I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2018 
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. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 28, 2005 
Mr. SULLIVAN introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Resources 
A BILL 
To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to provide tech-
nical 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. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Partners for Fish and 
Wildlife Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds that—
(1) approximately 60 percent of fish and wild-
life in the United States are on private land; 
(2) it is imperative to facilitate private land-
owner-centered and results-oriented efforts that pro-
mote efficient and innovative ways to protect and en-
hance natural resources; 
(3) there is no readily available source of tech-
nical biological information that the public can ac-
cess to assist with the application of state-of-the-art 
techniques to restore, enhance, and manage fish and 
wildlife habitats; 
(4) a voluntary cost-effective program that 
leverages public and private funds to assist private 
landowners in the conduct of state-of-the-art fish 
and wildlife habitat restoration, enhancement, and 
management projects is needed; 
(5) durable partnerships working collaboratively 
with willing private landowners to implement on-the- 
ground projects has lead to the reduction of endan-
gered species listings; 
(6) Executive Order No. 13352 (69 Fed. Reg. 
52989) directs the Departments of the Interior, Ag-
riculture, Commerce, and Defense and the Environ-
mental Protection Agency to pursue new cooperative 
conservation programs involving the collaboration of
Federal, State, local, and tribal governments, private 
for-profit and non-profit institutions, non-govern-
mental entities, and individuals; 
(7) since 1987, the Partners for Fish and Wild-
life Program has exemplified cooperative conserva-
tion as an innovative, voluntary partnership program 
that helps private landowners restore wetland and 
other important fish and wildlife habitat; and 
(8) through 33,103 agreements with private 
landowners, the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Pro-
gram has accomplished the restoration of 677,000 
acres of wetland, 1,253,700 acres of prairie and na-
tive grasslands, and 5,560 miles of riparian and in- 
stream habitat since 1987, demonstrating much of 
that success since only 2001. 
(b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to provide 
for the restoration, enhancement, and management of fish 
and wildlife habitats on private land through the Partners 
for Fish and Wildlife Program, a program that works with 
private landowners to conduct cost-effective habitat 
projects for the benefit of fish and wildlife resources in 
the United States. 
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act:
(1) FEDERAL
TRUST
SPECIES.—The term 
‘‘Federal trust species’’ means migratory birds, 
threatened species, endangered species, interjurisdic-
tional fish, marine mammals, and other species of 
concern. 
(2) HABITAT ENHANCEMENT.— 
(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘habitat en-
hancement’’ means the manipulation of the 
physical, chemical, or biological characteristics 
of a native habitat to change a specific function 
or seral stage of the native habitat. 
(B) INCLUSIONS.—The term ‘‘habitat en-
hancement’’ includes— 
(i) an activity conducted to increase 
or decrease a specific function for the pur-
pose of benefitting species, including— 
(I) increasing the hydroperiod 
and water depth of a stream or wet-
land beyond what would naturally 
occur; 
(II) improving waterfowl habitat 
conditions; 
(III) 
establishing 
water 
level 
management capabilities for native 
plant communities;
(IV) creating mud flat conditions 
important for shorebirds; and 
(V) cross fencing or establishing 
a rotational grazing system on native 
range to improve grassland nesting 
bird habitat conditions; and 
(ii) an activity conducted to shift a 
native plant community successional stage, 
including— 
(I) burning an established native 
grass community to reduce or elimi-
nate invading brush or exotic species; 
(II) brush shearing to set back 
early successional plant communities; 
and 
(III) forest management that 
promotes a particular seral stage. 
(C) EXCLUSIONS.—The term ‘‘habitat en-
hancement’’ does not include regularly sched-
uled and routine maintenance and management 
activities, such as annual mowing or spraying of 
unwanted vegetation. 
(3) 
HABITAT
ESTABLISHMENT.—The 
term 
‘‘habitat establishment’’ means the manipulation of 
physical, chemical, or biological characteristics of a
project site to create and maintain habitat that did 
not previously exist on the project site, including 
construction of— 
(A) shallow water impoundments on non- 
hydric soils; and 
(B) side channel spawning and rearing 
habitat. 
(4) HABITAT IMPROVEMENT.—The term ‘‘habi-
tat improvement’’ means restoring or artificially pro-
viding physiographic, hydrological, or disturbance 
conditions necessary to establish or maintain native 
plant and animal communities, including periodic 
manipulations to maintain intended habitat condi-
tions on completed project sites. 
(5) HABITAT RESTORATION.— 
(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘habitat res-
toration’’ means the manipulation of the phys-
ical, chemical, or biological characteristics of a 
site with the goal of returning the majority of 
natural functions to the lost or degraded native 
habitat. 
(B) INCLUSIONS.—The term ‘‘habitat res-
toration’’ includes— 
(i) an activity conducted to return a 
project site, to the maximum extent prac-