News Category: Public Lands

Why It Matters: Federal public lands offer critical opportunities for sportsmen and women to participate in our time-honored traditions of hunting, fishing, trapping, and recreational shooting. Despite this, in late 2024, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) sought to ban recreational shooting across the entirety of the 1.3-million-acre Bears Ears National Monument (BENM). Thanks to…

Why It Matters: Recreational shooting is a longstanding and highly popular activity on our federal public lands. For many sportsmen and women, including target shooters, public lands are the only venue that they can participate in our time-honored outdoor traditions. Furthermore, the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) intent to close the entire 1.3 million acres…

Why It Matters: The Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund, which grants authority to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to acquire public land, is up for reauthorization and will be a focal point of the Badger State’s upcoming legislative session. Access to public lands and waters that are open to hunting and fishing is critical for the…

Why It Matters: Year after year, many states are seeing large influxes of new residents, and with that, the need for more housing and expanded services continues. Expanded urbanization and development require land, and sometimes that comes at the expense of state lands that were once utilized by not only hunters, anglers, and trappers, but…

Why It Matters: Public access to public lands and waters is critical to maintaining opportunities for hunting, fishing, trapping, and recreational shooting. GPS and other technologies have significantly changed how sportsmen and women navigate public lands as well as their ability to identity new lands for recreational access that may previously have been unknown or…

Why It Matters: Sunday hunting restrictions are Blue Laws with no basis in wildlife management that restrict only one user-group, hunters, from accessing public lands on Sundays. Removing Sunday hunting restrictions in the Palmetto State is a priority for the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF), the Sunday Hunting Coalition, the South Carolina Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus, and…

Why It Matters: Sunday hunting prohibitions are rooted in antiquated Blue Laws that are not based on scientific wildlife management principles. Sunday hunting restrictions hinder hunter recruitment, retention, and reactivation efforts (R3) and limit hunter access to public land while allowing access for other user groups on Sundays. By opening Sunday hunting on Wildlife Management…

Why It Matters: Removing barriers to hunting participation, like Blue Laws with no basis in wildlife management that prohibit hunting on Sunday, is critical to supporting hunter recruitment, retention, and reactivation efforts and putting hunters on an equal access playing field with other public land user-groups that are not prohibited from engaging in their recreational pursuits on…

Contact: John Culclasure, Southeastern States Director Why It Matters: After the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Advisory Council doubled down on their opposition to retaining the prohibition against Sunday hunting on Wildlife Management Areas less than two years ago, the favorable votes are a significant step forward towards opening…

 Contact: John Culclasure, Southeastern States Assistant Director Why It Matters: Senate Bill 8 is the fourth public lands Sunday hunting bill introduced in three years. The legislation passed the Senate 29-11 on January 24, and the Committee and House of Delegates were the final hurdles before the bill could be sent to the Governor’s desk….

Contact: John Culclasure, Southeastern States Assistant Director Why it Matters: After public lands Sunday hunting legislation died in committee the last two years, Senate passage of SB 8 signals the winds of change may be coming for sportsmen and women wishing to hunt public lands on Sundays. SB 8, patroned by Senator Chap Petersen, would…

Contact: John Culclasure, Southeastern States Assistant Director Highlights Sunday hunting has been legal on private lands in the Commonwealth since 2014 while Sunday hunting on public lands, with minor exceptions, remains prohibited. Legislation to remove the prohibition against Sunday on public lands was introduced in the last two legislation sessions; both bills died in committee….