My First IWF Policy Focus, Wild Turkeys, & Speeches
Here's the latest dispatch.
Good morning,
For you newbies out there, welcome to Outsider on the Inside. I hope this dispatch from in and around the nation’s capital on underreported topics finds you well.
If you’re just discovering my musings, here’s a backgrounder.
Here’s what I have for you today.
Policy Focus: The Future of Environmentalism is True Conservation
This week, I published my first Policy Focus with Independent Women’s Forum on conservation and the future of environmentalism.
Here’s an excerpt:
The U.S. is a global leader in environmental stewardship. Our nation has curbed emissions; innovated energy technology; conserved, recovered, and delisted threatened and endangered species; and taken steps to adhere to clean water and air standards.
Guided by a true conservationist ethos, which calls for wise use of natural resources, our nation has advanced policies that equally bolster nature and people. As a result, the world looks to us for guidance on balancing economic development with environmental protection. In the course of over 40 years, true conservation efforts—including free-market environmentalism—have become more doctrinaire and accepted by the wider public. However, preservationist environmentalism, which calls for “no use” of natural resources and greater government involvement, threatens the progress we’ve achieved on this front.
Unfortunately, the federal government, including the Biden White House, is pursuing preservationist environmental policies that make us wholly dependent on foreign nations with poor environmental and human rights track records for energy and rare earth minerals. Even more troubling, preservationists are distorting conservation and increasingly relying on public policy to implement top-down solutions to today’s pressing environmental problems. This could have dire consequences for human flourishing.
For lasting environmental progress to be achieved, the federal government should encourage partnerships with nongovernment actors to take an active role in conserving our natural resources and lands. Businesses and private individuals are already leading the charge to conserve wild spaces, critical habitat, and species on a voluntary basis and a top-down government approach will complicate problems further. Through adherence to true conservation, however, America can push back preservationist policies and lead on environmental stewardship again.
Today at 4pm ET, I’ll go live on YouTube to dive deep into the Policy Focus and why I drafted it. Hope you tune in!
Spotted: Wild Turkeys
Earlier this week, I was lucky to spot one of Virginia’s 180,000 eastern wild turkeys in my backyard.
I’ve seen one roost in a tree in a neighboring street here in Northern Virginia, but I’ve never seen one in my backyard.
When I saw it taking a dust bath, I knew it wasn’t a turkey vulture. (The feathers helped for identification purposes!) Here’s the hen in all her glory.
I don’t take this chance encounter lightly. It’s been reported wild turkeys in the southeast, including our Commonwealth, are in dire need of help. As Garden & Gun explains:
From Mississippi Delta pinewoods to Carolina hardwood bottomlands, across public forests and private farmlands, wild turkey numbers largely have entered an era of a puzzling and concerning downturn
…
During the heyday of wild turkey restoration, in the 1980s and ’90s, nest production topped four poults per nest—meaning that the average nest produced four chicks that grew old enough and large enough to survive without the help of Mom. For many states, that number has slipped well below two poults per nest, which is less than required for replacing populations.
There are a host of potential reasons for the decline, all of which likely interact with each other in various ways across various landscapes. Habitat change is one big driver, says Emily Rushton, wild turkey projects leader for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. “In the Piedmont particularly, we just don’t have the nesting and brood-rearing cover we need. Forestry practices have moved to shorter timber rotations. There’s not enough fire for management. And where there’s a patchwork of suburban areas mixed in with forest and natural areas, we’ve created really good habitat for predators.” In a landscape gridded with sidewalks and roads, nest-robbing raccoons and opossums thrive. Even in more rural regions, agricultural herbicides hammer insect populations—the tiny bits of protein required by turkey chicks.
In the face of habitat being lost through development or degraded by a lack of forest management, state wildlife agencies have little recourse but to do what they can to dial back harvest numbers—and help turkey hunters understand why.
Last Stops on Spring Speaking Tour
After a whirlwind couple of days speaking to students in both Columbus and Boston, I have a summary of events to report back to you.
Last Saturday, I addressed the Students for Liberty Midwest Conference at Deer Creek State Lodge in the Greater Columbus, OH area where I spoke about the contemporary fight for Second Amendment rights.
And this past Monday, I traveled up to Massachusetts to address Boston University’s Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) about free market environmentalism.
Here are remaining dates for my campus tour:
Wednesday, April 20th: George Mason University at 7pm ET - “Conservation is Conservative.” (Watch the broadcast HERE.)
Monday, May 2nd: California State University at Monterey at 7pm ET/4pm PT - “Conservation is Conservative.” (VIRTUAL)
Though my campus tour is coming to an end, it’ll pick up again in the fall. Can’t wait to share more dates with you as they come!
In the interim: I’m speaking on a panel at next week’s Stop 30-by-30 Summit in Lincoln, Nebraska April 22nd and at FreedomFest in Las Vegas, Nevada, from July 13-16, 2022.
Stay tuned for more details!
4/20 - Labor Policy Bootcamp - Washington, D.C.
And in other news: I’ll be a featured speaker at the upcoming Labor Policy Bootcamp event hosted by the Heritage Foundation and the Institute for the American Worker in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, April 20th, 2022 around 2-3pm ET.
I’ll share my freelancer story and what prompted me to enter the public policy fight in defense of freelancing in the U.S.
Here’s more about the event:
Labor policy is heating up at the executive and legislative levels. Updates to decade-old labor laws are being considered with little regard to worker choice, opportunity development, and economic growth. Pro-worker advocates have to be involved in making labor policy so that a federal takeover of the economy does not threaten long-term prosperity.
To address these critical issues, Vincent Vernuccio of Institute for the American Worker and Rachel Greszler of The Heritage Foundation will host a Labor Policy Boot Camp for both junior and senior level legislative staffers, featuring keynote speaker Andy Puzder, former CEO of CKE Restaurants.
Live in the D.C. Area and want to attend? Hope to see you there!
ICYMI: Articles + Media Appearances
Here are some articles I wrote and media appearances you may have missed from me.
This Week’s Podcast Episodes
Catch up on District of Conservation episodes below.
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—Gabriella