Recovering America's Wildlife Act

Reintroduced to Congress in April 2021, funding from the Recovering America's Wildlife Act will augment traditional wildlife revenue streams such as state hunting and fishing licenses and taxes on hunting and fishing gear. It is expected to create thousands of jobs both at wildlife agencies and in the outdoor recreation industry.

Plants and animals become threatened or endangered due to:

Loss of habitat due to climate change, drought, invasive species, disease and severe weather, Illegal or unregulated hunting or collection, Competition from non-native species, and Pollution.

The rapid decline of so many species of wildlife and the habitats they depend on threatens Americans’ quality of life, and our outdoor recreation economy, which contributes $887 billion to our national economy annually, creates 7.6 million direct jobs, and generates $124.5 billion in federal, state, and local tax revenue, according to the Outdoor Industry Association. It is critical that we come up with a solution that matches the scope of the challenge.

Hunters and anglers, outdoor recreationists, and conservationists agree, we need a solution that can cross the political isle to protect wildlife and their habitat in Arizona and across the nation.

What is RAWA, and what does it do?

The House bill would provide $1.4 billion in annual funding over five years for proactive, collaborative efforts by the states and tribes to recover wildlife species at risk.
The state agencies have identified 12,000 species of wildlife and plants in need of conservation assistance in their federally-approved State Wildlife Action Plans. These plans would guide spending from the bill.
The Tribal Nations would receive $97.5 million annually to fund proactive wildlife conservation efforts on the more than 140 million acres they manage.
At least 10 percent of the resources would be used to recover species listed under the Endangered Species Act.
A 2018 report, Reversing America’s Wildlife Crisis: Securing the Future of Our Fish and Wildlife, found that one-third of America’s wildlife species are at increased risk of extinction. More than 150 U.S. species already have gone extinct. Nearly 500 additional species have not been seen in recent decades and are regarded as possibly extinct.