Robert Pore's Ag Blog

The Nebraska Wildlife Federation today released the results of its 2006 Hunting & Fishing Survey, and the message from people who hunt in Nebraska is clear: we need to do more for wildlife conservation.
“We were pleased, but not surprised, to see the level of support from people who hunt in Nebraska for programs that protect our natural resources,” said Duane Hovorka of Elmwood, Nebraska Wildlife Federation executive director.

Hovorka said the results highlight several areas of the 2007 Farm Bill where Nebraska’s members of Congress can aid hunters by conserving wetlands. “By huge margins, hunters said Congress should expand the Wetlands Reserve Program, which pays farmers to restore and protect wetlands, and strengthen Swampbuster, which restricts farmers who collect federal farm program payments from draining or destroying wetlands,” said Hovorka.

“Hunters also support increased funding for land conservation incentives to reduce pollution, like the planting of buffer strips between cropland and nearby streams,” he said. Hovorka said the federal Conservation Reserve Program provides those incentives, as has a state-funded program.

Hovorka said hunters have a strong message for the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources and the Natural Resource Districts in western and central Nebraska who are grappling with developing Integrated Management Plans designed to balance water use with available water supplies. “By more than 20 to one, hunters said they should always consider the needs of fish, wildlife, and recreation, along with the needs of irrigation, industry, and towns, in developing those plans.”

He said current state law only requires those plans to consider the needs of fish and wildlife where an in-stream flow water right is in place, but state law allows the state and local agencies to consider fish, wildlife and recreation even where those in-stream flow water rights are not in place. Currently, the only place in-stream flow rights are in place to provide some legal right to leave water in rivers are in the central and lower Platte river, and on Long Pine Creek.

Hovorka said the survey results should also send a strong message to Nebraska state legislators. “Public access for hunting, fishing, and recreation is a growing issue in Nebraska,” said Hovorka. “By wide margins, hunters support the purchase of more wildlife lands and river access by agencies like Game & Parks, and they support expanding the Conservation Reserve Program Management Access Program, which pays landowners to open CRP lands to public hunting. Hunters support providing open recreation access to the million acres managed by the state Board of Education Lands and Funds, as they are in other states. And, they support giving priority in state conservation grants to projects that provide public access.”

Hovorka said Nebraska Environmental Trust Fund grants, and State Wildlife Grants, could both be improved by providing a preference for projects that provide access to the public to enjoy the natural areas restored under the grant programs.

He said hunters also support increased state funding for watershed monitoring and cleanup plans under the Clean Water Act, the establishment of a state regulatory program to protect wetlands no longer protected by federal law, and tougher standards for captive elk and deer facilities to protect wild herds from diseases like Chronic Wasting Disease.

The full results of the survey are posted on the Federation’s web site, www.NebraskaWildlife.org.