Why It Matters: Together, both bills would bring about significant benefits to Maryland’s sporting communities. For the past 34 years, hunting and trapping license fees have gone unadjusted in Maryland. House Bill 983 would allow sportsmen and women to continue their historic role of stepping up to the plate and supporting conservation funding within their…
Why It Matters: Trapping is unique in that it can be used for predator and furbearer management, harvest, to maintain healthy ecosystems, manage invasive species, and can also be used to capture live wildlife for research and management purposes. Restraining traps have been particularly critical in conservation efforts by allowing state agencies to capture and…
Why It Matters: The recreational boating and fishing community understands the importance of protecting North Atlantic right whales and fully supports efforts to do so. However, a proposed rule regarding vessel speed reductions along much of the Atlantic seaboard will have significant implications for offshore anglers and boaters at certain times of the year. Fortunately,…
Why It Matters: As efforts to undermine the ability of sportsmen and women continue across the US, constitutional amendments protecting the right to hunt, fish, and trap represent one of the strongest assurances that our time-honored outdoor traditions will remain available. As additional states seek to explore these protections, it is critical that the entire…
Why It Matters: Removing barriers to hunting participation, like Blue Laws with no basis in wildlife management that prohibit hunting on Sunday, is critical to supporting hunter recruitment, retention, and reactivation efforts and putting hunters on an equal access playing field with other public land user-groups that are not prohibited from engaging in their recreational pursuits on…
Why It Matters: Wild horses (i.e., feral horses, unauthorized livestock etc.) and burros have long been a symbol of the American West, receiving protection from Congress in 1971 under the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act. Under this Act, wild horses and burros were to be maintained in a manner that produces a “thriving ecological…