Why It Matters: Natural Resources Commissions provide sportsmen and women with a public forum in which they can voice their opinions and concerns and thereby help shape fish and wildlife regulations. Eliminating the Indiana Natural Resource Commission (NRC), as Indiana HB 1003 would have done as originally passed by the House, would have weakened the…
Why It Matters: If done correctly, bringing groups together around a shared commitment to stewardship can help ensure safe access, strong conservation outcomes, and a lasting outdoor legacy. By recognizing the critical role sportsmen and women play in funding wildlife management and habitat conservation, collaboration and mutual respect can be encouraged to strengthen both Arkansas’s natural resources and…
Why It Matters: Prescribed burning enhances wildlife habitat, improves forest health, and reduces wildfire risk. Reducing regulatory barriers to prescribed burning provides clarity for the state, local governments, and the public, while reducing inefficiencies and risks for prescribed burners and landowners. From the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Coastal Plain, Georgia’s forest resources and wildlife will benefit from increasing the use of prescribed […]
Why It Matters: Hunters and anglers generate the vast majority of state level funding for conservation through the “user pays – public benefits” structure that is the American System of Conservation Funding (ASCF). State fish and wildlife agencies rely on funds generated by sportsmen and women through sporting license sales and excise tax revenue from the Wildlife and Sportfish Restoration programs to…
Why It Matters: Maryland House Bill 197 (HB 197) and its cross-file, Senate Bill 118 (SB 118), seek to impose an additional 11% excise tax on firearms dealers for the sale of firearms, accessories, and ammunition to fund gun violence prevention and intervention programs. Legislation like this discriminates against law-abiding sportsmen and women in the […]
Why It Matters: Though hunting, fishing, and harvesting wildlife (including by trapping) have long been an American tradition, dating back to before the first Europeans arrived in North America, only in recent decades has the “right” to hunt, fish, and harvest wildlife come into question. To establish in perpetuity what has been assumed for centuries, twenty-four states have […]