Why It Matters: Legislation that reimburses the state fish and wildlife agency for revenue lost due to the creation of free and discounted hunting licenses is an effective way to protect conservation funding from misguided attempts to recognize specific groups by providing them with free or discounted licenses. While these efforts are oftentimes well-intentioned, they have a significant…
Why It Matters: Habitat is the driving force behind healthy fish and wildlife populations. At a time when fish and wildlife habitats across the nation continue to become fragmented and degraded, the America’s Wildlife Habitat Conservation Act authorizes funding to conserve species before more costly measures are necessary. This legislation also codifies existing partnerships and…
Why It Matters: The 2024 Maryland Legislative Session adjourned, “Sine Die”, on Monday, April 8th. With that, five anti-sportsmen bills the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) engaged on failed, of which two egregious anti-sportsmen bills died as they did not pass out of both chambers before the deadline. Senate Bill 983 (SB 983) would have started…
Why It Matters: There are seven federal agencies under four different cabinet-level secretaries that have some degree of jurisdiction and regulatory authority over what hunters, anglers, and boaters can or cannot do on navigable waters. As a compliment to the MAPWaters Act for the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture, the MAPOceans…
Why It Matters: A recent court ruling has made wide scale changes to trapping seasons in the northern portions of Idaho, designated as grizzly bear habitat. Prior to this ruling, Idaho Senate Bill 1211, supported by the Idaho Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus, had expanded wolf trapping seasons in areas with chronic livestock depredation and/or reduced elk…
Why It Matters: Allowing the use of small-bore shotguns such as the .410-bore and 28 gauge to take turkeys expands the hunting opportunities available to youth, smaller-framed, or otherwise recoil-sensitive hunters. As these smaller shotguns are entirely effective at ethically harvesting turkeys, allowing their use may very well create new lifelong turkey-chasers, which is critical…