WILDLIFE AND CONSERVATION NEWS
Keep informed on today's current events
Read about important news relating to hunting, wildlife, and conservation from state and national agencies, as well as updates on legislation relative to our viewers.
EPA Denies Ammo Ban Petition - September 1, 2010
U.S. Senate Passes Legislation Important to America's Gun Industry and Hunters - August 8, 2010
Senate Bill Will Help Hunters Gain Access to Public Lands - July 27, 2010
Up to $10,000 reward offered in dual bighorn sheep ram poaching - May 7, 2010
President Obama Launches Initiative to Develop a 21st Century Strategy for America's Great Outdoors - April 19, 2010
Secretary Salazar Lauds Senate's Confirmation of Sam Hamilton as Director of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - August 6, 2009
Congress Introduces Legislation to Protect Hunting on Federal Lands - June 29, 2009
Literary Critics Honor Boone and Crockett Club Book - June 11, 2009
| EPA Denies Ammo Ban Petition |
| September 1, 2010 |
| National Rifle Association |
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Responding to a grassroots outcry from gun owners, the Environmental Protection Agency today announced that it has denied a petition by the Center for Biological Diversity and other radical groups that had sought to ban the use of lead in ammunition. Agreeing with the position of the NRA and the firearms industry, the agency explained in a news release that it "does not have the legal authority to regulate this type of product under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)." Further crushing the hopes of anti-gun and anti-hunting activists, the release added: "nor is the agency seeking such authority." "It's outrageous that this petition even went this far," said Chris W. Cox, NRA-ILA Executive Director. "We applaud the EPA for its understanding of the law and its common sense in this situation -- both of which were totally missing in the petition filed by these extreme anti-gun and anti-hunting groups." Because the EPA has no power to regulate ammunition, it will not move ahead with a public comment period on the petition. However, a comment period will remain open until September 15 on the other part of the petition, which asks EPA to ban the use of lead in fishing sinkers. Back to top |
| U.S. Senate Passes Legislation Important to America's Gun Industry and Hunters |
| August 8, 2010 |
| Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation |
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WASHINGTON, DC -- The United States Senate passed a major piece of pro-sportsmen legislation yesterday to help firearm and ammunition manufacturers grow business and help strengthen wildlife conservation funding. The Senate, by unanimous consent, passed H.R. 5552 the "Firearms Excise Tax Improvement Act of 2010" or so-called FAET legislation sponsored in the U.S. House of Representatives by Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus (CSC) Member and former Co-Chair Rep. Ron Kind. If signed into law, this legislation will allow firearms and ammunition manufacturers to pay excise taxes quarterly as opposed to the current bi-weekly schedule. The bill passed the U.S. House last month by an overwhelming 412-6 vote. The firearm and ammunition excise tax is the major revenue source for funding the Wildlife Restoration Trust Fund also known as the Pittman-Robertson Trust Fund. Last year alone, firearm and ammunition manufacturers contributed approximately 450 million dollars to wildlife conservation, shooting ranges, and hunter education programs through excise tax payments. "The bi-partisan sportsmen-legislators of the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus once again prove that they are the legislative champions for America's hunters, anglers and gun owners," said CSF President Jeff Crane. The CSC made passage of this bill to reform the federal excise tax a legislative priority in the 111th Congress. The effort was supported by a broad coalition of sportsmen and conservation groups, including the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation (CSF), National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), National Rifle Association (NRA), and Safari Club International (SCI). "This bill strengthens wildlife conservation funding in America," said NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Lawrence G. Keane. "By enabling manufacturers to grow their businesses, excise tax receipts will actually grow." S.632, companion legislation to Rep. Kind's original House bill, H.R. 510, was introduced by CSC Senate Co-Chair Sen. Mike Crapo along with current CSC member and former Co-Chair Sen. Max Baucus. This bill was amended by Kind and reintroduced as H.R. 5552 in order to addresses concerns about the budgetary implications of the original legislation and explicitly comply with statutory Pay-Go rules. H.R. 5552 does not add a penny to the deficit or create a new tax while also maintaining the current level of conservation dollars generated by the tax. "We understood early on the importance of this legislation to not only the gun and ammunition manufacturers, but to all of America's hunters, anglers and gun owners," said Baucus. "The Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus acted and passage of this bill is a major accomplishment in continuing funding for wildlife conservation." "This is one of those rare win-win situations for everyone involved," explained Crapo. "Switching to a quarterly excise tax payment system would put firearms and ammunition manufacturers on the same system as nearly every other business that collects similar taxes. The frequency of tax payments under current law imposes a burden on the industry; in fact, some manufacturers end up taking out short-term loans to pay the excise taxes, which then results in additional expense and administrative overhead. Money is diverted away from core business areas to finance tax payments, which means fewer funds are available to reinvest and grow business." The bi-weekly payment schedule forces many manufacturers to borrow money to ensure on-time payment, and industry members spend thousands of man-hours administering the paperwork to successfully complete the payments -- monies that are due long before manufacturers are paid by their customers. Back to top |
| Senate Bill Will Help Hunters Gain Access to Public Lands |
| July 27, 2010 |
| Boone and Crockett Club |
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MISSOULA, Mont. -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., today introduced legislation that guarantees funding for improving hunter access to existing public lands. Included within the Clean Energy Jobs and Oil Spill Accountability Act is a provision supported by the Boone and Crockett Club and other hunting organizations which directs the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to work with volunteering landowners to enhance access to existing public lands for the purposes of hunting, fishing and other recreational activities. "Sportsmen and women want better access to their national forests and BLM lands for hunting and fishing. Sen. Harry Reid and Sen. Max Baucus are tackling this problem, head on, with this bill," said Lowell Baier, President of the Boone and Crockett Club. Additionally, Baier praised Reid and Baucus for "their deep commitment to enhancing outdoor recreation opportunities on our public lands." For the 32 million American hunters, anglers and recreational shooters, federal public lands are an increasingly vital to their participation in outdoor sports. Nearly half of all hunters, for example, conduct a portion of their hunting activity on these lands. In addition, lack of access is cited as a primary reason that hunters, anglers and target shooters stop participating in these traditional sports. However, numerous reports verify that access to federal lands is problematic in many places. In fact, a 2004 report to the U.S. House Committee On Appropriations concluded that more than 35 million acres of U.S. Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service land have inadequate access. Specifically, nearly 2 million acres (or 10 percent) of USFS lands in Montana and 8.4 million acres (or 29 percent) of BLM lands in the Montana/Dakota's region were identified as having inadequate access. Sportsmen and women make important contributions to both wildlife conservation and the nation's economy. The hunting and shooting sports industries create over 160,000 full-time jobs nationwide, generating an economic benefit of over $20 billion annually. Back to top |
| Up to $10,000 reward offered in dual bighorn sheep ram poaching |
| May 7, 2010 |
| Arizona Game and Fish Department |
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The Arizona Game and Fish Department is asking for the public's help in finding the individual or individuals responsible for the illegal killing of two bighorn sheep at Canyon Lake, northeast of Apache Junction, on April 19 or 20. The two majestic desert bighorn sheep rams were illegally shot and killed in Unit 24B along the southern shore of Canyon Lake, west of Beer Can Point. Due to the rugged area where the crime was committed, department investigators believe that the poachers reached the area by boat, and possibly at night. One ram had the head and horns removed and taken from the scene while the rest of the carcass was left to rot. The second ram, located approximately 100 yards from the first, was needlessly killed and left to waste at the scene with nothing removed from the carcass. "While the locations of the two animals killed are about 100 yards apart, we believe that the bighorn rams were poached by the same subject or subjects," says Officer Brian Anthony, wildlife manager assigned to the department's Mesa office. "The poacher left the animals to waste, and we need assistance from the public to find who committed these senseless acts." Anthony added, "Bighorn sheep are one of the crown jewels of Arizona's wildlife resources. The department, in cooperation with the Arizona Desert Bighorn Sheep Society, has spent a considerable amount of time, money and resources in bolstering this local bighorn herd. This senseless poaching is a setback for the program." "These aren't the actions of a hunter," says Anthony. "They're acts of criminals stealing wildlife assets and resources from the people of Arizona." The department's Operation Game Thief Program is offering a reward of up to $8,000 for the arrest of the subject or subjects who committed this crime. The Arizona Desert Bighorn Sheep Society has offered an additional reward of $1,000 per bighorn sheep for a criminal conviction in this case. To report information on this incident, or any wildlife law violation, call the department's Operation Game Thief hotline, toll-free at (800) 352-0700, or report online at the AZ G&F web site. Caller identities may remain confidential upon request. Back to top |
| President Obama Launches Initiative to Develop a 21st Century Strategy for America's Great Outdoors |
| April 19, 2010 |
| By Department of the Interior |
| -- |
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Effort will Promote and Support Community-Level Efforts to Conserve Outdoor Spaces WASHINGTON, D.C. -- President Barack Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum today establishing the America's Great Outdoors Initiative to promote and support innovative community-level efforts to conserve outdoor spaces and to reconnect Americans to the outdoors. The President spoke before leaders representing the conservation, farming, ranching, sporting, recreation, forestry, private industry, local parks and academia communities from all 53 states and territories. The Presidential Memorandum calls on the Secretaries of the Interior and of Agriculture, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to lead the Initiative, in coordination with the Departments of Defense, Commerce, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, Labor, Transportation, Education, and the Office of Management and Budget. The Initiative will support a 21st century conservation agenda that builds on successes in communities across the country, and will start a national dialogue about conservation that supports the efforts of private citizens and local communities. "Today, with 80 percent of Americans living in cities and suburbs, it is more important than ever for people to have access to outdoor space. Just as we cherish our childhood memories of hiking and sledding, fishing and camping, and just as we enjoy spending time outdoors with our families, we must guard these places and traditions for new generations," said CEQ Chair Nancy Sutley. "Through this Initiative we hope to identify new opportunities to work with Americans on a modern approach to conservation that begins at the ground level, and to reinvigorate the national conversation about our outdoors." "Since President Theodore Roosevelt held the first White House conference on conservation in 1908, we as Americans have taken extraordinary steps to protect our land, water, wildlife, and history for future generations, but today the places we love face new challenges that require new ideas and new strategies to solve," said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. "President Obama's America's Great Outdoors Initiative will start a much-needed dialogue about conservation in our country so that we can hear directly from Americans about the places they care about and how they are working to protect them. This is about listening, learning, and finding common-sense ways to support the good work that is happening in communities across the country." "President Obama's America's Great Outdoors Initiative will play an important role in confronting the serious challenges our natural resources face today: climate change, air and water pollution, landscape fragmentation and loss of open space," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "This effort will bring Americans from across the country together to look for new approaches to protect our national treasures. And it will highlight the importance of working across ownership boundaries to restore and conserve both private and public lands in a way that recognizes that conservation and economic vitality are inextricably linked." "Too many of our cities have limited access to parks for children, low-income residents and communities of color. Improving access to open areas and green space in our urban communities should be a focus of a 21st century conservation strategy," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. "It makes me proud that generations to come will know that we took action to preserve, restore and protect vital natural treasures." Click here to download the complete memorandum. Back to top |
| Secretary Salazar Lauds Senate's Confirmation of Sam Hamilton as Director of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service |
| August 6, 2009 |
| U.S. Department of Interior |
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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today praised the Senate's confirmation of Sam D. Hamilton as Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "Sam is a veteran manager, innovative leader, and strong advocate for sound science," Salazar said. "His three decades of experience with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's mission, responsibilities and programs will enable him to firmly guide the agency in its critical work conserving our nation's wildlife and its habitat and addressing the impacts of climate change." A career senior biologist and manager with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Hamilton had been director of the agency's Southeast Region in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was responsible for the oversight and management of more than 350 federally listed threatened and endangered species and 128 national wildlife refuges. As senior operating executive, he had full strategic planning and management responsibility for a $484 million budget and a 1,500-person work-force that operates in 10 states and the Caribbean. Hamilton's leadership fostered creative solutions and innovation that led to the establishment of a carbon sequestration program that has helped biologists in the Southeast restore roughly 80,000 acres of wildlife habitat. His emphasis on partnership bolstered the Service's fisheries program and helped establish the Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership to restore vital aquatic habitats across the region. This partnership is a key piece of the National Fish Habitat Action Plan. Hamilton provided leadership and oversight to the department's restoration work in the Everglades, the largest ecosystem restoration project in the country, and oversaw recovery and restoration work following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which devastated coastal wetlands, wildlife refuges, and other wildlife habitat along the Gulf of Mexico. Prior to becoming regional director, Hamilton served as assistant regional director of the ecological services in Atlanta and the Service's Texas state administrator in Austin. Hamilton graduated from Mississippi State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology in 1977. Back to top |
| Congress Introduces Legislation to Protect Hunting on Federal Lands |
| June 29, 2009 |
| By Greg R. Lawson |
| U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance |
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(Columbus)-Companion bills, introduced yesterday in Congress, protect the rights of sportsmen to hunt on federal land while also recognizing hunting's importance to all conservation. The Hunting Heritage Protection Act, is made up of Senate bill 1348, sponsored by Senator Saxby Chambliss (R- GA) and H.R. 3046, sponsored by Representative Denny Rehberg (R-MT). Both pieces of legislation require that federal land be managed in a way that supports, promotes, and enhances access for hunting and mandates that an annual report be submitted to Congress detailing any limitations that are imposed on hunting federal lands. It also will require a written notification be given to Congress prior to any agency action that limits hunting on large parcels of federal land consisting of 5,000 or more acres. "Sportsmen across America owe Senator Chambliss, Representative Rehberg, and other member of Congress many thanks for the steps they are taking to preserve our hunting rights," stated USSA President and CEO Bud Pidgeon. "In a time where access to suitable hunting land is becoming increasingly difficult, this legislation goes a long way towards curtailing that trend and guaranteeing current or increased hunting opportunities are available today and tomorrow." Sportsmen should contact their Congressional elected officials and ask them to support the Hunting Heritage Protection Act. Inform them that hunters and other sportsmen and sportswomen are great stewards of federal lands and should have full access to those lands whenever and wherever possible. To find your Congressional officials, go to the Legislative Action Center --- The U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance is a national association of sportsmen and sportsmen's organizations that protects the rights of hunters, anglers and trappers in the courts, legislatures, at the ballot, in Congress and through public education programs. For more information about the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance and its work, call (614) 888-4868 or visit its website, www.ussportsmen.org Back to top |
| Literary Critics Honor Boone and Crockett Club Book |
| June 11, 2009 |
| By Steve Wagner |
| Blue Heron Communications |
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MISSOULA, Mont. -- Hunting usually isn't top-of-mind conversation in America's literary circles, but that may be changing as a book published by Boone and Crockett Club continues to garner national honors and awards. Hunting the American West explores the pursuit of big game for life, profit and sport from 1800 to 1900. The book focuses on hunting in the 19th-century, a period in which hunting evolved from a subsistence activity to a sport of aristocrats to market-driven devastation of wildlife resources. This saga ultimately led to the rise of the hunter-conservationist movement and the founding of the Boone and Crockett Club. "We're thrilled with the national attention and accolades this book is receiving because it reflects so favorably on hunters and conservation," said Julie Houk, director of publications for the Club. Recent honors for Hunting the American West include: --- 2009 Spur Award--Best non-fiction historical book, from Western Writers of America. --- 2009 Outstanding Books of the Year, Gold Award--Best regional non-fiction, from Independent Publisher Book Awards. --- 2008 Silver Medal, Book of the Year--History, from ForeWord magazine. --- 2008 Benjamin Franklin Award Finalist--Large format cover design, from Independent Book Publishers. --- 2008 Oklahoma Book Award Finalist--Oklahoma Center for the Book, Library of Congress. Authored by Richard C. Rattenbury of Edmond, Okla., Hunting the American West draws extensively on vivid accounts from participants and observers along with abundant historical photos and illustrations. The book affords rare insight to the methods, motives and character of big-game hunters in the Old West. The book is hardcover, 12 x 8.75 inches with 416 pages and 425 color and B&W photos and illustrations. It is available at retailers nationwide but also can be ordered directly from Boone and Crockett Club. The price is $49.95 (Club members receive a discount). To order the book or inquire about becoming a Boone and Crockett Club associate, visit the Club's web store at www.booneandcrockettclub.com or call toll-free 888-840-4868. Back to top |