I have a suggestion for all the sportsmen's conservation groups that hold those annual membership/fund-raising banquets:

If you really want to protect the future of your traditions - your hunting and fishing - get your members to do something much harder than writing a check. Get them to contact their members of Congress - especially if they're Republicans - and deliver a simple message: If you vote for the cuts in fish, wildlife and environmental regulations that were contained in HR-1, I'm voting for someone else next time. (You can read the list of those cuts at www.nola.com/outdoors/index.ssf/2011/02/specific_provisions_and_cuts_i.html).

That will be a much more effective statement of concern about fish and wildlife than all the money you drop at those eat-drink-bid affairs. That letter will do much more for ducks, fish and turkeys than those shiny decals you stick to your pickup trucks.

HR-1 didn't make it past the Senate. Instead Congress sent a three-week temporary funding bill to the president Friday that didn't include those draconian cuts and policy straight-jackets the House GOP has in the bill.

But lobbyists working for sportsmen's groups in Washington said those specific cuts are still on the House GOP agenda, and probably won't be withdrawn unless those members see them as politically dangerous.

Don't take my word for it. Listen to Dale Hall, CEO of Ducks Unlimited.

"This really is potentially devastating - not just to waterfowl, but to fish and wildlife of all kinds," he said. "We've been working Congress, but many of the champions we used to have in the House (GOP) are gone, and I don't see we're making much headway there.

"So we really need sportsmen to stand up and be heard. There's so much at stake here."

Here's a quick recap of what the GOP wants to happen:

Cut the entire $47.6 million budget for the National American Wetlands Conservation Fund, which has protected 25 million acres of waterfowl habitat over the last 30 years by leveraging $800 million in government funds into $2 billion in matches from private partners.

Prevent the EPA from implementing a change in the definitions of waters under the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act that would restore conservation measures for 20 million acres of wetlands, including the critical prairie pothole waterfowl breeding habitat.

Cut $200,000 from the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program, killing restoration projects in an area still losing 25 square miles per year.

Cut $393 million from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which comes from offshore oil royalties and was established to conserve fish and wildlife habitat.

Prohibit the Department of the Interior from carrying out Secretarial Order 3310 designed to ensure federal lands out west are managed to conserve high-quality backcountry fish and wildlife habitat.

Reduce the Wetlands Reserve Program by 50,000 acres.

Cut options for the Conservation Reserve Program, critical to upland birds, waterfowl and an entire other range of wildlife.

That was just for warm-ups. The supporters of that bill - including our own Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Jefferson) and the rest of Louisiana's GOP contingent - added a number of amendments and riders that would hamstring the nation's effort to study and adapt to the impacts of climate change which include sea-level rise. (Someone should inform Scalise his district is one of the threatened landscapes in North America to sea-level rise.)

These riders had nothing to do with cutting the deficit, but were plums thrown to polluting industries opposing tougher regulations.

Democrats in the Senate stopped HR-1, and while the three-week funding bill included another $6 billion in cuts, those key conservation measures were not harmed. For now.

The people working the cause for sportsmen's groups in Washington worry that won't last. The House GOP hasn't backed down, and while some of the GOP senators off-the-record expressed disapproval of many of those cuts, they all voted for HR-1.

"This isn't over by any means," said Scott Laeser, policy and government relations manager for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, whose membership includes almost every sportsmen's conservation organization.

"Both sides have said they can't keep going on with these temporary budget fixes - and the House (GOP) hasn't really shown any movement (on the conservation cuts).

"In fact, we've heard the proposed rider that would prevent the EPA from moving forward with guidance on the Clean Water Act will be included in any future budgets they move forward."

As DU's Hall points out, these cuts don't even meet the goal of reducing the deficit.

"We all support reducing the deficit, but what (congressmen) don't seem to understand is that the net effect of these cuts will actually add to that deficit," he said. "The nation spends about $5 billion a year on conservation, but gets back more than $14 billion in taxes from people who make their livings in the industries supported by those programs.

"So this won't just hurt fish and wildlife, it will hurt the deficit they're trying to solve."

Groups like the TRCP are working hard on Congress, but admit they are missing the grassroots support from hunters and anglers.

"We need them to get involved," Hall said.

And especially if those reps are Republicans - because those are the members pushing these cuts. Sportsmen who consider themselves conservative, should let their GOP reps know there's nothing contradictory about being pro-gun, pro-small government - and pro-environment.

In the long run that will do more to protect hunting and fishing than any of those fund-raising banquets.

You can find out who your reps are at www.contactingcongress.org.