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New legislation filed in the U.S. Senate will fund locally-led efforts to prevent declining species from becoming endangered and help wildlife thrive nationwide. The bipartisan Recovering America’s Wildlife Act will send more than $50 million to Texas each year, which will be used to help 1,300 Species of Greatest Conservation Need in our state—such as the Texas horned lizard, Northern bobwhite quail, and Guadalupe bass. The funding would come from existing revenues with no new taxes.
S.2372 was introduced in the Senate in July by Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Roy Blunt (R-MO). Representatives Debbie Dingell (D-MI) and Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) introduced a similar version of the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act in the U.S. House in April (H.R.2773). The House bill has 91 national bipartisan cosponsors, including 4 Texans.
In a recent Texas Parks and Wildlife Department press release, the agency highlighted the numerous jobs that could be created if Recovering America’s Wildlife Act were to pass, and the economic benefits of boosting the “state’s already booming nature-based economy into overdrive.”
Janice Bezanson with Texas Conservation Alliance notes, “Nature tourism is huge in Texas. People from all over travel here to see iconic landscapes and our native wildlife.
If the bill is passed, Texas Parks and Wildlife would send grant funds across Texas to conservation organizations, universities, nature centers, and others to fund much-needed conservation projects. Particularly beneficial for a private lands state like Texas, Bezanson added that “funding could expand cost-sharing programs and more technical guidance for private landowners who want to conduct wildlife and habitat conservation on their property.”
Visit the website for the Texas Alliance for America’s Fish & Wildlife to learn how to help.
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**ARCHIVED POST AUTHOR: wpadmin
