An encouraging display this week of bipartisan support for endangered species, itself an increasing rarity here in DC. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Multinational Species Conservation Funds Semipostal Stamp Reauthorization Act (S. 231), which requires the Postal Service to resume sales of the Save Vanishing Species stamp (a/k/a tiger stamp) for four more years. The Senate passed the bill in July. The tiger stamp has raised more than $2.5M for international conservation, leveraging an additional $3.6M in matching funds, for 47 project in 31 countries. It doesn’t sound like much, but the $6M has been spent on everything from apprehending poachers in the Democratic Republic of Congo and saving leatherback turtles in Costa Rica to training African conservationists and promoting sustainable conservation practices to protect species on the brinct of extinction. Every little bit helps. And Senate leadership, Rob Portman (R-OH) and Tom Udall (D-NM), and House leadership, Michael Grimm (R-NY), Jose Serrano (D-NY) and Ander Crenshaw (R-FL), should all be commended.
Sure would be nice if we could muster the same bipartisan support for forging a better path to saving threatened and endangered species here in the U.S. More information about the tiger stamp can be found here at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website.