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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 […]

Why It Matters: The sale of hunting and fishing licenses makes up the bedrock of conservation funding in the United States. While efforts to provide certain groups of well-deserving individuals with a financial break on license fees are commendable, it threatens funding that benefits resources held in the public trust. Additionally, science-based wildlife management depends on reliable data to determine harvestable…

Why It Matters: The proposed forest health improvement treatments on the Green Mountain National Forest, particularly prescribed fire, support fire-adapted plant communities and promote species (like oaks) that are critical for wildlife. Fire suppression leads to changes in forest composition and structure and builds fuels, increasing wildfire risk to nearby communities. Environmental interests criticized the project, and it is important for the sporting-conservation community to support the work of trained foresters, biologists, […]