Opinion: S.C. lawmakers leading the charge for environmental conservation

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Amid a seemingly endless flood of negative headlines and ever-increasing political polarization, one could be forgiven for feeling somewhat apprehensive about the state of the world these days.

But if one looks closer at the news, there are stories of hope to be found there, too: people connecting in new and unexpected ways, finding the courage to discuss difficult but important issues and using their voices to create meaningful policy changes more quickly than one might have imagined.

For me, one sure place to find relief and renewed hope is in nature - whether through a brief escape to watch birds at my backyard feeder or an afternoon exploring the old growth bottomland hardwoods and towering pines of Congaree National Park in Richland County.

For others who find solace in South Carolina's most precious places, a recent development in Congress offers reason for hope, as well: After overwhelming passage in the Senate in June, members of the U.S. House of Representatives came together last week to pass The Great American Outdoors Act, one of the most important conservation bills in recent history.

At no additional cost to taxpayers, this legislation fully and permanently funds the popular Land and Water Conservation Fund, or LWCF, which since 1964 has protected parks, important wildlife habitat and areas of cultural significance in all 50 states. In South Carolina, that includes Congaree, which not only provides great hiking, fishing and paddling, but also provides critical habitat to bird species like Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks, Barred Owls, Summer Tanagers, Red-bellied Woodpecker and a number of wrens, nuthatches and warblers. It will also help address a much-needed multi-billion-dollar National Park Service maintenance backlog.

Audubon South Carolina is grateful to South Carolina Sens. Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham for voting in support of The Great American Outdoors Act and to Rep. Joe Cunningham (SC-01), who introduced the companion bill (H.R. 7092) that passed the House of Representatives last week, as well as Reps. Joe Wilson (SC-02), Jeff Duncan (SC-03) and James E. Clyburn (SC-06), who also supported the bill.

In a second example of bipartisan cooperation in the name of conservation, Graham and three of his Senate colleagues joined together to introduce the Growing Climate Solutions Act in the Senate in early June. This bill directs the U.S. Department of Agriculture to establish a set of national standards that will help farmers, ranchers and forest landowners adopt sustainable management practices, such as planting cover crops, prescribed grazing and reforestation.

In addition to improving soil health, preventing wildfires and promoting healthy bird and wildlife habitat, land management practices like these can also reduce the amount of greenhouse gas pollution created by the agriculture and forestry industries. In fact, if properly managed, America's working lands - which total nearly a billion acres, or about half the land in the entire lower 48 states - have the potential to pull billions of tons of carbon dioxide out of the air each year and store it in soil and other organic matter.

Audubon not only advocates for policies like the Growing Climate Solutions Act that promote natural solutions to climate change, but we also actively employ these strategies on the 22,000 acres of land that we own and manage in South Carolina. This includes harvesting our trees in a way that increases carbon sequestration through improved growth rates and restoring our lands to their historical, naturally occurring forest type based on the best available science.

We also use our land as a demonstration site to teach sustainable forest-management practices to other landowners. And now, thanks to a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, we are working with strategic nonprofit and government partners to share best practices and resources needed to implement them with 15,000 private landowners in the Pee Dee region.

The Growing Climate Solutions Act would complement our approach and take it even further - helping promote and enable all U.S. landowners to implement sustainable land management practices.

With nearly two-thirds of North American bird species vulnerable to extinction by 2050 if global temperatures continue to rise at current levels, Audubon is committed to protecting habitat that is critical to birds' survival while doing whatever we can to reduce emissions of heat-trapping gasses. This includes both technological solutions, like encouraging the adoption of more renewable energy, and natural solutions, like those promoted in the Growing Climate Solutions Act, which help remove carbon from the air.

In my view, the Growing Climate Solutions Act and the Great American Outdoors Act represent the very best of our nation: people coming together, regardless of ideology and political party, to find commonsense solutions and protect that which we hold dear. I'm pleased to see several of South Carolina's leaders heading this charge - and hope others will follow suit.

Justin Stokes is executive director of Audubon South Carolina.