{"id":10600,"date":"2019-08-09T18:12:56","date_gmt":"2019-08-09T18:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=10600"},"modified":"2019-08-09T18:13:28","modified_gmt":"2019-08-09T18:13:28","slug":"bill-aims-to-help-protect-hundreds-of-tx-wildlife-species","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=10600","title":{"rendered":"Bill Aims to Help Protect Hundreds of TX Wildlife Species"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Atlantic spotted dolphins are considered to be a threatened species in Texas. Congress is considering funding proactive efforts to prevent species from being listed as endangered. Photo: Sheilapic76\/Flickr<\/p><\/div>\n

by Eric Galatas<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

AUSTIN, Texas \u2013 New legislation introduced in Congress could bring a lot of federal dollars back to Texas to preserve wildlife.<\/p>\n

Janice Bezanson, executive director at the\u00a0Texas Conservation Alliance<\/a>, said the funding would help protect imperiled species, including the Atlantic spotted dolphin, black bears and horny toads. If passed, money would be made available through the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for conservation groups, land trusts, researchers, universities, and private land owners.<\/p>\n

\u201cTexas would be eligible for more than $50 million a year,\u201d Bezanson said. \u201cThis would be an absolute game-changer for wildlife in Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bezanson said conserving wildlife also is an investment in Texas. She noted hunters, anglers and bird watchers are a big part of the state\u2019s outdoor recreation industry, which generates more than $52 billion in economic activity each year, and supports more than 400,000 jobs.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Recovering America\u2019s Wildlife Act<\/a>\u00a0aims to protect more than 12,000 species nationwide in need of the greatest attention, including more than 1,300 in Texas.<\/p>\n

Collin O\u2019Mara, president and CEO of the\u00a0National Wildlife Federation<\/a>, said by acting earlier to ensure that species don\u2019t end up threatened or endangered, years of regulatory and litigation fights can be avoided, along with the need for \u201cemergency room\u201d restoration efforts down the road. He said the bill is getting bipartisan support.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a time when Washington is pretty divided and folks can\u2019t seem to agree about anything, there does seem to be an agreement that wildlife is something that can transcend the partisan gridlock that\u2019s afflicting so many other issues right now in this country,\u201d O\u2019Mara said. \u201cAnd I think that\u2019s why we\u2019re optimistic that this legislation will pass this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Habitat loss is widely seen as a major driver of species loss, and much of the funds are expected to help landowners cover the costs of keeping habitat viable for wildlife. The bill currently has 70 co-sponsors, and must clear a vote in the Natural Resources and Budget committees to advance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Eric Galatas AUSTIN, Texas \u2013 New legislation introduced in Congress could bring a lot of federal dollars back to Texas to preserve wildlife. Janice Bezanson, executive director at the\u00a0Texas Conservation Alliance, said the funding would help protect imperiled species, including the Atlantic spotted dolphin, black bears and horny toads. If passed, money would be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10600"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10602,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10600\/revisions\/10602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}