opinion | Protect wildlife within and beyond our borders

The editorial of August 10, “Helping Prevent Extinction” rightly approved the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, which can provide vital financial support for wildlife conservation across the country. Conservation is a historically twofold topic that enjoys broad public support.

Sadly, much of the proposed legislation ends at our borders, but the threats facing our wildlife do not. For many migratory species, including birds, sea turtles, and whales, population bottlenecks often lie outside the United States. Yet regional conservation efforts are uncoordinated and underfunded. The United States could join the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, a platform that could promote greater conservation of migratory species, but would require Senate ratification.

The Biden administration has another option: to use its executive power to revive the 1940 Western Hemisphere Conservation and Wildlife Conservation Convention. Twenty-two countries, including the United States, have joined the convention, which could provide a framework for coordinating the current patchwork of conservation efforts in the region. The Biden administration should convene the parties, organize regular meetings and support a permanent secretariat under the treaty, create a platform that would protect our shared natural heritage while promoting ecotourism and strengthening our regional alliances in general.

David Hunter, Takoma Park

William Snape, Westminster

The lead article “Helping Prevent Extinction” suggested the Charitable Conservation Easement Program Integrity Act as compensation for spending on the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act. Indeed, it would make sense to link these important pieces of conservation legislation together. But the Integrity Act also deserves action on its own merits this year, because only it can curb a blatant tax abuse scheme that has cost taxpayers billions of dollars.

The Integrity Act addresses abuses — documented in a 2020 two-part report from the Senate Finance Committee — that threatens a federal tax incentive that, when used as Congress intended, has helped private landowners millions of acres of irreplaceable farmland, forests, ranches and wetlands. The commission’s report noted that the handful of bad actors engaged in this abuse “just wanted to buy tax deductions.”

The Land Trust Alliance and its 950 Land Trust members applaud Sens. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) to end this abuse and call on Congress to pass the Integrity Act this year. All Americans who care about a healthy environment, food security, and beautiful open spaces should do the same.

Andrew Bowman, Washington

The writer is president and chief executive of the Land Trust Alliance.

The editorial “Helping Prevent Extinction” argued for more funding for state gaming agencies without examining some of their real problems. More than a third of the United States’ wildlife is in danger of extinction, in part because of actions by the same gaming agencies that the editors advocated rewarding.

From the grizzly bear to Gunnison’s wise grouse, state game and land use policies are pushing species already endangered to the brink. State game practices have devastated the iconic Yellowstone wolf population, as it has in Alaska’s Denali and Yukon-Charley Rivers National Reserves. Alaska also promotes such unethical and unecological hunting methods as night lighting, bear fighting, and dens (killing wolf cubs and bear cubs in their dens). These gross practices do not deserve the support of federal taxpayers.

A year ago, my organization led a coalition of 25 Native American, conservation, and animal welfare organizations to petition for the drafting of a petition with the Secretary of the Department of the Interior to end federal wildlife funds for states that targeting predators excessively to increase the number of “wild” animals and undermine federal conservation policies that promote healthy, intact populations of wildlife. Not only should the Department of the Interior pass this rule, but Congress should urge that future federal wildlife funding be limited to states that further, rather than hinder, the national goal of naturally diverse wildlife populations.

Tim Whitehouse, Washington

The writer is director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.