OUTDOOR RECREATION, JOBS AND ECONOMICS GO TOGETHER
Parks and Wildlife Get Stimulus
Obama's massive spending bill funds national park infrastructure and finds innovative ways to improve fish and wildlife habitat.
By Bill Schneider, 2-14-09
We’ve all heard our share of sharp-edged words about the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Love it or hate it, get ready to pay for it because President Obama will probably sign on Monday, President’s Day.
Amid all the pointed rhetoric one key part of the biggest-ever-spending bill hasn’t made much news, Buried in the 900-page stack of legalese is greatly increased funding for fish and wildlife habitat improvement projects and national park infrastructure.
“Congress and the administration are keying in on the reality that many investments in quality fish and wildlife resources also are investments in a quality economy,” George Cooper, president of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) announced in a press release today. “Several of our partner organizations, including Trout Unlimited, Ducks Unlimited, the Izaak Walton League of America, The Nature Conservancy and the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, deserve credit for reaching out to our leaders to help grow this understanding.”
Thousands of jobs immediately will follow from the investments in fish and wildlife habitat improvement contained in the stimulus package, Cooper said, a factor that compelled the ranks of union sportsmen to align behind the bill. Earlier this month, the Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO joined the TRCP in a joint letter calling on Congress to include funding for shovel-ready projects that could give a boost to the American landscape and the economy.
Fortunately, he added, several of those measures were included in the final bill passed by Congress.
The press release included the following examples:
- $375 million for restoration of the Mississippi River and its tributaries, the nation’s largest recreational fishery.
- $280 million for the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service for refuge operations and maintenance and $165 million for resource management.
- $230 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s operations, research and facilities.
- $500 million for USDA Forest Service wildland fire management efforts.
- $27.5 billion investment in highway infrastructure includes set asides for park roads, parkways, forest highways and refuge roads.
- $290 million for the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s watershed and flood prevention operations.
- $125 million for the Bureau of Land Management for projects including abandoned mine and well site remediation, road and trail maintenance, watershed improvement and high priority habitat restoration.
National Parks and their millions of visitors also became an instant beneficiary of the stimulus bill, according to another release sent out today by from the National Parks and Conservation Association (NPCA).
“Congress has approved a reinvestment of more than $900 million in America’s crumbling national park infrastructure--creating jobs in rural and urban communities nationwide, and helping to restore our national heritage, praised Tom Kiernan, NPCA president. “This is recognition on the part of our elected officials of the importance of national parks to our economy, our quality of life, and our future.
“This is a very strong step toward restoring our national parks by 2016, the centennial of the National Park Service,” Kierman added. “Much remains to be done, so we look to the continued support of the new Administration and Congress to address the parks’ many critical needs, including funding and finalizing the pending National Park Centennial Challenge, a public-private partnership program.
[End of article]wulfgar said it best on his site but i will give this a shot. republicans are more than willing to shell out 1 trillion to launch a drawn out war and occupation in a country which did us no harm....but they begrudge spending .8 trillion to put it's own citizens back to work. this will not only produce jobs but preserve our legacy as a country which cares about it's natural resources and is willing to invest in the future protection of our most precious national heritage- the public lands and waterways of america.
Comment By Oldtimer, 2-15-09The question is how many jobs will be created? How many will be lost due to increased restrictions? This is supposed to create long term jobs, but I have seen absolutely nothing about what each project will do in that respect.
Comment By Marion, 2-15-09Nope, it won't be signed on MOnday, despite the fact that it was such an emergency that congress could not be given the time to make mroe than a cursory glimpse of it, no actual reading of it, the President is on a mini-vacation and will not be back until Tuesday to sign it. I guess even though he wasn't in congress for even a term, he learned about taking lots of vacations.
Comment By Drover, 2-16-09Marion, I seem to recall that you were fond of the 43d president.
You know, the one who was on vacation at his "ranch" (ever seen him on a horse?) when the CIA was circulating a briefing titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike Inside the US"?
Get off it. Obama has been President less than a month. You and your ilk are plainly HOPING that he turns out to be at least half as bad as your little darling war monger from Texas. You are trying to take any little piece of information you can and twist it around so you can holler about how Obama is so awful and Bush43 was our true hope & savior.
Bush43 inherited a budget surplus and a fine economy. Thanks to his incompetent administration and GOP blockheads in Congress, we now have budget deficits for the rest of your life, my life, your grandchildren's lives. We are on the brink of economic catastrophe.
You better HOPE that Obama turns out to be the greatest President in at least 100 years, because that's what it's going to take to fend off a complete and utter meltdown and domestic and international chaos.
Or, would you rather we all suffer so you can say "nyah nyah, told you Obama wasn't so great!"????
By the way, Marion, Bush43 was on vacation more than any other sitting President. Ronald Reagan had the previous record:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=George_W._Bush:_The_War_President_is_Missing_in_Action
From what I have read about the Great Depression, with Hoover and the Republicans, their attitude was just the same as it is now -- spend money helping foreigners; tell Americans unemployment was up to the individual to solve.
One difference, Hoover didn't help foreigners by starting wars.
It appears to me the problem is toxic mortgages, and their being the basis for financial instruments and a limit on credit. That is the problem, and the result has been this downward spiral in business and employment due to no available credit. As we spiral downward, these toxic mortgages and their ARM components coupled with job loss, increase the inventory of toxic mortgages and further depress the economy as there is no credit function to it anymore, thus consumers are saving any money they get against the very real possibility they can lose their job and thus their income. Which begs the question: why are we so set on attending to symptoms and not to the core problem, the toxic mortgages?
Instead of piece-mealing bandages and first aid, why are we not going after the toxic mortgages and rewriting them at affordable rates or even government subsidies. We are, after all, only 305 million people with a dog in the fight, and when you get into the trillions of dollars of borrowing, Obama's ten fingers are all in the dike now, and the leaks are more and growing. Kill the toxic mortgage disease. INcise it from the GDP. Do whatever to rid us of it, and then go back to post-Depression "bank-by-the-numbers" banking regulation and rules.
It looks to me, not a trained economist, like we are "shotgunning" our solutions, and not taking deliberate aim with a well placed bullet. Or the former what you get in a Democracy with a party in power that feels punishing the opposition is the first order of business, and when that is done, we can get down to solving real problems? It appears from afar that there is an ongoing battle, not far from sight, between the Administration and the Speaker of the House as to who is going to solve the problems. The Stimulus is the Speaker's shot at it. If it does not work, I really would like to see what the Obama Administration puts forth. Or even if they can put forth something and get it by Queen Nancy I.
My Senator Wyden wants to get back the Wall Street bonus money paid for with your dough. I want Pelosi flying business on commercial air, not in a US Govt jet, between SF and DC each week. Sorry. That is a $5 million a year perk I don't think American can afford in a recession quickly morphing into Depression. And if Wyden can get back the bonus money (which was in the stimulus and sublimated into thin air in conference), my hat will be off to him.
This is probably the best explanation of the stimulus that I have read:
Once upon a time a man appeared in a village and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.
The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around,
went out to the forest and started catching them.
The man bought thousands at $10 and, as supply started to diminish,
the villagers stopped their effort. He next announced that he would now buy monkeys at $20 each. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.
Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer increased to $25 each and the supply
of monkeys became so scarce it was an effort to even find a
monkey, let alone catch it!
The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50 each! However,since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant
would buy on his behalf. In the absence of the man, the assistant
told the villagers: "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that
the man has already collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and
when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for
$50 each."
The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys for
700 billion dollars.
They never saw the man or his assistant again, only lots and lots of
monkeys!
Now you have a better understanding of how the
WALL STREET BAILOUT PLAN
WILL WORK !!!!
It doesn't get much clearer than this.
I hope it gets clearer than that, Marion. Maybe you could explain for us simpler types how the various parts of your parable correspond to reality.
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