Contact: Joe Mullin, Northeastern States Manager Why it Matters: Sunday hunting bans are one of the last remaining examples of the puritanical blue laws, but in recent years, much progress has been made towards lessening these restrictions. In Maryland, Sunday hunting for all game birds and mammals on Sundays is authorized in select counties, but…
Contact: Kent Keene, Assistant Manager, Lower Midwestern States and Agriculture Policy Why it matters: Thanks to advancements in shotshell technologies, smaller bore shotguns have become an effective and ethical option for hunters in pursuit of turkey. Thanks to their relatively light weight and low recoil, these options represent a great choice for young, small-framed, or…
Contact: Mark Lance, Southeastern States Coordinator Why it Matters: Menhaden are a critical part of the coastal ecosystem serving as an important forage food for many recreationally important species such as redfish, speckled trout, and southern flounder, among others. The establishment of a menhaden catch limits and reporting requirements would help conserve menhaden and support…
Why it matters: There are many forms of gear employed by commercial fisherman to harvest target species of fish. However, some gears such as large-mesh drift gillnets often result in unintended bycatch, most of which is discarded dead and left to waste. For this reason, large-mesh drift gillnets have been eliminated as a commercial gear…
Contact: Mark Lance, Southeastern States Coordinator Why It Matters: Contingent on the passage of HB 762, the Louisiana Outdoors Forever Fund will receive $10 million from the State General Fund. These funds would be made available for projects on public and private land that will benefit wildlife and their habitats. Additionally, Louisiana could leverage significantly more federal…
Why it matters: To survive various seasonal conditions, big game species of utmost importance to America’s sportsmen and women, such as elk, deer, sheep, and moose, migrate to new areas in search of food, habitat, and more suitable temperatures throughout the year. Thanks to technological advances in global positioning systems, researchers have been able to…