Robert Miller: Protecting CT’s turtles, birds and endangered species — if federal dough is approved

The bog turtle is an endangered species in Connecticut. It’s only found in a few spots in western Connecticut. Thieving herpetologists pluck them up and illegally sell them for sale. Turtles get hit by cars. Their habitat is shrinking.

So is the saltmarsh sparrow. It only nests in the salt marshes along the state’s coast. Many of those marshes have been lost to, or degraded by, development. Climate change means rising seas, making it all that much harder for the sparrows to nest successfully in the marshes that still exist.

The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection lacks the money to even study these species, and many others, no less, find solutions to protect them.

But, if fortune smiles on the ecologically-minded, that soon may change, and in a grand, game-changing way.

The U.S. Senate is now poised to start debate this month on the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, which would allocate more than $4 billion a year to wildlife conservation programs across the country. Connecticut could get nearly $12 million a year in new funding for environmental programs if the bill passes.

The House of Representatives approved the bill in June. Passage seems likely in the Senate, with 42 senators signing on as cosponsors, including Connecticut Democrat US. Sen. Chris Murphy. There is enough bi-partisan support for the legislation to push it past the 60 votes needed for a win.

And if that happens, expect to hear cheers.

“This is probably the single-most important bill for Connecticut wildlife in a long time,’’ said Robert LaFrance, policy director for Audubon Connecticut. “It’s the biggest wildlife conservation bill since the Endangered Species Act of 1973.”

“It’s critically important,’’ said Patrick Comins, executive director of the Connecticut Audubon Society.

Currently, much of the DEEP’s annual funding for wildlife work comes from the sale of hunting and fishing licenses and from the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act passed in 1937. It imposes an excise tax on guns, ammunition and fishing equipment. That money goes to the state for wildlife conservation work.

But Comins said much of the money must be spent on game birds species. Shorebirds like piping plovers and roseate terns get no help from it. Neither do migrating songbirds, and backyard feeders residents.

Jenny Dickson, director of the DEEP’s Wildlife Division, said Pittman-Robertson dollars can’t be spent on reptiles, amphibians, insects, or plants.

“It’s fur and feathers,” she said.

And Comins said, Connecticut has been stingy when it comes to funding wildlife conservation programs from the general fund.

“We rank something like 47th out of the 50 states in non-game wildlife conservation work,” he said

The Restoring America’s Wildlife Act would change that significantly. Its funding can be spent on a wide range of species protection.

The money can be spent on birds and beasts, but also turtles, snakes, salamanders, fish and bugs. It also can be used to study plants, which, while sometimes overlooked, are vitally important parts of ecosystems.

With this new funding, the state could study species that, while not endangered or threatened, are in decline, and find ways to bring their numbers back.

This is possible. Dickson said 30 years ago, there were three towns in the state that had nesting bluebirds. Thanks to a statewide push to build and install bluebird nesting boxes, there are now bluebirds in every Connecticut town.

Likewise, Dickson said, there were only six nesting osprey pairs in the state by the 1970s thanks to the damage caused by DDT. Once the federal government banned the insecticide and people started building osprey nesting platforms, the raptor soared back.

“Now they’re an iconic bird in the state and they’re being seen inland, in places they’ve never been seen before,’’ she said.

The money can also be spent on urban wildlife programs.

LaFrance of Audubon Connecticut said that means not only studying city-dwelling raccoons, coyotes and crows, but also teaching those other city-dwellers — people — to appreciate and coexist with those creatures..

Dickson and LaFrance also emphasized the DEEP, and other groups, can use Recovering America’s Wildlife funding for wildlife education programs.

“We can bring an educational component to this work and grow the next generation of environmental stewards,’’ Dickson said.

Looming over all this work is climate change, which may affect species across the board, including humans.

Dickson said the bill’s bipartisan support reflects a simple truth. People care about the world outside their doors.

“Everyone cares about wildlife and conservation,” she said.

Contact Robert Miller at earthmattersrgm@gmail.com