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For Immediate Release
Wildlife on Track in Transportation Bill: Overall Bill Loses Steam on Environmental Protections
Overall Bill Loses Steam on Environmental Protections
WASHINGTON -- After three years, two election cycles and eleven extensions, Congress has finally reauthorized the federal transportation bill, funding highways and transit over the next six years, to the tune of $286.4 billion. SAFETEA-LU is a mixed bag for the environment overall, but includes some important milestones for America's wildlife.
After much debate, Congress included provisions to include wildlife conservation in transportation planning. Currently, highway projects are planned, funded and designed before considering the potential impacts to wildlife and habitat. Often, this can lead to expensive delays, lawsuits and unnecessary loss of habitat. Under new law, transportation planners will consider habitat locations to avoid building roads in these sensitive areas, concentrating more on improving existing roads and highways. Congress also commissioned a comprehensive study on the causes and impacts of wildlife-vehicle collisions, and fully funded the Enhancements program that provides funding for wildlife passages.
"The conservation of our Nation's precious wildlife will now be part and parcel of highway planning, which should lead to increased efficiencies in road building, savings to the American taxpayer and the preservation of critical wildlife habitat," said U.S. Rep. Nick J. Rahall (D-WV), the ranking Democrat on the House Resources Committee and member of the House Transportation Committee who was an advocate of the provisions. "The various groups who fought for these measures, such as Defenders, are to be commended for what has been achieved."
"This is historic," said Trisha White, Director of Defenders' Habitat & Highways Campaign. "For the first time ever, wildlife will be one of the first things considered when building roads, instead of the last."
Unfortunately, the bill also includes significant setbacks:
- Significantly weakened the National Environmental
Policy Act
-
Funding for highways increased by one
third
- $20 billion+ in pork projects, many with serious implications for wildlife such as a $200 million bridge that would destroy hundreds of acres of Alaska's wetlands and impact feeding grounds of the rare Beluga whale
"We may have taken one step forward and one step back," said White. "Hopefully transportation agencies will take full advantage of the positives rather than the negatives. We now have the information and tools to do solid wildlife conservation while maintaining a world-class transportation system. There's simply no excuse to do less."
For more information on wildlife and transportation, go to www.habitatandhighways.org.
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Defenders of Wildlife is a leading nonprofit conservation organization recognized as one of the nation's most progressive advocates for wildlife and its habitat. With more than 490,000 members and supporters, Defenders of Wildlife is an effective leader on endangered species issues.
