black and brown bird on white wooden fence during daytime

Recovering America’s Wildlife Act

Contact SD Senators & Representives about Recovering America’s Wildlife Act . Recovering America’s wildlife Act would appropriate  almost 1.4 billion per year to states and tribes  on “at risk wildlife and plants” (with 97.5 million for tribes to spend). 

 – ask them to support it.2024

The Senate Bill 1149 (RAWA) did not pass the Senate in 2023.   This year  (2024) RAWA may move forward as a stand alone bill or attached to some other bill. The House is working on an alternative bill with less money allocated, paid for by raiding other environmental funds, with different provisions & some “poison pills” — “the America’s Wildlife Habitat Conservation Act (AWHCA) cleared the House Committee on Natural Resources with a 21-17 vote along party lines”

,https://insideclimatenews.org/news/24042024/recovering-americas-wildlife-act-bipartisanship/


 

 2023

     The bill had been reintroduced in the Senate in 2023 for the 118th Congress, as it did not make it out of the federal senate in 2022 (117th Congress). Senator Thom Tillis, R of N.C., was sponsoring the legislation in 2023 with Senator Martin Heinrich D of N.M — S 1149, link to bill page: .https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/1149?s=1&r=401149  

       

2022

     This is a very important bill for “at risk” wildlife and plants in America. Please contact our senators & representatives about it.

Senate and house bill versions both passed out of committee in 2022 and the house version of RAWA passed  on June 14th, 2022 in a  231-190  – https://www.worldwildlife.org/press-releases/wwf-statement-on-the-recovering-america-s-wildlife-act. Dusty Johnson voted against it.  His phone: 202-225-2801. 

        As of late May 2022 – our Senators had not committed to support or oppose, just express concerns about funding sources.  Rounds – he wanted a sunset clause. Senators:Thune (202) 224-2321, Rounds (202) 224-5842

Here is a National Wildlife Federation 2022 Alert on this matter: https://affiliates.nwf.org/resources/recovering-toolkit/

Here is the National Audubon Society (NAS) 2022 Alert on the matter: https://www.audubon.org/news/audubon-supports-us-house-bill-fund-wildlife-recovery

NAS’s on-line summary of federal appropriations for wildlife as of December 2022 – https://act.audubon.org/a/rawa

The need for this bill was discussed at our 2022 Endangered Species Day Celebration by Eileen Dowd Stukel of SDGFP: https://vimeo.com/712389823    Her discussion starts at about 6:15 and runs for 55 minutes.

SDGFP Budget Information

https://gfp.sd.gov/budget

Link to SD GFP Wildlife Action Plan (See appendix C for profiles of Species of Greatest Conservation Need):

https://gfp.sd.gov/wildlife-action-plan/

Link to SDGFP list of Threatened and Endangered Species

https://gfp.sd.gov/threatened-endangered

LOCAL EFFORT
We have been asking for years for SDGFP to create a fund in SD where citizens can voluntarily donate to the state’s wildlife diversity program to fund projects for our states species of greatest conservation need – habitat protection, population research, research to threats, whatever is needed.  We are told by GFP staff we need the legislature to approve a bill to allow that. So on our to-do list is to figure out how to do this and which legislators to ask to carry such a bill and gather support for such a program. 

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