Sustainable Funding for Conservation in Texas
Date
2020
Project Advisor
Graham, Cole Blease
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Description
The consulting capstone team sought to find a self-sustaining, fair, and viable revenue source that can be established and implemented to generate $20 million for wildlife and habitat conservation in Texas. The team studied several possible funding mechanisms and the potential support they would receive by comparing survey responses of local governments with those of conservation organizations. We surveyed Councils of Governments (COGs) to assess attitudes of local government because the councils are composed of elected officials from regional governments in Texas. We surveyed members of America’s Fish and Wildlife Alliance to assess attitudes of conservation organizations because the Texas Alliance has endorsed HR 3742 Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, which is under consideration in the 116th Congress (2019-2020). The conservation group served as a control with a positive bias for funding conservation whereas the COGs represented the voting public.