Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, Inc.

The TRCP Center for Western Lands: The public-lands issues that can profoundly influence where and how we hunt and fish – climate change and its effect on fish and wildlife habitat, reform of the 1872 General Mining Law and responsible management of important roadlessand backcountry areas – form the core of the TRCP’s Center for Western Lands.The TRCP’s Climate Change Working Group is working to ensure that the issue of climate change is properly addressed in congressional legislation. The working grouphas signed on to a set of principles to help guide federal decision makers as they craft policy to provide for wildlife adaptation in a changing climate. The TRCP's Roadless Initiative Working Group is working with individual sportsmen, localgroups and businesses, western governors and national decision makers to ensurethat sportsmen’s priorities are considered as the future management of ourroadless areas are determined.    Center for Agricultural and Private Lands: The TRCP Centerfor Agricultural and Private Lands actively engages with our partners andpolicymakers to conserve important habitat, sustain fish and wildlife andsecure opportunities for sportsmen to access and enjoy these quintessentiallyAmerican landscapes through engagement on U.S. agricultural policy, clean waterand wetlands protections, and conservation of the Chesapeake Bay.    Debate hasbegun in Congress on the next Farm Bill for 2012, and the TRCP and our partnersare developing recommendations to improve on the successes in the 2008 bill.The TRCP will develop and promote consensus priorities for sustaining andimproving Conservation Title programs in the Farm Bill. Our recommendationswill focus on vital conservation programs like the Conservation ReserveProgram, Wetlands Reserve Program, Open Fields, and others.    The TRCP anda coalition of sportsman organizations on our Wetlandsand Clean Water Working Group have organized and are facilitating an educationcampaign to generate support for restoring protections that have been lost forour nation’s wetlands, streams, lakes and headwaters. While legislative actionis required to permanently fix this problem, we also support meaningfuladministrative actions that can provide guidance as to exactly what waters areprotected.    The TRCP isworking with partner groups, members of Congress and hunters and anglers on theground to advocate for such policies that will sustain and conserve the fishand wildlife in the Chesapeake Bay, federal action that reduces pollution,combats invasive species and invests in restoring habitat is necessary.     Center for Marine Fisheries: The TRCP Center for MarineFisheries has taken a leadership role in the efforts to ensure the long-termhealth of our ocean resources and the sporting traditions that rely on ourmarine fisheries. The CMF also identifies and engages in issues that areimportant to marine recreational anglers and works with TRCP partners to bringsportsmen’s voices to the policy discussion (e.g., Gulf oil spill recovery,federal management of recreational fisheries, etc.).  The TRCP also helps facilitate the FishCollaborative, an ad hoc effort comprised of ocean conservation andrecreational organizations that openly discuss issues and progress togethertoward healthier and more sustainable marine fisheries.      Center for Responsible Energy Development: The TRCP Centerfor Responsible Energy Development continues to advocate public-lands energydevelopment that considers the needs of fish and wildlife and the interests ofusers such as hunters and anglers. The TRCP has worked diligently to reform thefederal process guiding public-lands energy development and takes acomprehensive approach to examining America’s national energy policy. Areas offocus include energy exploration and development in the western and easternUnited States, offshore energy development,renewable energy potentials and impacts and energy transmission issues.    The TRCP'sapproach to energy development is guided by a team of biologists and expertsknown as the TRCP Fish, Wildlife and Energy Working GrouAccountability,Coordination, Transparency and Science when making decisions on whether and howto allow energy development on lands that contain valuable fish and wildliferesources.  These principles areinforming our work with a private ranch (The High Lonesome Ranch) to develop a“working model” to illustrate how landowners might balance extraction of energyresources with conservation priorities for fish and wildlife.    The TRCP is also a leader of the coalition Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development, a campaign aimed atcoordinating the conservation community as we work to strike a balance betweenenergy development and conservation in the West. The TRCP shows strong supportfor responsible energy development but wants to ensure it is done in a way thatsustains and conserves natural resources for future generations.