How the Farm Bill can conserve wildlife and working landscapes

For decades, development and road building throughout the U.S. progressed with little thought to how it might affect the movement of wildlife. But only recently have scientists had the technology and data to understand the importance of connecting ecosystems, which provides freedom of movement and adequate habitat for wildlife to feed, breed and evade predators.

New research by The Pew Charitable Trusts, where I lead the U.S. public lands and rivers conservation project, shows that in addition to saving motorists’ lives, safeguarding habitat and centuries-old wildlife migratory routes provides myriad benefits. Those include sustaining healthy wildlife populations, promoting biodiverse ecosystems that are more resilient to increasing temperatures and supporting local economies that rely on hunting, fishing, wildlife viewing and other outdoor tourism.

Fortunately, federal and state policymakers are putting this science into practice by enacting laws that provide species room to roam. These measures include funding for wildlife-friendly infrastructure, such as overpasses and underpasses that enable wildlife to follow migratory corridors across busy roads — and prevent human injuries and loss of life due to collisions between wildlife and vehicles.

In the past two years, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Virginia and Florida have all taken bipartisan actions to improve ecosystem connectivity: directing collaboration among key agencies, calling for research to identify and prioritize wildlife crossing hotspots and investing in wildlife-friendly infrastructure projects.

These solutions work. In Colorado, for example, a wildlife crossing over Colorado State Highway 9 reduced wildlife-vehicle collisions by 90 percent from 2016 to 2020.

At the federal level, the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 makes wildlife and aquatic connectivity programs eligible for billions of dollars in funding over five years, including $350 million in dedicated funding for states, tribes and other entities to use for wildlife crossing projects.

These are worthy investments. And now Congress has another opportunity to mitigate habitat fragmentation and support communities and people. This year, lawmakers are taking up the Farm Bill, a multifaceted piece of legislation that comes up for reauthorization every five years. The bill includes provisions that incentivize the conservation of habitat and wildlife corridors on working lands such as farms and ranches.

Here are three ways Congress can strengthen the Farm Bill’s wildlife connectivity programs — benefiting willing private landowners, conserving wildlife species and habitat and supporting communities.

1. Expand a nascent program to maintain and improve wildlife habitat. The Big Game Conservation Partnership between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the state of Wyoming calls for strategic investments in the conservation, restoration, management and long-term stewardship of public and private lands that support migratory big game. For example, the USDA provides funding and Wyoming provides technical assistance and support to eligible landowners who volunteer to help conserve native grasslands and wildlife corridors while still maintaining operations such as grazing. The Farm Bill should expand this partnership to other western states, as well as maintain on-the-ground support through the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and Grassland Conservation Reserve Program.
2. Prioritize wildlife corridors and connectivity within the Regional Conservation Partnership Program. Funds from the Regional Conservation Partnership Program can be used to protect wildlife migration corridors by keeping grasslands intact through sustainable grazing, facilitating wildlife movement through fence removal or new practices such as virtual fences that would keep cattle in place while allowing wildlife to roam freely, and providing grazing recommendations that ensure quality fish and wildlife habitat.
3. Ensure that habitat connectivity efforts on private land are eligible for more funding. With a minor tweak, EQIP could make farmers and ranchers who work to improve habitat connectivity on their lands eligible for increased financial support for conservation projects. This would help landowners save money while increasing ecological connectivity on their properties.

The scope of the Farm Bill is vast, but it offers an opportunity to support thriving wildlife populations, safe roadways and vibrant local economies. We urge Congress to follow recent science and data and continue to invest in wildlife connectivity when it reauthorizes the Farm Bill.

Marcia Argust leads The Pew Charitable Trusts’ U.S. public lands and rivers conservation project.

First published by The Hill on June 1, 2023.