A vote for CARA

Sixty-three senators have signed a letter urging Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott to schedule a floor vote on the Conservation and Reinvestment Act. The bipartisan group deserves a hearing on a bill that could help Maine’s towns and woods for decades to come.

CARA pays for outdoor programs, using income the United States receives from offshore oil and gas leases, approximately $4 billion annually. The act, in effect, tries to compensate for the use of these natural resources by enhancing other resources. Land and Water Conservation money – which pays for everything from land acquisition to ballparks and boat ramps – is included in the act, as is funding for wildlife conservation, coastal fisheries research, urban forestry, farm conservation, support for existing national parks and for the preservation of historic places.

Maine’s share in this would be considerable, funding many of the programs residents say they cherish but do not support as much as they need to. Ron Joseph, chairman of the Maine department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Nongame Advisory Council, recently commented that, “Conservationists have been looking for a stable source of funding for nonhunted species for decades. The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act, supported by Sen. George Mitchell, was passed in 1980, but never funded. CARA represents the best opportunity to address chronic funding problems for Maine’s nongame programs.”

The act is important to Maine in another way, as well. Because the land money in the act is specifically prohibited from being used to create a new national park, Maine can use it along with its own Land for Maine’s Future money to buy important areas and at the same time take away the argument of the need for a new park in northern Maine. Supporting this measure helps both the environment and protects the traditional economy of much of Maine.

Neither of Maine’s senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, signed the letter asking Sen. Lott to schedule a vote before the end of the 106th Congress, although both sent separate letters to Sen. Lott, with Sen. Collins saying that CARA “raises issues that are too important to receive less than full consideration” and Sen. Snowe saying the bill “should be open to close scrutiny by the entire Senate and be open to amendment on the Senate floor.”

With only a couple of weeks left before the scheduled adjournment, it is important that the senators use the clear popularity of this program to forcefully request that the bill, passed by the House last June, receive a full hearing and an unfettered opportunity for a vote. Time is running short on this issue.