January 2020

Recent weather extremes experienced in the U.S. are linked to a changing climate, and a variety of efforts are underway to reduce factors that can increase the pace of change. The agriculture sector has been identified as one of the contributors to increasing levels of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere, and also identified as a contributor of solutions to reduce atmospheric GHG. Recent advances in technology, combined with precision agricultural practices, have renewed an interest in conservation practices that benefit soil health, with additional positive benefits for farm sustainability and wildlife conservation.

The Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies’ (WAFWA) Sagebrush Executive Oversight Committee (EOC) has joined forces with the Intermountain West Joint Venture (IWJV) to enhance sagebrush conservation. The EOC is composed of state and federal agency leaders across the 11-state sagebrush ecosystem. The EOC was formed in 2010 to provide coordinated policy-level guidance for efforts to preclude the need to list sage grouse. In 2016, the scope of the EOC was broadened to address conservation of the overall sagebrush ecosystem. Two challenges the EOC has faced over the past decade are coordinating implementation of the policy direction set by the committee across multiple jurisdictions and integrating conservation efforts on public and private lands. Delivery of habitat conservation at the landscape scale and collaboration with private landowners are core capacities of the IWJV, so joining forces is a logical way to connect policy direction and on-the-ground implementation of sagebrush conservation.

Most of the excise tax related articles you have seen recently in the Outdoor News Bulletin focus on the quarterly excise tax collections that make their way into the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Accounts. In these articles, we focus on comparing this year’s numbers with the numbers for the same quarter of the previous year. Some readers have asked for a more in-depth look back. The following looks at the last 13 years of collection data provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.