by Bob Marshall

Some critics of my posts occasionally claim to see a hidden political agenda when I report specific actions by specific politicians and parties that threaten serious damage to programs that protect the resources supporting our sports. Some even believe I exaggerate the support from hunting and fishing groups for those programs and protections.

For this post, I'll let the nation's hunters and anglers speak for me.

In this case the issue is "Sodsaver," a feature of the Farm Bill that has protected our precious but dwindling base of upland cover since 1985. It doesn't cost taxpayers anything. It works by telling farmers they will lose government subsidies if they decide to plant land that hasn't felt a plow in at least 20 years. Yet there are some in Congress who would see it weakened or killed.

by Chad Love

Some readers may recall a blog post I wrote a couple years ago wherein I opined that one of the most transformative events for the future of hunting and fishing in this country occurred in the swirling, dust-choked winds of the southern plains on April 14, 1935.

Your humble scribe wrote...

April 14th marks the 75th anniversary of an event that, while almost completely forgotten today, probably did as much as anything else to improve hunting and fishing in a large part of the country. Everyone, of course, is familiar with the term "Dust Bowl." But it was the unbelievable dust storm that hit the southern plains on April 14, 1935, "Black Sunday", that inspired the term. So where's the connection between hunting, fishing, and Black Sunday? It jarred our national conservation consciousness in a way nothing else ever had.

by Bob Marshall

If there's one word waterfowlers and others concerned about wetlands should keep in mind in the weeks ahead it's this: Buster.

As in Swampbuster and Sodbuster--two programs in The Farm Bill that are critical to preserving some of the nation's most important waterfowl wetlands habitat. And both are at some serious risk as Congress continues to consider reauthorization of the Farm Bill.

Sodbuster, which dates to 1985, seeks to prevent landowners from plowing grasslands that have remained intact for at least 20 years by costing them eligibility to some or all farm assistance payments. The original goal was to prevent plowing of highly erodible lands from adding to the high environmental cost of erosion, which impacts everything from floods to water and air quality. But the practice also aids wildlife by helping preserve the last reserves of native grass prairies--highly important as nesting cover for waterfowl.

by Bob Marshall

When is a $6 billion cut in conservation spending not labeled terrible news?

When it could have been a lot worse.

We're talking here about the Conservation Title in the Senate version of the new Farm Bill that cleared committee Thursday and moved to the floor of that chamber. Although the measure shows $6 billion in cuts over the next 10 years for cherished wildlife initiatives such as the Conservation Reserve Program, that amounts to about a 10 percent cut in previous funding rather than the deep and senseless chops some in Congress were advocating about a year ago.