Last week, a coalition of sportsmen’s groups, including the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF), jointly issued the following statement in response to the introduction of the Sportsmen’s and Public Outdoor Recreation Traditions (SPORT) Act by Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus Co-Chair, Senator Kay Hagan:
“We thank Senators Hagan and Murkowski for introducing their respective bills to address the critical needs of the hunting and fishing communities, from conservation and access on private lands to ensuring that our public lands will continue to be open for hunting and fishing, as they have been for more than a century.
More than 40 million Americans hunt and fish each year. They buy licenses, pay dedicated excise taxes and volunteer their time to ensure that all Americans benefit from professionally managed fish and wildlife populations on private and public lands. More than a pastime, hunting and fishing generate more than $86 billion in direct economic activity every year, support more than 1.5 million jobs, and return about $4 billion to state and federal treasuries in tax receipts.
The Senate now has before it a number of important bills sponsored by senators from both parties that address the broad consensus priorities of American sportsmen and the hunting, shooting and sportfishing industries. American hunters and anglers and the nation’s thousands of hunting and fishing dependent businesses hope that this year the House and Senate can work in a bipartisan way and seize an historic opportunity to send the President legislation that is unprecedented in terms of what it will do for the future of American hunting and fishing.
We look forward to working with all members of the Senate and House and the administration to enact a comprehensive sportsmen’s act in 2013.”
Studies conducted at both the state and federal level have found that the number of hunters and trappers have been on a generally declining trend over the past several decades. To increase recruitment, retention, and reactivation (R3) of hunters and trappers, which initiative do you think would have the greatest impact?
