On June 6, North Carolina Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus members Senators Danny Earl Britt and Andrew Brock along with Senator Norman Sanderson introduced legislation to constitutionally protect the right to hunt, fish and harvest wildlife in North Carolina.
Senate Bill 677, if passed by the legislature, would be presented to voters in the statewide November 2018 elections.
Sporting traditions are increasingly under attack, and constitutional amendments that ensure the right to hunt, fish and harvest wildlife are important to protecting hunting, angling and trapping in perpetuity. Currently, 21 states have the right to hunt, fish and harvest wildlife as part of their constitutions.
Sportsmen and women are the primary funders of conservation in the United States. Through the purchase of licenses and taxes on sporting-related goods, a “user-pays, public-benefits” approach known as the American System of Conservation Funding, sportsmen and women provide critical conservation dollars for a range of programs for both game and non-game wildlife.
Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation Honorary Board member Richard Childress, a native North Carolinian and the 2017 National Hunting and Fishing Day Honorary Chairman said, “I am proud to support this effort to constitutionally enshrine the right to hunt, fish, and harvest wildlife in the state of North Carolina. Safeguarding North Carolina’s outdoor heritage for future generations is of the utmost importance and this measure will ensure that the economic, cultural, and conservation benefits of our time-honored traditions of hunting and angling are protected in perpetuity.”
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?
