"President Clinton is beginning the 21st Century with a commitment to conservation that harkens back to the commitment made by Theodore Roosevelt at the beginning of the 20th Century," said Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. "His proposed budget for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service underscores the American peoples love for the outdoors and wild creatures and will open the way for the government to work in even closer partnership to conserve them.
"The increased funding in the Presidents budget will allow the Service to more effectively perform its mission to conserve our Nations fish, wildlife, and plants and their habitat for the benefit of the American people," said Service Director Jamie Rappaport Clark.
The Administrations Lands Legacy Initiative provides increased funding for land acquisition and the Cooperative Endangered Species Fund.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal Federal agency with responsibility for conserving, protecting, and enhancing fish and wildlife and their habitats. The Service manages the National Wildlife Refuge System, which includes 516 national wildlife refuges and covers nearly 93 million acres, as well as 66 national fish hatcheries.
The agency also enforces Federal wildlife laws, manages migratory bird populations, conserves and restores wildlife habitat, administers the Endangered Species Act, and oversees the Federal Aid program that funnels Federal excise taxes on angling and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
The Administration proposes to increase overall funding for the National Wildlife Refuge System by $1 million, or 11.4 percent, to $265 million. The additional funding will pay for 164 projects to improve habitat or protect wildlife on 167 refuges as well as to combat invasive species invasive species
An invasive species is any plant or animal that has spread or been introduced into a new area where they are, or could, cause harm to the environment, economy, or human, animal, or plant health. Their unwelcome presence can destroy ecosystems and cost millions of dollars.
Learn more about invasive species at 49 refuges. These include projects as diverse as protecting coral reefs in the Pacific, managing brown bear and salmon habitat in Alaska, and conducting wildlife surveys in Massachusetts Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. The Service will also be able to continue to reduce the backlog of high-priority maintenance projects in the refuge system and welcome an ever-growing stream of visitors. Last year, 34 million people visited the Nations refuges.
The Presidents budget also includes a $25.6 million, or 53.3 percent, increase in the Services land acquisition budget, to $73.6 million. This would allow for the acquisition of 118,425 acres for the National Wildlife Refuge System.
The budget also includes $114.9 million for the Services endangered species program, a net increase of $4.1 million over the 1999 budget. Additional funding will help implement non- regulatory approaches to reduce threats to species and preclude the need to list 10 species under the Endangered Species Act. It will also help the Service negotiate and oversee the growing number of habitat conservation plans that allow economic development on private lands to continue while conserving listed species. The Service expects 500 HCPs to be in some stage of development in FY 2000.
To help states, local governments, and Tribes develop HCPs and take steps to recover listed species, the Administration is proposing $80 million for the Cooperative Endangered Species Fund, an increase of $66 million over FY 1999. This provides $26 million for state and local land acquisition in support of HCPs and $52.5 million to help states plan and implement HCPs, conservation agreements, and "Safe Harbor" agreements for listed and candidate species.
The budget includes funding to develop 100 additional Safe Harbor agreements with landowners that encourage them to improve endangered species habitat on their land. In all, the Service expects 160 Safe Harbor agreements to be in some stage of development or implementation in FY 2000.
"We will continue to use the flexibility built into the Act to work with our partners to develop HCPs, Candidate Conservation Agreements, and Safe Harbor agreements that meet the needs of wildlife and humans alike," Clark said.
The Administration also proposes to increase funding of additional habitat conservation programs to $73.6 million, up $9.9 million over FY 1999. These programs help prevent the degradation of key fish and wildlife habitats before listing species that depend on them is necessary.
The President proposes a $79.8 million budget, a $6.2 million increase, for the Services fisheries program. The funding will support efforts to control and stop the spread of non-indigenous invasive species and the Secretarys initiative to rebuild native fish populations such as trout, salmon, and striped bass and ensure fish passage fish passage
Fish passage is the ability of fish or other aquatic species to move freely throughout their life to find food, reproduce, and complete their natural migration cycles. Millions of barriers to fish passage across the country are fragmenting habitat and leading to species declines. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Fish Passage Program is working to reconnect watersheds to benefit both wildlife and people.
Learn more about fish passage to historic spawning grounds through voluntary partnership efforts with the hydro-power industry, states, Tribes, local governments, and private landowners. Projects include installing a fishway on the Wiswall Dam on New Hampshires Lamprey River to restore 43 miles of spawning habitat for herring, shad, American eel, and striped bass; restoring 650 miles of habitat for west slope cutthroat trout in the Upper Columbia basin in Montana and Wyoming; and restoring 115 miles of redband trout habitat in Oregon by removing two small dams.
The budget also proposes $21.9 million to support the Services migratory bird program, an increase of $2.8 million, or 14 percent. The bulk of the increase will be used to expand monitoring and conservation efforts for declining species such as colonial waterbirds. In addition, the Service will continue to develop science-based strategies to help control overabundant populations of mid-continent geese, which are wreaking havoc on their pristine Arctic breeding grounds.
The Presidents budget includes an additional $3.5 million to support the Services international conservation programs. The Service plays a major role in implementing U.S. treaty commitments for migratory birds, endangered species, wildlife trade, Arctic species, and wetlands. The Service will give special attention to bilateral programs with Canada, Mexico, Chile and other Latin American nations.
