by Bob Marshall

Sportsmen, take a bow.

Fish and wildlife finally had a good week on the conservation front because your hard work resulted in this news Friday afternoon:

The Obama administration has found a way to fund an extra million CRP acres targeted for wetlands and grasslands, and will reshuffle upwards of 70 percent (almost $30 million) of the Migratory Bird Conservation Fund (MBCF) so it goes to work on the prairie pothole region.

Those headlines were rare sweet relief for the conservation community, which has spent most of the last 14 months as the favorite piñata of so-called deficit hawks in congress as well as at the administration. In 2011, the House of Representatives attempted to eviscerate decades-long conservation programs that have proven to be money makers for the economy. And last month President Obama's 2013 budget showed no funding for the Wetlands Reserve or Grasslands Reserve  programs.

by Chad Love

This past weekend marked the 75th anniversary of that most venerable (and venerated) of sportsman-based conservation groups, Ducks Unlimited. What began as a small group of Depression-era hunters trying desperately to save our dwindling waterfowl populations in the depths of the Dust Bowl has grown into one the largest, most recognizable and respected conservation brands in North America.

From a DU press release:

"DU's 75th anniversary is a monumental moment in conservation history," said Dale Hall, CEO of Ducks Unlimited. "This anniversary˜and the last 75 years of science-based, on-the-ground conservation work across North America˜would not be possible without the dedication of our volunteers and supporters, as well as the partners who time and time again helped us succeed in our mission. This celebration is as much theirs as it is ours."

by Bob Marshall

When it comes to wetlands protections, it's hard for sportsmen to find any heroes in Washington these days. We have a House majority that spent last year shouting its opposition to restoring protections to 20 million acres of vital wetlands stripped by the Supreme Court, and vows to continue that assault this election cycle. And we have a president who makes a lot of noise about helping--but then doesn't follow through.

So as Congress returns to work this month, sportsmen's conservation groups find themselves fighting on two fronts in the battle to restore protections to those temporary and isolated wetlands. Here's the situation:

When the GOP blocked attempts to correct those court rulings with the proposed Clean Water Restoration Act, conservationists were cheered when the Obama Administration stepped in last spring sending its agencies a proposed new wetland "guidance"--spelling out which wetlands they could protect. This wouldn't put protections back on everything, but it would help.

by Bob Marshall

Word from Washington yesterday indicates the omnibus spending bill will arrive on President Obama's desk without policy riders attached by the House GOP and favored by some Senate Republicans that would weaken environmental protections for wetlands and other fish and wildlife habitat.

The Congressional Quarterly reported "Senate Energy-Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said the language included in the spending bill (HR 2354) that passed the House in July will not be part of the final omnibus measure under negotiation."

Republican lawmakers have opposed a new wetlands guidance from the Obama Administration that would restore protection to some of the 20 million wetlands left open to development by Supreme Court decisions in 2002 and 2006. Wildlife officials say the wetlands affected--called isolated and temporary or "intermittent"--are essential to waterfowl nesting grounds on the prairies and riparian habitat in the west, responsible for 50 percent of the wild trout populations and essential to big game herds.