Why It Matters: The use of ballot initiatives in states that allow them is on the rise, and we are seeing more and more efforts to use the polls to undermine, and potentially ultimately ban, hunting, this time by targeting the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission. The Commission process exists to provide the opportunity for…
Why It Matters: The 2025 West Virginia legislative session was a productive one with Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation engaging early and often on many issues of concern for West Virginia’s sporting community. During legislative sessions, policies that are formed in state’s capitols impact what we do on the water and afield and, fortunately for the sportsmen…
Why It Matters: The Iowa legislative session saw its fair share of sportsmen and women-related bills introduced this year. The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) was active in engaging on legislation that had negative impacts on conservation funding, enshrining the right to hunt, fish, and trap in the state constitution, and establishing a curriculum for firearms,…
Why It Matters: School is where students should be exposed to ideas that they aren’t exposed to at home – and with fewer hunters in the fields and woods, there are fewer hunters to learn from. Offering hunter education in schools stands to expose more prospective hunters to the thrills and tenets of our sporting-conservation…
Why It Matters: Montana’s 2025 legislative session delivered key victories for hunters, anglers, and trappers by enhancing the state’s Block Management Program, bolstering public access to private lands. Three bills, all sponsored by Montana Legislative Sportsmen Caucus Co-chairs, worked to address the critical issue of land access and sportsmen/landowner relations. Highlights: Caucus Co-Chair Representative Joshua…
Why It Matters: Poaching – the illegal take of game – ranks among the greatest threats to the societal acceptance of hunting. Hunters are widely known as the original conservationists and are to thank for many of the legendary conservation success stories experienced in North America over the last century. Efforts to strengthen punishments for…
Why It Matters: New Hampshire House Bill 211 (HB 211), was passed out of the Senate on April 17, 2025 and enrolled on May 6, 2025, making the bill eligible for Governor Kelly Ayotte’s signature. Along with authorizing airguns for hunting, HB 211 authorizes the New Hampshire Fish and Game Executive Director the ability to…
Why It Matters: Comprised of nine Governor-appointed volunteer members, the Alaska Big Game Commercial Services Board is responsible for regulating and overseeing commercial big game hunting and transportation services ensuring public safety, wildlife management, and professional standards. A bill proposal working its way through the Alaska State Legislature aims to enhance that current structure by…
Why It Matters: The North Dakota legislative session saw its fair share of legislation that would have had an impact on sportsmen and women, the state fish and wildlife agency, and wildlife. The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) actively engaged on legislation that would have limited hunting access on public and private property, restricted the state…
Why It Matters: The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) has been actively working to advance legislation to permit expanded Sunday hunting opportunities in Connecticut. After ten years since the original bill to allow archery hunting for deer on Sundays passed, and on a bipartisan vote, a negotiated bill to expand Sunday hunting opportunities further has now…
Why It Matters: California is a beautiful western state with a long tradition of rugged individualism, including the most ancient human pursuit of fish and game. Our hunting traditions go back hundreds of years in California, a state many sportsmen and women often associate with bad ideas these days – many of which have now…
Why It Matters: Currently, in the First State, your “ordinary pocketknife” must be a folding knife having a blade no bigger than 3 inches in length and cannot be a mechanically-assisted knife (what many states have erroneously defined as a “switchblade”). Senate Bill 108 (SB 108) repeals that requirement by amending the language of the…