Missouri will see $21 million for wild life conservation efforts

Jefferson City – The U.S. House of Representatives has voted to pass the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, a bill to prevent wildlife extinctions by funding locally-led conservation efforts. If it becomes law, Missouri will receive roughly $21 million to restore habitat, remove invasive species and help around 580 species of concern, including greater prairie chicken, lake sturgeon, and swamp rabbits.

“Recovering America’s Wildlife Act is the most significant wildlife conservation bill in the last half-century,” said Tyler Schwartze, Executive Director of the Conservation Federation of Missouri. “Wildlife and their habitats in Missouri and across the country are in crisis, and this bold, bipartisan bill will tackle the problem at scale without new taxes or regulation.”

Recovering America’s Wildlife Act funding will be used to implement the Congressionally-mandated state wildlife action plans, which identify more than 12,000 wildlife and plants that need conservation assistance nationwide. In Missouri, habitat restoration work would also benefit various game species and at-risk species on private and public land.

“The bipartisan passage of the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act affirms that there is consensus across the political spectrum that we can, and we must, prevent extinctions from our backyards to the backcountry,” said Collin O’Mara, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. “Inaction is the ally of extinction, and the time to act is now.”

The bill would dedicate $1.4 billion annually toward efforts to help fish and wildlife species in decline, including $97.5 million annually to fund proactive wildlife conservation efforts led by Native American tribes.

CFM thanks everyone that has reached out to their members of Congress to get it to pass the House. The bill now heads to the Senate, having strong bipartisan support, with 35 cosponsors, including Missouri Senator Roy Blunt, helping lead the effort. Last fall he made stops around the state promoting the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act.

“I want my grandchildren and all future generations growing up in the Show-Me State to be able to see monarchs in their backyard and hear the call of whip-poor-will as I have,” said Schwartze. “Now that the bill heads to the Senate, we are hopeful Senators Blunt and Hawley can do everything they can to aid this historic legislation over the finish line this summer.”