The country has had an eventful year since we last met in Atlanta. We reelected the President, political parties maintained control of their respective Congressional houses, the federal budget deficit remains, federal debt continues to climb, and the partisan nature of DC politics is solidly in place. On a more positive note, the economy seems to be slowly recovering and unemployment rates have declined slightly. In spite of this gloomy backdrop, the conservation world had a few things to celebrate this past year.

We held a yearlong celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Programs. Since 1937, almost $15 billion of federal excise tax revenue has been invested in state fish and wildlife agencies. Partnerships among industry, the Fish and Wildlife Service, state agencies, and sportsmen and women have been strengthened. We anticipate record levels of excise tax revenue this year. However, what we believed to be a sacred trust fund between the government and the sportsmen and women who ultimately pay the taxes, also fell under the budget sequestration ax. We must be sure that those sequestered funds are ultimately released to state fish and wildlife agencies. In spite of this setback, the celebration of the world's most effective "user-pays, public-benefits" conservation program will continue as we embark on the next 75 years of the program.

The 2011 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation was released at the end of last year. Survey results indicated an 11 percent increase in angler numbers and 9 percent increase in hunter numbers over the 2006 survey results. Americans spent more than $41 billion on fishing expenditures, $34 billion on hunting expenditures, and about $55 billion on wildlife watching. According to America's Voice for Conservation, Recreation, and Preservation, these expenditures helped contribute to more than $1 trillion spent on all forms of outdoor recreation. These results provide dramatic evidence that fish and wildlife-associated recreation is a powerful economic force and an important part of our nation's social fabric and quality of life for families and friends.

Each year I take this opportunity to chronicle the highlights of fish and wildlife conservation success during the past year. With state and federal conservation funding crises and legislative gridlock at the federal level, this year's remarks are particularly difficult. We had a glimmer of hope for passing the landmark Sportsmen's Act of 2012. This legislation would have reauthorized numerous conservation laws in the same comprehensive and recurring manner as major water or highway legislation. Our community's unity and strength was demonstrated in the successful passage of the RESTORE Act. The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation secured more than $2.5 billion in settlement funds resulting from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The Foundation will administer those funds to restore coastal habitats and enhance fish and wildlife in Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas. The Department of Justice recognized the importance of assigning these settlement funds to an organization that works with a science-based and partnership-driven approach.

Because of the few conservation success stories last year, today I choose to look forward. Our challenges are substantial but with unity of purpose and transformation as strategies, we can focus on the major challenges that face the profession. On the legislative front, we need to resurrect the bipartisan Sportsmen's Act of 2012 that would have reauthorized the North American Wetlands Conservation Act, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the Partners for Fish and Wildlife program, and Joint Ventures management programs. Under "Making Public Lands Public", the bill would require the use of 1.5 percent of the Land and Water Conservation Fund to acquire access to landlocked federal properties. It would raise the Duck Stamp from $15 to $25 providing additional, user-pay, public-benefits funds to expand wetland protection. It would also provide funds for multinational species conservation. We were so close to passing this bill into law. Last minute shenanigans doomed passage last year but this year the fight continues.

As a community we need to unify around defining the Clean Water Act provisions aimed at protecting our nation's wetlands. Focus our attention on water allocation and water conservation measures. We need to regroup and reinvigorate our advocacy for climate change adaptation strategies. Building on the success of the Wildlife Restoration Program and the American System of Conservation Funding, we need to continue to promote and enhance hunting and shooting programs on private and public lands. The Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports met again on [March 25] to advance this effort through a coalition of industry, agency, and conservation organizations.

A national energy policy, which includes enhanced conservation funding, is critical to our country's future both for providing energy for a growing population and economy and for the natural resource legacy we leave future generations. The drought conditions in the Midwest and increased production of row crops for energy demand an effective Farm Bill that provides incentives for land stewardship and requires conservation compliance measures in return for those incentives. Breaking out native prairie and subsurface draining of prairie potholes threatens an international migratory resource. Farm Bill programs must address this unprecedented and critical assault on our nation's natural resources.

This year Chronic Wasting Disease was discovered in a game farm about 15 miles from my home in Pennsylvania. Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease decimated deer in portions of the mid-west. Farming big game and climate change are but a few of the stressors that demand renewed action to control fish and wildlife disease and invasive species that occur nationwide. Landscape Conservation Cooperatives have been developed to address these issues and others across wide expanses of the continent. The focus on prioritizing unified research needs and the delivery of that science to on-the-ground fish and wildlife managers is transformative and this cooperative and coordinated approach will benefit federal and state level conservation efforts.

Our conservation issues are complex, complicated, and numerous but that has been the case for the past 125 years. What has changed in those 125 years is the nation's demand for food, energy, and water. The social demographics of the United States in 2013 look nothing like they did in 1888. At that time, there were 42 states, the frontier era was declared over, 63 million people resided in the U.S., and 65 percent of them lived in rural areas. Today, 315 million people live here with only 15 percent residing in rural areas. Twenty eight percent of our population is non-white with the fastest rate of growth in the Asian and Latino populations. As we strive to unify our conservation community, we must do so with the goal of unifying the nation's citizens. We have transformed as a country, so we, as public stewards, must transform conservation agencies and organizations.

Transformation workshops have been held during the last three North American Conferences. This effort arose in recognition of the change in the country's environment and social structure. Efforts are underway to advance and expand stakeholder involvement, expand partnership opportunities, embrace social science, and incorporate "quality of life" and economic-well being into agency structures, functions, and programs. Aligning agency programs and budgets to adapt to changing demographic trends and desires will be a difficult but necessary task in order for conservation to remain relevant to the public. Florida has reorganized and integrated a team approach to align their conservation mission with the demands of their stakeholders. Michigan has established a collaborative approach with stakeholders and sister agencies to focus on "quality of life" issues rather than just a tally of wildlife produced and harvested. The Fish and Wildlife Service has promoted urban refuges to reach out to urban residents and to spread the word about the importance of wildlife conservation for the entire citizenry.

These are but a few of the transformation efforts that are underway across the country. Our community used a unified approach to support conservation legislation and almost succeeded in passage of the most comprehensive conservation legislation in decades. If we unify in our efforts to transform agencies and organizations to adapt to changing demographics and environmental factors, we will have developed a powerful new conservation model. A model that is worthy of the challenges we face going forward. A model that is worthy of the legacy handed to us over the past 125 years.

Thank you for participating in this conference and thank you for your dedication to fish and wildlife conservation.