On October 11, the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) partnered with CSF Board Member Richard Childress of Richard Childress Racing (RCR) to host the 13th Annual ‘Wine, Wheels & Wildlife’ regional event in Lexington, North Carolina.
This event gathered numerous leaders from the sportsmen’s community, NASCAR representatives, and other CSF partners, to discuss successes and challenges facing sportsmen and women in the southeastern region.
Speakers ranged from CSF Board Member Richard Childress and Board Chairman Paul Miller, to Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and keynote speaker Ed Byers, a U.S. Navy SEAL who received the Medal of Honor last year.
“Some of my best memories are hunting and fishing with my dad and granddad, and then later teaching my own kids to hunt and fish. That’s something I want more families to experience,” said Secretary Zinke. “Hunters and anglers are the backbone of wildlife and habitat conservation in America with hunters and anglers contributing billions of dollars to conservation. From my perspective, the more sportsmen and women we have in the woods and waters, the better our wildlife and habitat will be. I’m thankful to have partners like CSF who share our mission to expand public access to public lands for hunting and fishing.”
“CSF does so much to ensure hunting and fishing are advanced across the country. In North Carolina, CSF played an instrumental role in passage of the Outdoor Heritage Enhanced legislation of 2017, which further increased access and opportunity for sportsmen and women by removing statutory prohibition against Sunday hunting on public lands,” said Childress. “I look forward to continuing to work with CSF in the future to advance the interests of sportsmen and women.”
“In its 13th year, the ‘Wine, Wheels & Wildlife’ event continues to gather some of the top leaders from the sportsmen’s conservation community,” said CSF President Jeff Crane. “In Washington, DC, we are working with nearly 300 Members of Congress, and across the country, we are working with 48 state legislative sportsmen’s caucuses to ensure pro-hunting and fishing policies are advanced in the halls of government.”
The event’s Title Sponsors were: Bass Pro Shops; Cabela’s Outdoor Fund; Childress Vineyards; National Shooting Sports Foundation; and Richard Childress Racing. Host Sponsors included: PolyOne; SilencerCo, LLC; and Vista Outdoor Inc.
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?
