Twenty-seven hunters and anglers from 12 states flew in to Capitol Hill this week for a National Wildlife Federation hunter-angler lobby event. After two days and nearly 100 lobby visits (including a few personal meetings with Members of Congress), we can chalk this up as a big sucess.

Watch a video from the day.

Three representatives who are not currently signed on to strong global warming bills voiced their support for doing so. Congressional staffers also heard strong support for the inclusion of dedicated funding in these bills that helps fish and game species adapt to a warming climate.

A few notables...

• David Crockett, former Chattanooga City Council president and descendent of legendary American frontiersman Davy Crockett.
• Brett Fitzgerald, a former Special Forces paratrooper and current Florida Snook Federation board member.
• Carol Rose of Michigan United Conservation Clubs, a regular brook trout fisher in Michigan's Tahquamenon River.
• David Stoney, Jr., PhD, Director, Kitchen Table Climate Study Group, McClellanville, SC.

Thanks to all of the ground troops, who represented Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

 
From the Boston Globe:

A Duck Hunt for Global Warming
By Derrick Jackson

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia needs to go duck hunting. It is the only way for him to understand global warming.

He made that clear in oral arguments this past week on whether states can sue the Environmental Protection Agency over the agency's refusal - with the backing of the White House and the auto industry - to regulate emissions of the greenhouse gases of global warming. Just moments after James Milkey, Massachusetts assistant attorney general, opened his statement on how the state "will be hit particularly hard" by rising oceans, Scalia pounced on him with: "I thought that the standing requires imminent harm. If you haven't been harmed already, you have to show the harm is imminent. Is this harm imminent?"

Read the full article.  

For the first time ever, the Supreme Court heard a case on global warming today.  I was fortunate enough to attend the oral arguments and found the whole process fascinating.  Never having taken a law class, some of the arguments went over my head, but I  think I did understood most of it.  

The case was Massachusetts v. EPA, where Massachusetts (and 11 others states) sued the EPA, saying that under the Clean Air Act, the EPA had to regulate carbon dioxide pollution from cars.  Their basic premise was that rising sea levels would harm coastal states (essentially by shrinking them).  

For more, check out these articles from the Associated Press and NPR.
 

It's duck season and a number of folks at NWF seem to be slightly distracted.  Our very own Marc Smith, regional represenative for MN, WI, IA and IL, bagged his very first duck this year (left).    

While our regional representative for DE, VA, NC and SC, Dan Wrinn showed us why he's the resident duck hunting expert--for those who doubted his credentials as former staff at Ducks Unlimited (lower right).

But what of global warming?  Ducks are probably the game species most affected by warmer average temperatures. From the drying up of the Prairie Pothole breeding ground  in the  Central Flyway to the lingering summers that  run later into fall, duck populations and migration patterns are changing.  

And you better believe that's going to affect the hunting.  You can read all about it in "The Waterfowler's Guide to Global Warming." (pdf)

Right now  at the National Wildlife Federation we are  in the process of deciding upon which states  we will focus our global warming  work. We will  certainly be working everywhere at least a  little bit, but  with limited resources we have  to narrow down our focus to a limited number of  states for in depth organizing and education.

Saying the decision is difficult doesn't come close to describing it.  What do you think? If you had some money and staff to devote to global warming and wanted to educate and mobilize  hunters, anglers  and politicians, what state(s) would you choose?

I spent the past weekend at National Hunting and Fishing Day in West Virginia.  While I have only been to West Virginia a handful of times, it's where my grandmother is from and that branch of my genealogy I can trace back  almost 200 years in and around Charleston.  So a little piece of me  deeply loves the area.  And the slogan is no lie, West Virginia  is wild and wonderful.

West Virginia is also at the heart of the global warming debate.  It's coal-country, and coal, as it's currently being used, is the most greenhouse gas polluting source of energy we have.  So I had very tempered expectations on how West Virginia hunters and anglers would react to the message that we need to reduce the pollution that causes global warming.

I needn't have worried.  West Virginians are just as concerned as everyone else about what the burning of fossil fuels is doing to wildlife and wildlife habitat.  While the coal industry still provides a lot of union jobs, no one could begrudge the 500 lbs of coal that is saved for every florescent light bulb that is switched to a compact fluorescent.  And the reality is that West Virginia could create thousands of new jobs with a strong investment in  non-polluting wind power.

Finally, congratulations to Tom Ditty, West Virginia Wildlife Federation's vice-president, who  this week is  being trained on how to do Al Gore's slide show to class rooms across West Virginia.

Yesterday was primary day here in Washington, D.C., as well as nine other  states in the U.S.  While  I was voting for mayor (we don't have any voting representive or senator in Congress), other  states were deciding who would  run for Congress in November.  

One of the few really tight races decided yesterday was the Republican primary in Rhode Island.  Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee,  who is  widely viewed as a moderate and a great conservationist, won the election and will be running for his second term in November. He has supported the Climate Stewardship Act, opposed drilling and development on public lands and has helped protect the Endangered Species Act.  

Sen. Chafee's opponent, Stephen Laffey,  had a  much worse conservation platform--supporting increased drilling on  public lands, more logging in national forests and no firm commitment on solutions to global warming. Yesterday's Rhode Island Republican primary was a clear conservation victory!

With less than two months till the next election, now is the time to start looking into your local candidate's policies and records.  Does the candidate you support, support you?   What is his or her position on hunting and fishing issues--public access to public lands, funding for wildlife and, of course, global warming?

It's 100 today in Washington, D.C., with the heat index at a less-than-pleasant 110 degrees Fahrenheit. While Washington was admittedly built on a swamp and oppressive summers are nothing new, the overbearing heat around the U.S. and around the world is alarming.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced last month that "the average temperature for the continental United States from January through June 2006 was the warmest first half of any year since records began in 1895." (NOAA Press Release)

Just two weeks ago, I was fly-fishing with co-workers in Montana on the Little Blackfoot River. Not one week after I had waded through (and fallen into) those very waters, those co-workers lucky enough to still be in Montana forwarded me an article from The Missoulan. Apparently, for the first time ever, 220 miles of the Clark Fork and Little Blackfoot were closed to fishing due to the water being too hot. ("Heat halts fishing on Little Blackfoot, most of Clark Fork")

In California, 141 deaths have been caused by a recent heat wave, with temperatures soaring above 110 degrees Fahrenheit for many days at a time in Fresno, Sacramento and the Central Valley outside of Los Angeles. Record temperatures and high demand for electricity caused power outages for 100,000 people in New York City. London--a city known more for its fog and drizzle--is being seared in near 100 degree days, with the hottest temperature ever recorded in Britain in July peaking at 97.7 degrees Fahrenheit. Paris and Berlin are also matching record high temperatures.

How hot has it been where you live? Has your hunting and fishing suffered? Post a comment by clicking the link under this post.