In an effort to meet their goal to cut discretionary spending, the subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives that is focused on natural resource spending moved legislation that would completely eliminate or significantly reduce funding for several critical conservation programs, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. The Senate released a draft of their bill in early August that would maintain far better funding levels.

Congress is currently in the midst of a five-week recess, leaving many pieces of legislation unfinished including a new Farm Bill, according to the Wildlife Management Institute.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently conducted another general sign-up for the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). Producers applied to enroll 1.9 million acres into the program with 1.7 million of those acres being accepted, according to the Wildlife Management Institute. USDA also announced that so far they have received applications for enrollment of over 370,000 acres in Continuous CRP, which targets priority areas to conserve wetland and grassland habitats.

Natural resource managers are growing increasingly concerned about the risks of aquatic invasive species affecting native habitat and species communities. Two U.S. Geological Service scientists and several generations of graduate and undergraduate students have been working to provide solutions that help managers reduce the likely transport of aquatic invasive species. Dr. Barnaby Watten of the USGS Leetown Science Center and Dr.