“To amend the Food Security Act of 1985 to improve wildlife habitat connectivity and wildlife migration corridors, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section amends the Food Security Act of 1985 to promote wildlife habitat connectivity (i.e., degree to which landscape elements facilitate native species movement among habitats) and migration corridors for big game species (i.e., native large mammals including wild deer, elk, pronghorn, wild sheep, and moose) across multiple USDA conservation programs. Specifically, the section (1) adds definitions of "habitat connectivity" and "big game species" to the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP); (2) expands Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) critical conservation areas to include restoration and enhancement of such habitat connectivity and corridors with a focus on big game; (3) authorizes cost-share payments under EQIP and the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) for planning, design, installation, management, etc., on grasslands enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) under grass banking provisions (i.e., section 1231(d)(2)(A)) that are of ecological significance, subject to prohibitions on duplicate federal payments for the same practices (while preserving emergency grazing and haying access under CRP); (4) increases the annual payment limitation for CRP rental payments to $125,000 (from $50,000); (5) expands EQIP payment incentives to practices addressing wildlife habitat connectivity and restoration of habitat including migration corridors; (6) directs incorporation of nonstructural livestock distribution methods (e.g., virtual fencing) into conservation practice standards and ensures technical assistance for such methods and other habitat connectivity practices; and (7) encourages all USDA conservation programs to conserve landscape and hydrologic connectivity for big game species and ecological processes using appropriate practices.
This section adds virtual fencing as a high-priority research and extension area under section 1672(d) of the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990 (7 U.S.C. 5925(d)), authorizing grants to (1) understand and address barriers to the adoption of virtual fencing technology and (2) study its effects on natural and cultural resources, such as (i) sensitive riparian areas and (ii) crucial winter range and stopover habitats for native big game species.