Over the last few decades, rising costs for natural resource management and increased public utilization of these resources has led to the need for additional methods of funding for conservation. Dedicating lottery proceeds to funding conservation can assist with efforts such as increasing access to public lands, habitat and endangered species conservation, wildlife education, watershed…
One important tool for protecting fish and wildlife habitat is a state-level tax credit for gifts of land for conservation or conservation easements. With a wide variety of implementation options, these programs can provide alternatives to development by providing landowners with financial incentives to conserve land. These lands benefit fish and wildlife populations and have…
In addition to the American System of Conservation Funding, some states have begun to seek alternative methods of funding for their fish and wildlife agencies. A conservation sales tax on all taxable goods is one such mechanism that states might consider implementing. This excise tax is primarily applied to sporting goods such as firearms and…
Cited as one of the most pressing environmental challenges facing this generation, climate change represents an opportunity for sportsmen and women, the original conservationists, to reassert their role as leaders in supporting healthy ecosystems. By viewing a changing climate as a conservation challenge, the sportsmen’s community can continue to utilize management practices that have worked…
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a progressive, fatal, degenerative neurological disease occurring in farmed and free-ranging deer, elk, caribou, and moose. The disease was first recognized in 1967 as a clinical ‘wasting’ syndrome of unknown cause in captive mule deer in Colorado. CWD belongs to the family of diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs)….
Implementing catch shares in commercial-only fisheries can be a useful tool for managing harvest of marine fisheries. However, they are an inherently inappropriate tool for recreational-only and mixed-sector fisheries. In fisheries where there is a large and growing recreational sector, exclusive fishing rights proposals maximize benefits to the commercial fishing industry while ignoring and ultimately…
For over 80 years, sportsmen have played an integral and unique role in providing the vast majority of conservation funding in the United States through a “user pays — public benefits” structure in which those who consumptively use the resource pay for the privilege, and in some cases the right, to do so. The three…
Active management, as opposed to passive management, employs the use of silvicultural methods and forest management practices, including timber harvesting, timber stand improvement, thinning, tree planting, prescribed fire, fire suppressions, weed control, and other practices that improve wildlife habitat and forest health to reach desired forest objectives and future conditions. Compared to passive management, active…
Concerned about the uncertainty that 30×30 policies may pose for hunting and fishing access, the sportsmen’s community issued the Hunting and Fishing Community Statement on the 30 by 30 Initiative. This statement recognizes and embraces the overlap between the sportsmen’s community’s collective work to conserve fish and wildlife species and their habitats and the establishment…