Last week, the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) and nearly 30 of the nation’s leading sporting-conservation groups sent a letter to Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt and Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue urging the allocation of at least $55 million to enhance access for sportsmen and women.
Specifically, the letter calls for the allocation of at least $55 million for Fiscal Year 2021 Great American Outdoors Act funding to be provided to the “recreational access” programs within the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife (USFWS), the National Park Service (NPS), and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). In August, the Great American Outdoors Act was signed into law which provides $9.5 billion in funding to restore the infrastructure on our nation’s treasured public lands including the BLM, USFWS, NPS, and USFS, which support more than 25 million hunting days and nearly 45 million fishing days annually. Currently, there are nearly 10 million acres of federally managed public land that sportsmen and women are currently unable to legally access. However, this problem can be addressed, in part, by providing sufficient funding to the “recreational access” programs within the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture.
CSF continues to work with the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture to implement the Great American Outdoors Act in a manner that will provide significant benefits to sportsmen and women.
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?
