109TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 260

AN ACT

To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to provide technical and financial assistance to private landowners to

restore, enhance, and manage private land to improve

fish and wildlife habitats through the Partners for Fish

and Wildlife Program.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Partners for Fish and

5 Wildlife Act’’.
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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

2 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds that—

3 (1) approximately 60 percent of fish and wild4 life in the United States are on private land;

5 (2) it is imperative to facilitate private land6 owner-centered and results-oriented efforts that pro7 mote efficient and innovative ways to protect and en8 hance natural resources;

9 (3) there is no readily available source of tech10 nical biological information that the public can ac11 cess to assist with the application of state-of-the-art

12 techniques to restore, enhance, and manage fish and

13 wildlife habitats;

14 (4) a voluntary cost-effective program that

15 leverages public and private funds to assist private

16 landowners in the conduct of state-of-the-art fish

17 and wildlife habitat restoration, enhancement, and

18 management projects is needed;

19 (5) durable partnerships working collaboratively

20 with willing private landowners to implement on-the21 ground projects has lead to the reduction of endan22 gered species listings;

23 (6) Executive Order No. 13352 (69 Fed. Reg.

24 52989) directs the Departments of the Interior, Ag25 riculture, Commerce, and Defense and the Environ26 mental Protection Agency to pursue new cooperative
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1 conservation programs involving the collaboration of

2 Federal, State, local, and tribal governments, private

3 for-profit and non-profit institutions, non-govern4 mental entities, and individuals;

5 (7) since 1987, the Partners for Fish and Wild6 life Program has exemplified cooperative conserva7 tion as an innovative, voluntary partnership program

8 that helps private landowners restore wetland and

9 other important fish and wildlife habitat; and

10 (8) through 33,103 agreements with private

11 landowners, the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Pro12 gram has accomplished the restoration of 677,000

13 acres of wetland, 1,253,700 acres of prairie and na14 tive grasslands, and 5,560 miles of riparian and in15 stream habitat since 1987, demonstrating much of

16 that success since only 2001.

17 (b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to provide

18 for the restoration, enhancement, and management of fish

19 and wildlife habitats on private land through the Partners

20 for Fish and Wildlife Program, a program that works with

21 private landowners to conduct cost-effective habitat

22 projects for the benefit of fish and wildlife resources in

23 the United States.

24 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

25 In this Act:
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1 (1) FEDERAL TRUST SPECIES.—The term

2 ‘‘Federal trust species’’ means migratory birds,

3 threatened species, endangered species, interjurisdic4 tional fish, marine mammals, and other species of

5 concern.

6 (2) HABITAT ENHANCEMENT.—

7 (A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘habitat en8 hancement’’ means the manipulation of the

9 physical, chemical, or biological characteristics

10 of a habitat to change a specific function or

11 seral stage of the habitat.

12 (B) INCLUSIONS.—The term ‘‘habitat en13 hancement’’ includes—

14 (i) an activity conducted to increase

15 or decrease a specific function for the pur16 pose of benefitting species, including—

17 (I) increasing the hydroperiod

18 and water depth of a stream or wet19 land beyond what would naturally

20 occur;

21 (II) improving waterfowl habitat

22 conditions;

23 (III) establishing water level

24 management capabilities for native

25 plant communities;
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1 (IV) creating mud flat conditions

2 important for shorebirds; and

3 (V) cross fencing or establishing

4 a rotational grazing system on native

5 range to improve grassland nesting

6 bird habitat conditions; and

7 (ii) an activity conducted to shift a

8 native plant community successional stage,

9 including—

10 (I) burning an established native

11 grass community to reduce or elimi12 nate invading brush or exotic species;

13 (II) brush shearing to set back

14 early successional plant communities;

15 and

16 (III) forest management that

17 promotes a particular seral stage.

18 (C) EXCLUSIONS.—The term ‘‘habitat en19 hancement’’ does not include regularly sched20 uled and routine maintenance and management

21 activities, such as annual mowing or spraying of

22 unwanted vegetation.

23 (3) HABITAT ESTABLISHMENT.—The term

24 ‘‘habitat establishment’’ means the manipulation of

25 physical, chemical, or biological characteristics of a
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1 project site to create and maintain habitat that did

2 not previously exist on the project site, including

3 construction of—

4 (A) shallow water impoundments on non5 hydric soils; and

6 (B) side channel spawning and rearing

7 habitat.

8 (4) HABITAT IMPROVEMENT.—The term ‘‘habi9 tat improvement’’ means restoring, enhancing, or es10 tablishing physiographic, hydrological, or disturb11 ance conditions necessary to establish or maintain

12 native plant and animal communities, including peri13 odic manipulations to maintain intended habitat con14 ditions on completed project sites.

15 (5) HABITAT RESTORATION.—

16 (A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘habitat res17 toration’’ means the manipulation of the phys18 ical, chemical, or biological characteristics of a

19 site with the goal of returning the majority of

20 natural functions to the lost or degraded native

21 habitat.

22 (B) INCLUSIONS.—The term ‘‘habitat res23 toration’’ includes—

24 (i) an activity conducted to return a

25 project site, to the maximum extent prac-
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1 ticable, to the ecological condition that ex2 isted prior to the loss or degradation,

3 including—

4 (I) removing tile drains or plug5 ging drainage ditches in former or de6 graded wetland;

7 (II) returning meanders and sus8 tainable profiles to straightened

9 streams;

10 (III) burning grass communities

11 heavily invaded by exotic species to re12 establish native grass and plant com13 munities; and

14 (IV) planting plant communities

15 that are native to the project site;

16 (ii) if restoration of a project site to

17 its original ecological condition is not prac18 ticable, an activity that repairs 1 or more

19 of the original habitat functions and that

20 involve the use of native vegetation,

21 including—

22 (I) the installation of a water

23 control structure in a swale on land

24 isolated from overbank flooding by a
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1 major levee to simulate natural

2 hydrological processes; and

3 (II) the placement of streambank

4 or instream habitat diversity struc5 tures in streams that cannot be re6 stored to original conditions or profile;

7 and

8 (iii) removal of a disturbing or de9 grading element to enable the native habi10 tat to reestablish or become fully func11 tional.

12 (6) PRIVATE LAND.—

13 (A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘private

14 land’’ means any land that is not owned by the

15 Federal Government or a State.

16 (B) INCLUSIONS.—The term ‘‘private

17 land’’ includes tribal land and Hawaiian home18 land.

19 (7) PROJECT.—The term ‘‘project’’ means a

20 project carried out under the Partners for Fish and

21 Wildlife Program established by section 4.

22 (8) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means

23 the Secretary of the Interior.
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1 SEC. 4. PARTNERS FOR FISH AND WILDLIFE PROGRAM.

2 The Secretary shall carry out the Partners for Fish

3 and Wildlife Program within the United States Fish and

4 Wildlife Service to provide—

5 (1) technical and financial assistance to private

6 landowners for the conduct of voluntary projects to

7 benefit Federal trust species by promoting habitat

8 improvement, habitat restoration, habitat enhance9 ment, and habitat establishment; and

10 (2) technical assistance to other public and pri11 vate entities regarding fish and wildlife habitat res12 toration on private land.

13 SEC. 5. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

14 There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out

15 this Act not more than $75,000,000 for each of fiscal

16 years 2006 through 2011.

Passed the Senate June 27, 2005.

Attest:

Secretary.
109TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 260

AN ACT

To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to program. through the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Pro- vate land to improve fish and wildlife habitats landowners to restore, enhance, and manage pri- vide technical and financial assistance to private