President’s budget requests funds for conservation programs

[Cara J]

This past Tuesday, the Obama administration released its eighth and final budget request. The Executive budget proposal is the first step of the annual federal budgeting process, which will continue into September and apply to fiscal year 2017. The president’s budget included increased and sustained funding for several key natural resource programs and agencies, with total appropriations of $1.6 billion for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, $1.2 billion for the U.S. Geological Survey, and $1.1 billion for the Bureau of Land Management – increases of $55 million, $106 million, and $2.9 million from the 2016 enacted budget levels, respectively. Highlights include a $14 million increase in funding for sage-grouse conservation, under the BLM, for continuing implementation of 68 sage-grouse plans and addressing new information and challenges. This program increase brings the total budget for sage-grouse and sage steppe ecosystem conservation to $74.2 million. The budget also calls for an increase in $3 million for USGS to expand research on sage steppe landscape restoration and adaptive management. The Obama administration also addressed invasive species with a $2.5 million increase for USGS Invasive Species Program research, with specific mention of molecular tools for detecting otherwise hard-to-find invasive species. A $6.4 million [...]

 

Read more: http://wildlife.org/presidents-budget-requests-funds-for-conservation-programs/