Washington, D.C. – A top priority for the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation (CSF) is to ensure that deer, elk, pronghorn, and other wildlife species can move freely across our vast landscapes and have the seasonal habitat needs necessary for survival. As part of the Make America Beautiful Again Commission meeting earlier today, Secretary of the Interior Burgum announced a Request for Proposals (RFP) in partnership with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), which will be supported with funding provided by the Department of the Interior (DOI), U.S. Forest Service, and other non-governmental partners to bolster the Western Big Game Seasonal Habitat and Migration Corridors grant program. This program is significantly important to the conservation of big game seasonal habitats and migration corridors. This announcement is an important step towards more fully addressing one of the most pressing challenges facing wildlife across the country, their ability to meet their seasonal needs.
The rapid rate of habitat loss and land fragmentation is real and in some areas alarming. CSF strongly supports efforts to bolster habitat connectivity through conserving and enhancing wildlife migration corridors and building and expanding wildlife crossings to provide safe passage for wildlife (and the safety and health of motorists) over and under highways, among other efforts to ensure intact ecosystems for wildlife. The announcement of this RFP and the grants ultimately funded through this opportunity will certainly help move conservation forward.
In 2018, then Secretary Ryan Zinke signed Secretarial Order 3362 (S.O. 3362), a first of its kind and innovative effort to conserve big game migration corridors across the country. S.O. 3362 brought forward the necessary fiscal resources that vastly improved the understanding of big game movement patterns, greatly expanded corridor mapping efforts in a voluntary manner, and facilitated communications and partnerships amongst private, tribal, state, and federal partners. S.O. 3362 is a shining example of the bipartisan nature of big game species conservation. This grant program started in 2018 to help implement the Order and has since prospered by funding impactful voluntary conservation across the West. The RFP announced earlier today builds off this momentum and is a sign of the commitment of the current Administration for wildlife, sportsmen and women, private landowners, and state and tribal wildlife agencies. The amount of funding made available this year is three to four times the normal amount provided each year so the conservation impact will be tremendous.
"CSF extends our thanks to all involved in issuing this RFP to better position federal, state, and tribal wildlife managers to conserve migration corridors across the nation," said CSF Senior Vice President, Taylor Schmitz. "This RFP is a recognition of the importance of migration corridors for wildlife and marks an important step towards more fully addressing this challenging issue."
In addition to working to conserve big game migration corridors, CSF continues to work to bolster habitat connectivity through the construction of highway crossings for wildlife. Specifically, CSF strongly supports the Wildlife Crossings Program Reauthorization Act as well as the Wildlife Road Crossings Program Reauthorization Act. Both of these bills will help enable funding to build overpasses and underpasses, fencing to direct wildlife to safe crossings, and other structures to help reduce vehicle crashes with wildlife and improve habitat connectivity.
Funding for big game migration corridors and wildlife crossings is a longstanding priority for CSF, and we look forward to working with the Administration to better tackle this pressing issue facing our nation's wildlife.