DU, other groups give federal Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act

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DU, other groups give federal Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act of 2015 a thumbs-up
Rob Drieslein Blog, MN Outdoor News
February 13, 2015

After going down in flames last year, the Sportsman’s Act of 2015 appeared early in the 114th Congress in the U.S. Senate last week, and it received strong initial support from some national conservation groups. The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership said the bill addresses priority issues for hunters and anglers including expanded public access.

“Hunting and angling in the United States depend on the conservation of important fish and wildlife habitat and ample opportunities for the public to access that habitat,” said TRCP President and CEO Whit Fosburgh in a release. “This bill would realize both of those objectives while also ensuring strong, reliable authorization for key management programs.”

TRCP highlighted a number of provisions of the Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act of 2015. The second bullet point down struck me as especially important since it affects the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, which is up for renewal this year. In my opinion, earmarking some of these funds for access probably increases the odds that Congress renews the entire LWCF.

Bill highlights include:

• Recreational Fishing, Hunting and Recreational Shooting on Federal Public Land, requiring federal land managers to consider how management plans affect opportunities to engage in hunting, fishing and recreational shooting and requiring the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service to keep BLM lands open to these activities.

• Making Public Lands Public, requiring that 1.5 percent of annual Land and Water Conservation Fund monies be made available to secure public access to existing federal lands that have restricted access to hunting, fishing and other recreational activities.

• National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Establishment Act, reauthorizing NFWF, a nonprofit that preserves and restores native wildlife species and habitats.

• Hunt Unrestricted on National Treasures, or HUNT Act, which identifies and plans for opening access to landlocked public lands.

• North American Wetlands Conservation Act Reauthorization, reauthorizing through fiscal year 2017 NAWCA, which provides matching grants to organizations, state and local governments, and private landowners for the acquisition, restoration and enhancement of wetlands critical to the habitat of migratory birds.

In a release, Ducks Unlimited said that the bill would fund NAWCA at $50 million a year through 2020.

“On behalf of the nearly 1 million supporters and volunteers of Ducks Unlimited located in every state across the country, we thank senators Lisa Murkowski and Martin Heinrich for their bipartisan leadership on behalf of our nation’s sportsmen and women,” said DU’s Chief Policy Officer Margaret Everson.