On June 26, twenty-five wildlife conservation organizations, including the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, sent a letter to House Natural Resources Committee in support of H.R. 2936, the Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2017. If enacted, this bill would improve the health of federal forests and reduce the threat of wildfires.
Specifically, H.R. 2936 aims to ensure that timber harvest and the creation of young forest habitat for wildlife remains viable on U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands. Additionally, it provides a solution to the fire-funding budget problem. Currently, funds are borrowed from other conservation, recreation, wildlife, and water quality program budgets in order to fight catastrophic wildfires.
The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Federal Lands held a hearing to discuss this bill on June 15, and the letter sent by the nation’s leading sportsmen’s and other conservation groups urged the Committee to advance the important bill by reporting it to the House floor for a vote.
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?
