Missouri Teaming With Wildlife Coalition Members & Friends: 

 

WE NEED YOUR HELP. Here's the latest news from Mark Humpert, Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies, regarding State Wildlife Grant Funding.

"The press is reporting that leaders from both parties and the administration have agreed to cut the budget by $33B for FY11.  If this stands, it would be the largest single year cut in history for the federal budget.  Now that both sides appear to have agreed on the  top number, appropriation staff are determining where the cuts will be made. Grant programs like State and Tribal Wildlife Grants are particularly vulnerable because no funds have not been spent this fiscal year unlike other parts of agency budgets that have been spent down on a prorated basis. Anything you or your partners can do in the next several days to inform Congress of the importance of State and Tribal Wildlife Grants would be helpful.  

 

The current short-term Continuing Resolution (CR) will expire on April 8^th.  Without passage of a final CR, another short-term CR will be needed to prevent a government shutdown.  A growing number of members have said they would not support another CR.  There also remains the contentious issue of riders that does not appear to have been resolved yet.  Many of these riders would negatively impact conservation work.  I'm sorry this has to consume so much of your time, but as I've heard some of the old-timers say, these are unprecedented time."

 

Remember, without the State Wildlife Grants program, the MO Wildlife Diversity Fund and Missouri Bird Conservation Initiative (MoBCI) Grants would NOT be possible!  

 

You can help! Please contact your congress members today (house and senate) and tell them to restore funding for the State Wildlife Grants program. If you would like to add a few facts, click here to see a Missouri SWG fact sheet.

 

Thanks to you, Missouri had the largest number of organizations and businesses on the State Wildlife Grant sign-on letter! Keep up the great work!

 

Regards,

Amy Buechler

Missouri Teaming With Wildlife Coordinator

573-634-2322