National Wildlife Federation Outdoors

Aaron and Bill sit down with Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico to discuss the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act (RAWA) - what it is, what it aims to accomplish, and what we need to do to get I passed. Senator Heinrich is the leading sporting advocate in Congress and has worked diligently on numerous pieces of conservation legislation. We cover his perspectives of RAWA, how it will help state agencies, the opportunities to mitigate wildfire and its impacts, and his opinion that RAWA will be “the most impactful wildlife conservation investment in U.S. history”. Senator Heinrich has also been a champion on combating CWD. We ask him for an update on the Senate companion legislation to the passed House version of the Chronic Wasting Disease Research and Management Act.

Links:

NWF Outdoors Recovering America’s Wildlife Act action alert – email your Member of Congress here: https://support.nwf.org/page/39420/action/1?fbclid=IwAR32AQFGFCHRenhBbDzEtHB9vBVXrb9T0PURcT9pv6kDfyweoSLgBckvSBo

RAWA bill text: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/2773

More details on RAWA: https://www.nwf.org/Our-Work/Wildlife-Conservation/Policy/Recovering-Americas-Wildlife-Act

Our recent sporting blog on RAWA: https://www.nwf.org/Outdoors/Blog/03-23-2022-Bipartisan-Wildlife-Bill-Will-Benefit-Hunters-Anglers

House version CWD bill text: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/5608

Show notes:

2:39 – Little background on Senator Martin Heinrich. “The sporting community’s  biggest champion in Congress.”

3:27 – What has Senator Heinrich been doing outside recently?

5:44 - Senator Heinrich talks about Recovering America’s Wildlife Act. “…the wildlife version of the Great American Outdoors Act”

8:23 – Why should the sporting community support this?

11:24 – “This is the number one agreed upon focus for benefiting wildlife in this Congress, and the sporting community in particular has stepped up in a way that’s allowed us to move this forward and keep it incredibly bipartisan during a divided time in our country. Wildlife is something that brings us back together…”

12:36 - Senator Martin Heinrich reflects on what the early advocates for wildlife went through a century ago in places like New Mexico… highlighting elk, mule deer, pronghorn and wild turkey.

Expressing hope that our grandkids inherit the same amazing breath of wildlife that folks took for granted when they grew up.

15:28 - How much latitude will state agencies will have when they spend the money provided by Recovering America’s Wildlife Act? Turns out, the actual program is built completely by each individual state agency.

Please note: States all have what are called state wildlife action plans, if you are interested for your state be sure to google “(your state) wildlife action plan”

17:06 – Senator Heinrich points out -- the current programs which support these state wildlife action plans are completely inadequate to implement them. The need outstrips the support. RAWA would allow the agencies to implement these plans.

18:01 – “What the catch? There’s gotta be a catch? Nothing can be this perfect…” Right now, sportswomen and sportsmen have a lot of input with state agencies because their dollars fund the agencies. Will this change when the states have additional funding?

21:04 – Shout out to our partner podcast, Artemis Sportswomen. For more great content, please be sure to follow NWF Outdoors on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

22:48 - Senator Heinrich talks about how Recovering America’s Wildlife Act will help with natural infrastructure and wild fires.  

26:14 – Continuing discussion the benefits that stack up when you restore habitat for one small song bird in a wetland… restoration like this benefit’s multiple species (including hunters and anglers).

27:07 - Senator Heinrich talks twenty years down the road with Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, highlighting the importance of restoring riparian habitat for Rio Grande cutthroat trout, song birds and the sporting community.

29:46 - What do we need to do to get this across the finish line?

30:50 - Senator Heinrich talks about the Chronic Wasting Disease Research and Management Act being introduced into the Senate.

32:21 - Senator Heinrich shares statement about the importance of passing Recovering America’s Wildlife Act.

“Reach out to your house member and both of your senators and say this is good policy. This is good for our sporting communities. This is good for wildlife. It’s bipartisan. Let’s get this thing done.”