Highlights
Why it matters: The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) is the single most important federal agency to sportsmen and women. Collectively, DOI manages more than 450 million acres of public land, which includes the 245 million acres of land and waters managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). BLM provides significant access opportunities for hunting, fishing, and recreational shooting with over 99% of BLM-managed lands open to sportsmen and women.
On June 8, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee (Committee) will hold a meeting to consider several Cabinet nominations, including the nomination of the next Director of the Bureau of Land Management, Ms. Tracy Stone-Manning.
In advance of the hearing, the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) and partners in the sporting conservation community sent a letter to the Committee in support of Ms. Stone-Manning’s nomination, which highlighted her strong qualifications to serve as BLM Director. Currently, Ms. Stone-Manning is the leader of the public lands program at the National Wildlife Federation, but her extensive career includes positions in both the public and private sectors. She served on the staff of Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus Member Jon Tester (MT) and served as Chief of Staff of former Governor Sportsmen’s Caucus Co-Chair Governor Steve Bullock (MT) where she oversaw the management of the state’s 11,000 employees.
As an avid hunter and outdoorswoman herself, if confirmed, Ms. Stone-Manning will be in charge of managing 245 million acres of the public estate managed by BLM. A 2016 “Public Land Statistics” report stated that BLM-managed lands and waters support 7.3 million hunting and fishing visits annually. The role of BLM Director is critically important to America’s sportsmen and women, and given her extensive professional and personal experience navigating complex natural resource management challenges, Ms. Stone-Manning is highly qualified to serve as the next Director of the Bureau of Land Management.
More information about Ms. Stone-Manning’s nomination hearing can be found here.
Studies conducted at both the state and federal level have found that the number of hunters and trappers have been on a generally declining trend over the past several decades. To increase recruitment, retention, and reactivation (R3) of hunters and trappers, which initiative do you think would have the greatest impact?
