by Bob Marshall

Are they crazy or brilliant?

That's a question Trout Unlimited and a growing number of sportsmen are asking about the House leadership after it launched yet another attempt to block a proposed new wetlands guidance that could restore protection to millions of acres of wetlands, including headwaters of trout streams across the West.

The latest effort comes from the House Appropriations Committee, which voted along party lines for a measure that would prevent the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from spending any money to implement the guidance, expected to be issued by the Obama Administration in the next few months.

Two House GOP budgets previously contained similar policy directives, neither of which made it through Congress. But the fact this try came so late in the game – and from a different vector – makes many conservationists nervous.

By Bob Marshall

When the going gets tough in conservation battles, the tough should get going right at the top.

That's one of the strategies Trout Unlimited chief Chris Wood is employing in the group's continuing effort to keep Alaska's priceless Bristol Bay fishery from being corrupted by development. Wood penned this op-ed in The Huffington Post urging President Obama to help save that gem.

Among Woods' words of advice: It is not often that a fish can define your life's work. Rarer still can the most powerful man on earth, the President of the United States, determine the future of that fish. President Obama must decide before his re-election campaign is over whether nearly one-third of the wild salmon consumed in the United States can continue to provide an important source of delicious and healthy protein for millions of Americans (try, for example, grilled salmon with ancho honey porter glaze). Or, whether an ill-conceived, open pit mine in the headwaters of Bristol Bay, Alaska, is more important.

By Bob Marshall

House Votes to Allow Weaker Ballast Discharges

Sportsmen and others concerned about the rising tide of invasive species lost a round to the shipping industry recently when the House voted to order the Environmental Protection Agency to use weaker ballast discharge standards established by that industry in setting new nationwide rules.

Shipping ballast is known to have delivered dozens of invasives that have taken a heavy toll on fisheries and wildlife across the nation. States have been moving independently to stop the invasion, with 29 passing rules requiring strict cleaning and inspection of ballast. And the EPA is in the process of establishing nation-wide standards following a federal court ruling that made ballast and other water discharged form ships subject to regulations under the Clean Water Act.

By Bob Marshall

Let the Super Committee Hear from You

Sportsmen who care about the future of their traditions have an important job over the next week: Let the congressional Super Committee on the budget know that more cuts in conservation programs will only increase the deficit, not lower it.

The Super Committee is the bi-partisan group charged with outlining $1.2 trillion in budget cuts over the next decade by Nov. 23rd. Failure to agree would trigger automatic cuts of the same amount, most of which would come out of defense and domestic spending. Congress already has cut conservation spending by 30 percent earlier this year, putting vital fish and wildlife programs on the edge of collapse.

Conservation groups fear the Super Committee is considering even more damage--but they worry those automatic cuts could be just as severe. The frustrating thing is that, as mentioned in many previous posts here, conservation spending actually turns a profit for the nation's treasury. So it's time for sportsmen to contact their congressional delegations and tell them "Hands off of conservation funding.” You can find out who your reps are, and how to contact them here.