Throughout those areas that make up America’s grasslands we have seen significant wildlife population declines.  This can be seen most notably in the upland bird populations that call these landscapes home.  They are not the only ones impacted by the loss of the grasslands.  Pronghorn and bison, among others, are just as imperiled by the loss.  Referring back to the Monarch Butterfly, the loss of grasslands impacts them as well.  Add in the millions of song birds that relay on this ecosystem and you can quickly see how important it is that we do something now.  

The bottom line here is that we have to get serious about habitat in our fight to save wildlife populations.  Again, I am not sitting here saying we are not.  I am merely suggesting we need to refocus how we look at wildlife conservation.  Let us talk about habitat and how important it is to the overall discussion as the primary focus.  If we focus on this as the main thing then all the other pieces will fall into place.  Habitat is Mother Nature’s infrastructure and we need to keep the infrastructure secure or we will lose everything.