On November 24, 35 sportsmen’s conservation organizations from the American Wildlife Conservation Partners sent a letter to the Senate Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus in order to urge consideration of enhanced tax conservation incentives during the remainder of the 113th Congress.
More specifically, the Rural Heritage Conservation Extension Act (S. 526), would provide tax incentives for farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners who make conservation donations that benefit wildlife, enhance hunting, angling, and shooting access and keep working lands functioning and intact.
The current conservation tax incentives program expired in 2013. Similar recent legislation, the “America Gives More Act,” passed the House of Representatives in July, but failed to pass the Senate.
Creating a permanent tax conservation incentive program would make it easier and more cost-effective for farmers and landowners to voluntarily maintain their land, and would benefit land and water conservation.
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?
