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By Elizabeth Pierson
The (Texas) Monitor
March 24, 2004
http://www.themonitor.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=1101&Section=Valley
Conservation advocates in the Rio Grande Valley hope to convince Congress to set aside $5 million to help complete a wildlife corridor 25 years in the making.
But President Bush has asked Congress to provide $600,000 — and even that’s not a sure thing.
A Valley delegation representing conservation and agriculture interests visited Washington, D.C., earlier this month to ask lawmakers to set aside the money in the fiscal year 2005 budget, said Jim Chapman, chairman of the Rio Grande Valley chapter of the Sierra Club.
Chapman went on the trip with John McClung, president of the Texas Produce Association and Roy Rodriguez, a Valley birding guide. He describes the chances as "small" that the corridor will receive the $5 million it’s requesting.
"We’re hoping that by pressing that we can get more than the $600,000 that’s in the (Bush) administration’s request," Chapman said. "Even that isn’t guaranteed."
If any money is designated, it would come from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which consists of revenue from offshore oil and gas royalties that are designated for land acquisition, Chapman said.
The money could be used only to buy land, he said. While in Washington, the delegation thanked Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, for her part in securing $1 million for the corridor this year, Chapman said.
They received assurances while there that the three congressmen representing the Valley — Rep. Ciro D. Rodriguez, Rep. Ruben Hinojosa and Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz — would support additional funding for the corridor, Chapman said in a report to the Frontera Audubon Society. In 2002 and 2003, the corridor did not receive any money for land acquisitions. In years past, appropriations have ranged from $500,000 to $10 million, Chapman said.
Congress authorized the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge, also known as the wildlife corridor, in the 1970s. The corridor was supposed to include 132,500 acres from Falcon Dam to the mouth of the Rio Grande at Boca Chica, providing a continuous string of land on which wildlife could thrive without running into busy roads and development.
But there are still just 85,000 acres in the corridor, and undeveloped land is becoming scarcer.
Even a possible $600,000 allotment next year wouldn’t be enough to buy a key tract of land near the Rio Grande in Starr County, Chapman said.
"Given our current administration and the enormous looming budget deficit, we have our work cut out for us," Chapman said in a report to the Frontera Audubon society.
McClung agrees that getting $5 million won’t be easy, but plans to keep trying. Hutchison’s position on the Appropriations Committee and her history of fighting for the wildlife corridor helps the corridor’s case, he said.
"I think our chances are as good as anyone else seeking federal funds in tough times," he said.
The wildlife corridor is run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
