Acronyms Increase Wildlife?

Jun 14

There's news from NAWCA & PF. Whoopee. More acronyms. NAWCA. What’s that, No Attractive Women Congressional Aids? Never Allow Wimpy Court Attorneys? Narcissistic Authors Writing Crappy Articles? And PF must stand for Perpetually Frustrated. Actually, NAWCA means “more wildlife” because it’s the North American Wetlands Conservation Act established in 1989 to provide matching grants for organizations and individuals who have developed partnerships to carry out wetlands conservation projects in the United States. PF is Pheasants Forever, one of the partnership organizations. In short, NAWCA saves and restores wildlife habitat, most of which you and I get to enjoy via birding, photography, fishing and hunting. Everyone benefits from the cleaner water. Pheasants Forever, our largest nonprofit upland bird habitat conservation organization, recently secured NAWCA funding to permanently protect 2,100 acres of waterfowl and upland bird habitat in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. But that’s just a small taste of what NAWCA does. From September 1990 through March 2011, some 4,500 partners in 2,067 projects have received more than $1.1 billion in NAWCA grants. They have contributed another $2.32 billion in matching funds to improve or save 26.5 million acres of habitat and $1.21 billion in non-matching funds to affect 234,820 acres of habitat. In this age of excessive and over-the-top numbers, you’ve probably glossed right over the above figures, so pause to reflect: conservation organizations have raised and donated over three-and-a-half BILLION dollars for wildlife habitat improvements in just 20 years! They’ve improved 26.5 million acres?! Million? Most of us are ecstatic to own and improve 40 acres. Government money for NAWCA projects comes from Congressional appropriations, fines collected from migratory waterfowl law violators, fuel excise taxes on small gas engines and from interest accrued under the 1937 Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act. Where Congress finds the money for its annual appropriations is anyone’s guess. China? Regardless, if I have to contribute my tax dollars to something, I’d rather it be restoring wildlife habitat than tattoo removal or the advancement of free-form chalk art on interstate highway overpasses. And I happily, eagerly join conservation organizations like Pheasants Forever because volunteer, non-profit groups like this are the ones that roll of their sleeves and do the dirty work that results in all of us having more wildlife in more wild places. # # #

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