COHA Field Wire - February 23, 2009 -- Conservation Funding Protected

Conservation Funding Protected

The California Outdoor Heritage Alliance (COHA) and its members and partners have successfully fended off efforts to "borrow" $30 million dollars from the Fish and Game Preservation Fund-the account into which all hunting and fishing license monies, all bear tag monies, a significant portion of deer tag funds, and many other hunter/angler generated revenues are deposited

Last month, in an attempt to plug budget holes, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed to "borrow" $30 million dollars from the Preservation Fund. Had the proposal been approved, it would have undermined the Department of Fish and Game's ability to carry out its wildlife conservation mandates, provide adequate enforcement in the field, and negatively impacted hunting and fishing opportunity.

To address this serious concern, COHA - working closely with the United States Sportsmen's Alliance, California Waterfowl and other partners - repeatedly brought our concerns to the attention of members of the California Legislature Outdoor Sporting Caucus and other State Legislators in an effort to protect valuable wildlife conservation funding for the Department. Efforts by DFG, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and COHA to warn the Governor about the potential loss of millions of dollars in federal matching funds was also key to getting it removed from the final state budget.

In other good news, the final state budget maintained millions of dollars in state subventions to counties for the Williamson Act-one of the most successful land conservation programs in California that currently protects about 16.4 million acres of private farmland. The ongoing effort to maintain the Williamson Act has been led by the California Farm Bureau, and COHA was pleased to work with it and many other conservation groups to maintain the financial integrity of the program.