FY18 Budget Proposal is Bad News for Fish and Wildlife
What the FY18 Budget Blueprint means for TU projects and programs.
What Happened?
This week, President Trump released his FY18 budget blueprint (also known as the “skinny budget”), which promises massive spending cuts for several key agencies and programs that are essential for TU’s mission and work. Of particular note, the budget blueprint proposes a 12% cut to Interior and a 31% cut to EPA.
- Read TU’s Press Release regarding the Budget Blueprint: Trump budget walls off land and water conservation (2017–03–16, TU.org)
- Read TU’s Blog, What Trump’s budget means for anglers (2017–03–16, TU.org)
- Take Action! Stand up for conservation funding by clicking the link below:
Take Action! Contact the President and your representative in Congress and urge them to support the strongest possible funding levels for conservation programs in the FY18 appropriations process, including adequate funding for resource agencies and no harmful legislative riders.
What is the Issue?
The Budget Blueprint represents the President’s outline for his FY18 budget — the spending proposal that the President would like to see across all of the federal agencies. Many of the natural resource agency budgets have been eroding over the past 15 years, and some in Congress are vowing to make steep cuts to federal agencies. It is important to let decision-makers hear your support for adequate federal funding at the beginning of the budget process.
- Helpful summary by the Washington Post is available here:
- Helpful fisheries focused summary compiled by the American Fisheries Society, here
Why this Matters for Trout Unlimited:
Federal resource agencies — such as US Fish and Wildlife, US Forest Service (more complete list outlined below) — provide essential services to protect, maintain and responsibly manage our public lands, waters, and fish and wildlife resources.
Strong funding essential to ensure that these agencies have staff and resources to manage parks, maintain trails and restore damaged habitat to promote healthier lands and waters.
Trout Unlimited volunteers and staff around the country are actively engaged in restoration projects and partnerships that rely on federal resource agency programs and staff to help spur investments — from repairing culverts on streams damaged from floods, to working with our agricultural partners to improve on farm water efficiency to increase instream flows — we are able to leverage federal program dollars with matching funds and volunteer investments to achieve incredible results.
These programs represent sound investments in the health of the watersheds that support fisheries resources. Many of these programs provide essential seed money for TU projects, which we leverage with private dollars, as well as state and other federal agency funding to amplify the value of these programs.
Drilling Down on the Budget Blueprint: How these cuts will impact agencies and programs of concern to TU.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
The Budget Outline would slash the EPA’s budget by 31 percent — nearly one third — from its current level of $8.1 billion to $5.7 billion. It would cut 3,200 positions, or more than 20 percent of the agency’s current workforce of about 15,000. When it comes to the work of restoring and preserving cold-water ecosystems, the EPA is one of Trout Unlimited’s most crucial partners. The EPA budget includes programs that support TU projects, such as the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, Chesapeake Bay restoration programs, and small watershed grants for restoration work across the country.
List of Key EPA Cuts:
EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Restoration Program: The President’s budget proposes to eliminate funding for the EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program. The elimination of this program would severely limit the amount of coldwater habitat conservation that TU and others can accomplish in the Chesapeake Bay headwaters, and would stall progress on Bay cleanup efforts.
The Chesapeake Bay headwaters are home to some of the region’s best trout streams. The EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program — in particular the Small Watershed Grants — has enabled TU to work with farmers in Virginia and West Virginia to improve both farming operations and trout habitat on their lands, and with local communities in Pennsylvania to restore trout streams, which in turn contributes cold, clean water to the Chesapeake Bay. Read More about TU’s work with the Chesapeake Bay Restoration program and the impact of the proposed budget cuts.
EPA’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative: Elimination of funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, an important federal funding source that has provided $300 million annually for communities and park restoration projects in the region, is used to restore habitat for birds and fish, control invasive species, and reduce runoff from cities and farms to a improve water quality for the more than 30 million people that depend on the lakes for their drinking water. TU and our partners have been using GLRI funds in places like the Pere Marquette, Little Manistee, Peshtigo, and Oconto rivers to remove barriers to fish passage and add habitat for coldwater fish. The elimination of this program would stop this work in its tracks. Read More about TU’s work with the GLRI program and the impact of the proposed budget cuts.
EPA Clean Water Act Section 319 Funding: EPA’s CWA Section 319 funding program supports state-based partnerships between State clean water agencies and local partners (like Trout Unlimited) to complete water quality projects (stream restoration, abandoned mine restoration). It is unclear what impact the Budget cuts will have on this program, but TU will keep a close watch as this program provides critical support for TU’s work across the West, including MT, CO, ID and OR. For more info on this and other EPA programs, see this {TU-EPA: Agency summary}.
Department of the Interior (DOI)
The DOI includes a number of agencies that provide essential services to America’s public resources, including: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Bureau of Reclamation; National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management. Collectively, these agencies are responsible for the management and conservation of the vast majority of America’s public lands and natural resources including hundreds of millions of acres of national parks, wildlife refuges and BLM lands across the west.
List of DOI Programs at Risk
- USGS Streamflow Information Program;
- Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund;
- USFWS Fish Passage Program: USFWS Fish Passage Program helps to support countless positive outcomes — a recent notable example: the Penobscot River restoration project;
- USFWS Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program:
Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF): The Budget proposal would dramatically reduce land and easement acquisition funds from the nation’s premier conservation law, the LWCF. Hundreds of millions of dollars would be cut from LWCF programs of the Forest Service, USFWS, and BLM agencies. TU has long supported LWCF which has been used to enhance angler access and protect high quality trout and salmon habitat. For example, last year in Maine TU worked with landowners to protect the Cold Stream watershed, an actively timber harvested commercial forest that contains nine ponds that provide exemplary wild native brook trout habitat, critical habitat for the threatened Canada lynx, and important deer wintering areas. Good work like this would be eliminated if the Budget proposal is enacted.
Department of Agriculture (USDA)
The USDA oversees two agencies of critical significance to TU’s work and mission: the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), which oversees 154 national forests and 20 grassland across the country; and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), which helps farmers, ranchers and forest landowners conserve the nation’s soil, water, air and other natural resources.
USFS - Programs at Risk:
National Forest System Cuts: Reduces funding for lower priority activities in the National Forest System, such as major new Federal land acquisition; instead, the Budget focuses on maintaining existing forests and grasslands. Since 1998 we have seen a 39% decrease in staffing for managing National Forests and it is hard to imagine that further cuts will resolve problems like a $314 million trail maintenance backlog that impact millions of hunters, anglers and other enthusiasts who depend on our Nation’s public lands.
Wildfire Suppression and Response: This proposal claims to budget responsibly for wildland fire suppression, but makes no mention of fire borrowing. Fire borrowing is fiscally reckless and in order to responsibly addresses wildland fire suppression, the Administration must call on Congress to permanently end the practice fire borrowing.”
USFS Legacy Roads and Trails Program: Habitat restoration with USFS Legacy Roads and Trails: TU Metolius River restoration video
NRCS — Programs at Risk:
The Farm Bill’s conservation programs support TU’s partnerships with farmers and ranchers to restore streams and enhance watershed health. With a 21% budget cut to the Department of Agriculture amounting to $4.7 billion, and with less than $1 billion specifically identified in the Trump Administration’s budget for eliminating programs or budget cuts, TU urges full funding of the Farm Bill’s Conservation Title to support America’s farmers and ranchers as stewards of the land.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
NOAA, and its National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), oversee programs related to Pacific Salmon and steelhead recovery; coastal restoration; and flood resiliency projects.
List of Key NOAA / NMFS Programs at Risk:
The Budget Blueprint zeroes out over $250 million in targeted National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) grants and programs supporting coastal and marine management, research, and education including Sea Grant, which primarily benefit industry and State and local stakeholders. These cuts are of great concern to Trout Unlimited and our partners:
NOAA’s SeaGrant Program: This program is important to TU and our members because it is critical to our understanding of how salmon and steelhead use coastal streams, the bottlenecks they face, and how best to prioritize restoration actions. TU has used data collected by Sea Grant to scope and develop better projects and evaluate project effectiveness and Sea Grant-funded staff are valuable partners up and down the coast — especially in the Russian River, where Sea Grant’s robust fisheries monitoring program is essential to our cooperative efforts with landowners to enhance flow in coastal streams and to our fish passage projects.
Pacific Coast Salmon Restoration Fund (PCSRF)
What Next? How Can You Get Involved?
The Budget Blueprint represents the President’s outline for his FY18 budget — the spending proposal that the President would like to see across all of the federal agencies. After the full budget proposal is complete, the President will send the proposal to Congress, where the Appropriations committees will determine whether or not to fund the President’s requested amounts. The Congress has wide latitude to approve amounts that are greater or lesser than the President’s request for agencies and programs.
Please contact the President and your representative in Congress and urge them to reject continued cuts to conservation programs and agency budgets that are essential to support the conservation of America’s fisheries, lands, and waters. Urge them to support the strongest possible funding levels for conservation programs in the FY18 budget and appropriations process, including adequate funding for resource agencies.
Stand Up — Take Action with TU
- Current Action Opportunity: Contact the President and your representative in Congress and urge them to support the strongest possible funding levels for conservation programs in the FY18 appropriations process, including adequate funding for resource agencies and no harmful legislative riders.
Reach out — get in touch and get engaged
- Contact your local chapter or council to help plan or join a restoration project in a watershed near you or reach out to TU Volunteer Operations Staff for help locating tools and resources;
- Check out TU’s new “Project Finder” to see what might be underway in your area.
- Contact the TU Government Affairs team to see what’s cooking in Congress or in the Budget planning process;
- Consider a Donation to TU Advocacy Efforts.
Weekend Listening: I heard this episode this weekend and thought it was worth sharing. Decode DC episode discussing the “skinny budget” and next steps:
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For more information on the specific programs and projects that TU is working on with support of federal program partners or funding, please contact Steve Moyer (smoyer@tu.org) or Kate Miller (kmiller@tu.org).
