by Dr. John Schoen
There's an important piece of national legislation proposed that would clearly have a most positive impact on the funding, research and management of areas such as the McNeil River Sanctuary. After playing a key role at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to spearhead the drive to get sponsors for the Teaming With Wildlife initiative, I retired from ADF&G and since January 6 am serving as the Executive Director for the Alaska State Office of the National Audubon Society. I am continuing to play an active role promoting Teaming With Wildlife because it is so complementary to Audubon's mission: "to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth's biological diversity".
In a nutshell, "Teaming" legislation will create a national trust fund for supporting nongame conservation, outdoor recreation, and conservation education programs at the state level. This will be accomplished by placing a small excise tax on outdoor recreation equipment including back packs, sleeping bags, bird seed, binoculars, film, and field guides. This has been done before with huge success. Sixty years ago for example, American sportsmen asked Congress to pass legislation to tax their hunting equipment to fund the restoration of deleted game species. The resulting Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to state wildlife management programs nationwide and is largely responsible for restoring critically depleted populations of white-tailed deer, wild turkeys, wood ducks, and others. Building on that success, "Teaming" will help us invest in the conservation of all wildlife species and the habitats upon which they depend. In addition, "Teaming" dollars will expand state outdoor recreation and conservation education programs.
"Teaming" funding will be distributed to state park and fish and game agencies on a 75/25% federal/state matching basis. Because of Alaska's large land area, we stand to receive from $5 to $17 million annually in federal matching funds. Just think what we could accomplish for wildlife conservation and outdoor recreation with that kind of funding. For example, with "Teaming" money, we could really invest in monitoring and research for species like loons, shorebirds, songbirds, small mammals, and a variety of other species and their habitats that have had too little attention. These funds will also enhance wildlife viewing opportunities, natural history interpretation, and trail maintenance and construction. With the Alaska Legislature positioned to again slash funding for state conservation programs not directly related to hunting, "Teaming" provides and important alternative. But the time to act is now.
Over 1,500 organizations across the country have endorsed "Teaming" including 350 from Alaska. This is the largest coalition ever assembled to support a piece of conservation legislation in the United States. The National Audubon Society is a member of the national steering committee coordinating this effort and all the Audubon Chapters in Alaska have endorsed this important initiative. But there is more work to be done. Although "Friends of McNeil River" has joined this coalition as a group, and all Alaskan Board of Directors members have joined individually, all members of FOMR are needed to show support by joining this effort as well, in Alaska as well as throughout the rest of the United States.
Our major objective is to build enough support to gain the sponsorship of members of Congress including the Alaska Delegation. We expect the bill to be introduced in Congress sometime this spring. Here are some important ways you can help:
If you need additional information about "Teaming With Wildlife" call me in Anchorage at (907) 276-7034. Contacts at ADF&G include: John Wright in Fairbanks (907) 459-7292, Nancy Tankersley in Anchorage (907) 267-2149 and Michelle Sydeman in Juneau (907) 465-4114. The State Parks contact is Dave Stephens in Anchorage (907) 269-8709.