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To establish the Wildlife Movement and Movement Area Grant Program and the State and Tribal Migration Research Program, and for other purposes.
1/24/2025, 9:21 AM
Summary of Bill HR 717
The first program, the Wildlife Movement and Movement Area Grant Program, will provide grants to states and tribes to support projects that enhance wildlife movement and habitat connectivity. This program aims to address the increasing threats to wildlife populations due to habitat fragmentation and development.
The second program, the State and Tribal Migration Research Program, will fund research projects that focus on understanding and conserving wildlife migration routes. This program recognizes the importance of migration corridors for maintaining healthy wildlife populations and ecosystems. Overall, Bill 119 hr 717 seeks to promote the conservation of wildlife by supporting research and projects that protect and enhance wildlife movement and migration areas. It is a bipartisan effort to address the challenges facing wildlife populations in the United States.
Congressional Summary of HR 717
Wildlife Movement Through Partnerships Act of 2025
This bill establishes a grant program for wildlife movement areas and reauthorizes and modifies the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program and support for wildlife-related cooperative research and training programs.
Specifically, the bill establishes within the Department of the Interior a grant program for projects that improve or conserve habitat quality in movement areas of terrestrial vertebrate species. At least 50% of the amounts made available to carry out the grant program must be used for projects that directly conserve, restore, or enhance big game movement areas.
Interior must also establish a research program that provides funds to state fish and wildlife agencies and Indian tribes to collect and analyze data on the identification, characteristics, or management of movement areas.
The bill reauthorizes through FY2031 and expands the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program to allow Interior to use program funds to provide technical assistance to other federal agencies to implement voluntary programs with a focus on migration corridor or seasonal habitat conservation efforts on private and tribal land.
The bill also reauthorizes through FY2031 cooperative research and training programs for fish and wildlife resources. At least 50% of the funding must be used for projects that improve habitat quality in movement areas of big game and other wildlife.
Additionally, the bill directs the U.S. Geological Survey to work with, and provide technical assistance to, federal agencies, states, and Indian tribes to build on existing efforts to map movement areas.
