It stands to reason that they will--strongly.

Many groups in the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership have a long history of farm bill advocacy for the simple reason that Conservation Reserve Program lands are prime hunting grounds throughout the Midwest and on the Great Plains. And the farm bill is a TRCP priority.

So in addition to fighting to protect public lands from being drilled and mined into oblivion, expect this new enterprise to play in the 2007 farm bill.

Blaine Hardin, reporting in today's Washington Post ("Conservation Group, Unions Joining Forces Saving Habitat, Ensuring Access Sought", Jan. 16, free subscription):

In a first-of-its-kind alliance that could fundamentally reshape the environmental movement, 20 labor unions with nearly 5 million members are joining forces with a Republican-leaning umbrella group of conservationists -- the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership -- to put pressure on Congress and the Bush administration...

..."We can make the union movement and environmentalism compatible and not antagonistic," said Tom Buffenbarger, president of the International Association of Machinists. "As of late, an awareness has grown that our goals are the same. We want good air, clean water and access to the outdoors."

Jim Range, chairman of the board of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, which includes most of the nation's mainline hunting and fishing groups, said his organization forged an alliance with the unions in large measure because of their manpower, money and lobbying savvy.

"It opens up a tremendous amount of territory for us to work on the both sides of the aisle," Range said. He predicted that the alliance will create a sudden and historically unique influx of millions of new people to the cause of land conservation.