This alert is from Izaak Walton League, posted by Jane Clark

----- Original Message -----
Subject: URGENT IWLA ACTION ALERT -
Farm Conservation Program Funding in Jeopardy -

Your Help Needed Immediately!!
June 25, 2001
********************************

The House Appropriations Committee is recommending the elimination of ALL
funding for the Wetland Reserve Program (WRP), the Farmland Protection
Program (FPP), and the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP).
Collectively, these programs have protected and restored more than
1,000,000 acres of fish and wildlife habitat and have helped save thousands
of acres of agricultural lands from the pressures of urban sprawl. Your
calls are needed to help preserve funding for these important programs!

**The appropriations bill that eliminates funding for these programs may
reach the House floor as early as tomorrow [June 26]. **

The success of these programs is impressive. WRP has placed more than a
million acres of wetlands into long-term protective easements, some of
them permanent, and has provided funding to restore wetlands degraded by
agricultural operations. If Congress provided the necessary funding and
authorization, and additional 500,000 acres of wetlands awaiting enrollment
into the program could be immediately protected. WHIP is a successful
partnership involving the federal government, state and local governments,
and private organizations to restore important fish and wildlife habitat.
FPP provides financial incentives to help farmers resist the pressures of
urban sprawl and keep agricultural lands in agriculture. If the House
maintains its current course, these programs will be stripped of funding
for 2002.

Please contact your Representatives immediately with the request that they
support funding for WHIP, WRP, and FPP. Support for these programs in the
House now will be extremely important throughout the debate over the 2002
Farm Bill and will help insure that these programs, which are popular with
farmers and conservationists alike, are retained when Congress renews
federal farm policy next year.

Representative Greg Ganske  (R), 202-225-4426, 202-225-3193,
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http://www.house.gov/ganske/

Representative Tom Latham (R),202-225-5476
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Representative Jim Nussle (R) 800-927-5212, 202-225-2911
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Representative Jim Leach (R) 202-225-6576
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Representative Leonard Boswell (D) 202-225-3806

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