Clean Water Essential for Outdoor Recreation
EPA & Corp Proposal to Repeal Clean Water Rule – Anglers & Hunters Oppose The Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Assistant Secretary of the Army, Corps of Engineers (Civil Works) desire to revise the definition of “waters of the United States” by repealing the 2015 Clean Water Rule (the Rule). The Rule provides federal protection for “60% of streams and 20 million acres of wetlands, including downstream waters” that could be destroyed if the proposed action is implemented. At stake are spawning grounds and nursery habitat for juvenile fish, habitat for breeding ducks, geese and other
Action Alert – Push for Passage of the Forage Fish Conservation Act
Saltwater ecosystem dynamics include not just the marine habitat, but also the creatures, overfishing, predator/prey interaction, pollution, temperature changes, etc. Yet the primary fishery management law of the U.S., the Magnuson-Stevens Act, does not include provisions for managing prey or forage fish that provide an important food source for larger fish, marine mammals and birds. If the Forage Fish Conservation Act (FFCA), a bipartisan bill, introduced on April 10, 2019, becomes law, monitoring and assessments will be required of predator needs, impacts of increased removal of forage fish on other species, established fisheries and fishing communities before any new
Everglades Reservoir Bill
TBF joined many other recreational fishing organizations in calling on House Subcommittee on Energy and Water to approve $210 million dollars for the Army Corps of Engineers in support of South Florida Ecosystem Restoration projects in 2020. The projects are part of the Everglades and Lake Okeechobee watershed restoration. The Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir project is supported by both the State of Florida (Water Resources Law of 2017) and the federal Army Corps (America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 (https://www.sfwmd.gov/our-work/cerp-project-planning/eaa-reservoir ). Once the reservoir is complete, water can flow from Lake Okeechobee to the reservoir, once treated, then south
