News for Immediate Release
March 31, 2021
Contact: Katie McKalip, 406-240-9262, [email protected]
President Biden unveils multi-trillion-dollar roadmap for investing in natural resources and creating jobs
WASHINGTON – A massive, multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure plan released today by the Biden administration would make targeted investments in systems and economic sectors important to the conservation of U.S. public lands and waters and citizens’ opportunities to access and enjoy them.
Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, which provided input to the administration during the plan’s development to ensure it reflects sportsmen’s and women’s values, singled out key components of the wide-ranging proposal:
- $115 billion would go toward repairing roads, bridges and other parts of the nation’s transportation system, creating an opportunity to invest in wildlife-vehicle collisions reduction programs and prioritize migratory corridors for big-game species.
- The plan would invest in protecting communities and lands and waters from natural disasters, including extreme wildfires, and would prioritize restoration efforts for the Great Lakes and Florida’s Everglades.
- It formalizes the administration’s support of the Outdoor Restoration Force Act, legislation that would fund state and local governments, tribes and others to plan and execute restoration and resilience projects.
- It supports making needed investments in U.S. digital infrastructure. (BHA supports the recently reintroduced Senate bill, the Modernizing Access to our Public Land (MAPLand) Act, which would help accomplish this.)
- $16 billion would be invested in jobs that restore and reclaim abandoned coal, hardrock and uranium mines, reducing pollution contamination in the nation’s waterways.
- $10 billion would go toward creating the Civilian Climate Corps, which would fund a program of conservation and resilience workers to improve public lands and waters.
- It would invest billions of dollars in research and development projects on carbon capture and storage, rare earth element separations, and other issues to related to conservation research.
“With the release of this long-awaited plan, the Biden administration is taking an important, bold step toward making needed investments in the nation’s infrastructure,” said BHA Conservation Director John Gale. “The president’s proposal can put Americans back to work while prioritizing the conservation and restoration of our public lands and waters, including efforts that make these landscapes more resilient and accessible to hunters and anglers.”
Gale concluded, “We look forward to continuing our work with the administration and Congress to establish policies and direct resources that will conserve and restore public lands and waters – while also elevating the need to address climate change and its impact on our natural resources.”
Backcountry Hunters & Anglers is the voice
for our wild public lands, waters and wildlife.
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