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Climate Change

Challenge:

For many sportsmen, the impacts of climate change already are becoming evident.

Waterfowl are exhibiting changes in seasonal distribution. Higher water temperatures and diminished stream habitat are threatening coldwater fish such as trout and salmon. Big game species are shifting to more northerly latitudes and higher elevations to escape summer heat and find suitable forage. In the future, the prairie pothole region could lose up to 90 percent of its wetlands, reducing the number of the continent’s breeding ducks by more than two thirds. Increases in invasive species, parasites and disease-causing organisms may profoundly affect habitat and challenge the survival of upland game birds.

Consequently, hunting and fishing opportunities in places where we have enjoyed past successes and great memories are likely to be altered in the future. Some species may not exist in numbers that allow hunting. We can expect fewer upland birds and waterfowl in the bag. Elk may linger in the high country during hunting seasons in areas inaccessible to hunters. Trout fishing may be dramatically curtailed, and favorite fishing spots could change.

Maintaining ecosystems capable of supporting fish and wildlife populations is critically important to the nation’s health, economy and ecosystem services such as flood control, water filtration and groundwater security. Hunting and fishing are the dividends we reap when we exercise responsible management of our natural resources.

Outdoor recreation is also an economic engine that annually contributes $730 billion to the U.S. economy, stimulates 8 percent of consumer spending and provides 6.5 million jobs nationwide (one job out of every 20). Each year, 40 million Americans go fishing, 13 million Americans hunt, and national parks are visited 270 million times.

With each passing season, the need to develop strategies and invest in management practices to help fish and wildlife adapt to a warmer world becomes more imperative. The economic, ecological and recreational values of fish, wildlife and their habitats make a persuasive case for conservation, but the legal, moral and ethical responsibilities that humans have to the environment compel the American sporting community to take up this conservation challenge in the 21st Century.

Strategy:

How we address the challenges of global climate change now will dictate the sporting opportunities for future generations. In particular, securing funding for fish and wildlife management is critical. The proper tools will enable wildlife management agencies to monitor fish and wildlife resources and mitigate the effects of climate change. The TRCP remains an active participant in developing and promoting such responsible approaches and resources.

TRCP has established the Climate Change Working Group, comprising top scientists and fish and wildlife policy experts working to ensure that the issue of climate change is properly addressed in congressional legislation so that the resources that hunters and anglers use are conserved. The Climate Change Working Group has 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. Read The Adaptation Answer.

Published in 2008 by the TRCP and a number of other national sportsmen’s groups, Seasons’ End: Global Warming’s Threat to Hunting and Fishing details the predicted impacts of global climate change in the habitat and distribution of fish and wildlife in the United States and the implications for sustainable hunting and fishing. Since the report’s publication, the urgency to address the effects of climate change on fish and wildlife has become increasingly evident.

A sequel, Beyond Seasons' End: A Path Forward for Fish and Wildlife in the Era of Climate Change, released in 2010, provides a path forward by
•    Explaining how America’s quality of life and the survival of its fish and wildlife are connected and why the national annual expenditure of several billion dollars on landscape-scale fish and wildlife projects is a cost-effective investment.

•    Showing field-tested adaptive management strategies for waterfowl, upland birds, big game and coldwater and warmwater fish that can be implemented to mitigate many of the adverse effects of climate change to conserve and restore fish and wildlife values.

•    Demonstrating how dedicated funding for state and federal fish and wildlife and land management agencies is key to implementation of on-the-ground, field-tested adaptive management.

Beyond Seasons' End is a crucial tool for policy makers and land managers seeking ways to safeguard the resources and sporting traditions central to our national identity. 

Legislative efforts:

U.S. House of Representatives: On June 26, 2009, the House passed H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, a cap-and-trade bill that lays a broad foundation for natural resources adaptation programs to ensure the health and vitality of our fish and wildlife resources and the quality of life for our citizens. 

If passed as written, the ACES bill would limit the effects of global climate change by imposing a cap on greenhouse gas emissions while investing in energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. It also would also create the Natural Resources Climate Change Adaptation Fund to assist federal and state agencies in implementing natural resources adaptation strategies and measures. The U.S. Senate, however, has not yet voted to support the ACES bill.

U.S. Senate: On Oct. 27, 2009, Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Max Baucus (D-MT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Tom Udall (D-NM) introduced S. 1933, the Natural Resources Climate Adaptation Act, which would create a dedicated funding mechanism to safeguard wildlife and natural resources threatened by global climate change. This bill is not comprehensive climate legislation in itself but rather comprises the natural resources adaptation language that could be included in a bill such as the House ACES bill. The Senate has not yet voted on S. 1933.

Sens. Kerry (D-MA), Graham (R-SC) and Lieberman (I-CT) indicated that they intend to introduce a comprehensive climate bill in the Senate in spring 2010. The TRCP and its conservation partners are urging Sens. Bingaman and Baucus to work with Sens. Kerry, Graham and Lieberman to incorporate language reflective of that in S. 1933 into the this legislation and stipulate that adequate revenues to be made available to federal and state natural resource adaptation programs and placed in a dedicated fund for fish, wildlife and habitat conservation. 

Action:

Join Hunters and Anglers for Responsible Development.

Learn More:

On March 3, 2009, TRCP Director of Policy and Government Relations Tom Franklin testified at a hearing of the House Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee On National Parks, Forests And Public Lands. Read his testimony.

TRCP Center for Western Lands Director William Geer authored an article, “Helping Fish and Wildlife Adapt to Climate Change,” for the Republicans for Environmental Protection’s summer 2009 newsletter. Read the article.

On Sept. 21, 2009, the American Wildlife Conservation Partners, including TRCP, sent a letter to members of the U.S. Senate in support of climate legislation. Read the letter.

For more information about our climate change initiative, contact William Geer, director, the TRCP Center for Western Lands. For media inquiries, contact Katie McKalip, TRCP associate director of communications.