Bipartisan public lands bills allowed to die on the vine

By Corey Fisher

At the end of the year, the United States Senate had a chance to pass a historic water and public lands package. The proposal, called the Natural Resources Management Act, bundled together dozens of bipartisan bills that were agreed to by Republican and Democratic negotiators from the House and the Senate. Senate leaders scrambled to find a way to avoid lengthy procedural hurdles before time ran out, but their efforts were blocked by Senator Lee (R-UT) and Senator Paul (R-KY), effectively killing the bipartisan effort. 

Members of both parties decried the faliure to move such broadly suppported legislation, including floor speeches from Senator Cantwell (D-WA), Senator Daines (R-MT) and Senator Gardner (R-CO). 

Left to die on the vine were several bills that would have greatly enhanced America’s public land heritage, including a proposal to permanently authorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), which expired on September 30.  

Since 1965, LWCF has invested more than $16 billion into local communities in every state to provide funding for everything from public land acquisitions to developing local outdoor recreation sites. LWCF has provided funding to secure fishing access to famous fisheries like the Madison River in Montana, Letort Spring Run in Pennsylvania and the Brule River in Wisconsin and many others. LWCF is also the primary funding source to acquire and conserve new public lands that are essential for sustaining our outdoor traditions and protecting fish and wildlife habitat. 

The failure to save LWCF was amplified by numerous public land bills meeting the same fate. This includes several priorities for sportsmen and women that would have helped protect and restore trout and salmon fisheries:  

• The Frank and Jeanne Moore Wild Steelhead Special Management Area Designation Act, sponsored by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), would have protected some 100,000 acres on Steamboat Creek, an important spawning tributary of the North Umpqua River used by wild summer steelhead and spring Chinook.   

• The Oregon Wildlands Act would have designated over 250 new miles of Wild and Scenic Rivers, in iconic fisheries like the Rogue, Chetco, Elk, and Molalla basins, and created new wilderness in the Devil’s Staircase area east of Reedsport.   

• Methow Headwaters Protection Act, sponsored by Washington Senators Cantwell (D-WA) and Murray (D-WA), would place 340,000 acres of U.S. Forest Service land in the Upper Methow Valley off limits to large-scale mining. This much-needed measure is critical to protect crucial coldwater habitat for rainbow trout, cutthroat trout, bull trout, mountain whitefish, Chinook salmon, and steelhead.   

• Sponsored by the entire Montana Congressional delegation, the Yellowstone Gateway Protection Act would prohibit new mining claims at the doorstep of Yellowstone National Park. Fisheries in the area include the North Fork of Sixmile Creek drainage, which supports an important population of native Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout, as well as headwater streams that feed the Yellowstone River, a world renown blue ribbon trout river.  

• The California Desert Protection and Recreation Act would protect approximately 76 miles of streams, including Deep Creek, which provides a rare opportunity for freshwater fishing in Southern California and is one of the region’s few designated Wild Trout streams. The fish, and fishing opportunities, would be enhanced and sustained by better protecting their habitat as Wilderness and Wild and Scenic River segments.  

• Yakima River Basin Water Enhancement Act includes federal authorizations needed to advance the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan, a balanced package of actions that will restore hundreds of thousands of salmon and steelhead to the basin, improve water quality and quantity, and support a healthy agricultural and recreational economy. The Plan was agreed upon by a diverse coalition of conservation groups, irrigators, farmers, sportsmen and women, local, state, and federal governments and the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation.

With Congress leaving so much unfinished work it’s easy to be cynical, but it’s better to be persistent. Durable conservation achievements don’t come easy. Rather, they are result of tireless efforts by those who care deeply about conserving the places they know and love. A letdown this year just means we’ll have hit the ground running harder in 2019 to ensure Congress finishes the job.  

Leaders from both parties have committed to passing LWCF and a public lands package early in the new year, with Senator Murkowski (R-AK), Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, stating:  

“The leader has committed, and the minority leader has committed, that when we return in January this will be, if not the first order of business, it will be a matter that will be before this body within the first couple weeks…you will have an opportunity to vote on that thumbs up or thumbs down in early January when we return.”   

The table is set for a big conservation win in the New Year -- we’ll be working to make sure Congressional leaders stand by their word and deliver for America’s anglers and public lands.