NEW ORLEANS — For waterfowlers, the news is official: Those record-breaking rains that created the flooding Mississippi River have left the northern breeding grounds in such great shape we can expect a bumper duck production this summer.
Then why was the president of Ducks Unlimited in such a glum mood recently?
Because the political conditions in Washington for the future of duck hunting are at their worst level in decades. Maybe ever.
The controlling Republican caucus in the House has renewed its attacks on the two most important waterfowl conservation programs. It plans deep if not total cuts to the North American Wetlands Conservation Act, and big hits to the conservation titles in the Farm Bill, including the critical Conservation Reserve Program.
Bottom line: They're hitting ducks in the uplands where they nest, and the wetlands where they spend the rest of their lives.
"I'm kind of stunned this morning," said Dale Hall, CEO of DU, the sportsmen's group that is the largest and most effective wetlands conservation organization in the world. "Just a few days ago it looked like we were making progress, convincing more than 100 House members that these programs were good for the economy, not just ducks.
"Then our folks in Washington called to say the mood had changed, and they were now talking about zero-out NAWCA in addition to deep cuts in CRP.
"It looks like we're right back where we were in the spring."
Last spring is when the newly installed GOP majority in the House decided the nation needed to drastically reduce the deficit. At first it seemed like the axe was being swung blindly, taking a slice out of everything. But the bill that passed had a distinct ideological bent: Anything to do with protecting fish, wildlife and the human environment was critically wounded if not killed — while subsidies to powerful business interests such as energy survived.
NAWCA saw all of its $47.6 million budget eliminated. Waterfowl managers say it is critical to the survival of waterfowl hunting because it is the major vehicle for protecting the nation's dwindling base of wetlands. Over the last 30 years it has protected 25 million acres of waterfowl habitat leveraging $800 million in government funds into $2 billion in matches from private partners.
The House bill was blocked by the Senate, and after long negotiations with the administration, the compromise that passed included $37.5 million for NAWCA.
Wildlife and hunting advocates felt they were making some headway with the House GOP by presenting an economic rather than environmental argument: The $5 billion a year the nation spends on various conservation programs puts $14 billion back to the treasury in taxes from people who make their livings in the industries supported by those programs.
"We kept telling them the cuts they want to make in these programs will just make the deficit worse," Hall said. "I really thought we were making some progress, because of the support we were getting on that letter."
That confidence was short-lived.
As the week drew to an end, the conservation lobby learned the budget-cutters were going back to their hard-line tactics of the spring. And as they turn their attention to the Farm Bill — one of Congress' most pork-laden vehicles — the conservation titles such as the CRP are getting most of the attention. That's because CRP, which pays farmers not to plant, doesn't have the support of the commodities markets, which support subsidies for cash crops.
"It's a fight we're going to have trouble winning," Hall admitted. "The commodities lobby is very powerful."
"The changing picture in the House is very troubling."
Louisiana's sportsmen should be especially troubled. Our GOP members have been voting in lockstep with these cuts. Many of them are members of the so-called Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus. If they keep supporting these kinds of moves, they can change that name to the sportsmen's carcass.
"With over 100 members of Congress in that sportsmen's caucus, it makes you wonder how something like this can happen," Hall said.
"What they're trying to do makes no sense — not for wildlife, and not for the deficit. We're going to have as big a fight on our hands now as we did in the spring."
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Information from: The Times-Picayune, http://www.nola.com
