The Recovering America's Wildlife Act 2

The Recovering America's Wildlife Act 2

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act – “the most important piece of wildlife legislation in the past half-century” – has momentum. 

The Senate bill now has ten champions, including seven Republicans. The House version has 119 supporters in total, including 26 Republicans.

The Recovering America's Wildlife Act dedicates $1.4 billion annually to proactive, voluntary, locally-led efforts to recover thousands of at-risk wildlife species across the country.

Why is this funding necessary? Scientists estimate that roughly a third of the nation’s wildlife species are at increased risk of extinction. This bill will fund proactive, voluntary measures to help wildlife at risk before they decline to the point of needing federal Endangered Species Act protections. 

Like the Great American Outdoors Act, which passed Congress with overwhelming bipartisan majorities, the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act will be transformative for people and wildlife alike – and it can pass even amid partisan gridlock.

The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act has been getting great media coverage: We’ve seen recent stories in the Wall Street Journal, NPR, the Little Rock and Fort Worth newspapers as well as a ringing endorsement from celebrity hunter Steven Rinella’s Meateater.

The bill is also noteworthy because it will provide consistent, predictable wildlife conservation funding to the Tribal Nations – who control tens of millions of acres of land – for the first time.  

When the House bill was first introduced, the National Wildlife Federation’s Collin O’Mara said that its bipartisan support was “a shining example of how Congress can still find common ground on conservation even in these polarized times. We’re confident the bill will be signed into law by President Biden this year.”

The momentum in the Senate makes this prediction more likely to come to pass. 

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