Contact: Ellary TuckerWilliams, Inter-Mountain Western States Coordinator
Within his first month of taking office, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte joined the Governor’s Sportsmen’s Caucus (GSC), demonstrating his dedication to the outdoor sporting community.
Before becoming Montana’s newly elected Governor, Governor Gianforte served as the U.S. Representative for Montana’s at-large congressional district from 2017 to 2020. During his time in Congress, Governor Gianforte was a member of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus (CSC) and supported several key pieces of public land access legislation including the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) and John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act (Dingell Act).
The Dingell Act included provisions affecting public lands nationally, including the permanent authorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, Every Kid Outdoors Program, improvements to public land access, and more. GAOA provided significant funds to address the deferred maintenance backlog on federal public lands and waters with roughly $3 billion set aside to restore the infrastructure on lands and waters that are most important to sportsmen and women. Additionally, GAOA provides permanent and dedicated funding to the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which to date has contributed to over 40,000 recreation and conservation projects spanning across every county in the country.
“Governor Gianforte’s decision to join the Governor’s Sportsmen’s Caucus is another example of his unwavering commitment to maintaining the hunting, fishing trapping and recreational shooting heritage which are so important to Montana,” said Mac Minard, Chair of the Montana Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus Advisory Council. “His record in supporting the outdoor sporting community and public lands is crystal clear. Additionally, Governor Gianforte’s actions highlight the need to continue to develop the Montana Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus, a bicameral, bipartisan group of legislators who have pledged to vote pro-hunting, pro-fishing, pro-trapping and pro-recreational shooting.”
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?
