The Nature Conservancy Applauds Transportation Bill for Helping to Protect Nation’s Natural Heritage
Arlington, Virginia—July 29, 2005—The Nature Conservancy today applauded Congress for including important conservation measures in the Safe, Affordable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users.
On Thursday House and Senate conferees filed their joint conference report on the Transportation bill. Final approval by the Congress is expected this week and signature by the President is expected in August.
“This bill shows that we can find common sense measures to protect our wildlife and natural areas while continuing to address our nation's transportation needs,” said Nature Conservancy President, Steve McCormick. “This bill is a step forward in addressing the threat of habitat fragmentation from roads. Just as importantly, the bill funds important conservation work at specific places across the country.”
For the first time ever, the Act provides for cooperation between state transportation and resource management agencies during the long-range transportation planning process. It also encourages states to consider available conservation data and maps as well as impacts to wildlife and native plants in their 20-year transportation plans and then determine how best to mitigate those impacts.
In addition to the planning provision, the Act also supports conservation by funding conservation projects as part of the more than 5,000 demonstration projects receiving monies. This funding supports a variety of strategies at environmentally important sites across the country including:
- Restoring, as mitigation for a highway widening project, 4,000 acres in Georgia of what had historically been longleaf pine and wiregrass forest intermingled with wetland pitcher plant bogs and hardwood forests. This project preserves and restores critical habitat for the federally threatened eastern indigo snake, the state protected gopher tortoise and more than 525 species of plants, 22 of which are considered rare.
- Rehabilitating and improving a county road in Oregon that traverses a section of the Bandon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge. This project is an important part of a major restoration of tidal wetlands that will open up more than 400 acres of diked former tidelands on the refuge to provide essential habitat for juvenile salmonids, including federally listed threatened coho salmon, waterfowl and shorebirds.
- Assessing sediment impacts from roads on three important tributaries to the upper Potomac River in Maryland and Pennsylvania and addressing these impacts through road improvement projects. This project will result in improved water quality and the preservation of critical habitat for rare freshwater mussels, several rare plants and a globally rare insect.
- Replacing stream culverts at priority sites in Tongass National Forest in Alaska to ensure adequate fish passage. A study in 2000 found that about two-thirds of the Alaska National Forest logging road culverts are hindering fish passage in key salmon streams.
For More Information:
- How We Work: How Transportation Affects Conservation
In the United States, our quality of life depends on our highway and road system. But road construction – and the development that typically follows – takes an expensive toll on America's wildlife and natural landscapes.
- Where We Work: The Nature Conservancy in Georgia, Oregon, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Alaska
In the United States, our quality of life depends on our highway and road system. But road construction – and the development that typically follows – takes an expensive toll on America's wildlife and natural landscapes.
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