Press RoomPress Release
Hunters, Anglers Build on Legacy As America's Premier ConservationistsNEWS RELEASE
Contact: George Cooper
(202) 508-3421 President Theodore Roosevelt launched the modern conservation movement during the late 1800s and early 1900s. As President, he established the National Forest system, the National Wildlife Refuge System, and signed the first major laws aimed at conserving America’s natural resources and ensuring healthy fish and wildlife populations. TR laid the foundation for America’s hunters and anglers to do even more. By the 1930s the health of America’s fish and wildlife and their habitats were still in question. Wood ducks were considered near extinction. Wild turkey and deer were scarce. Many of the nation’s best conservation organizations can share credit for the conservation work that has turned many of those facts into success stories. But did you know? What two groups have contributed more than $8 billion to the conservation of America’s fish and wildlife and their habitats over the past 66 years? You would be correct if you said to yourself hunters and anglers. The Wildlife Management Institute and state fish and wildlife agencies began looking for a way to provide a stable source of funding for wildlife conservation in 1925. Over the 12 years that followed, the Institute - along with the state fish and wildlife agencies and industry partners - worked to create one of the country’s most successful conservation programs ever. In 1937, the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration program was established using excise taxes on the sale of firearms and ammunition to provide a stable, permanent source of funding for state fish and wildlife agencies. They would use the money collected through this user-pays, user-benefits program for wildlife conservation and hunter education. In the early 1970s, excise taxes paid on archery equipment were added to the program. The wildlife restoration program now collects roughly $200 million annually to support wildlife conservation and America’s storied hunting tradition. Pittman-Robertson was working, and work soon began to create a similar program to boost fisheries conservation. So in 1950, the state fish and wildlife agencies and its conservation partners moved to duplicate the success of the wildlife restoration program by establishing the Dingell-Johnson Sportfish Restoration program. Relying on the same user-pays, user benefits philosophy, the sportfish restoration program would support fisheries conservation with money collected from the excise taxes paid on fishing equipment. In 1984, the program was expanded dramatically when U.S. Sens. John Breaux (D-LA) and Malcolm Wallop (R-WY) added excise taxes on gasoline attributable to motorboat fuel. The impact of this was dramatic. Now, the Sportfish Restoration program is approaching $500 million annually that is disbursed to the states and other partners to benefit fisheries conservation and America’s angling tradition. Both programs are working and the results so far have been astonishing. The reason: America’s hunters and anglers and partners including Ducks Unlimited, the National Wild Turkey Federation, the Wildlife Management Institute, the Izaak Walton League of America, the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and many others. For more information about these and other conservation partners please click here. It was once said "bragging may not bring happiness, but no man having caught a large fish goes home through the alley." America’s sportsmen and women have reason to brag. They are an important part of America’s conservation story. Hunters and anglers should not ever "go home through the alley." For information about the contributions of America’s hunters and anglers to conservation through the sportfish and wildlife restoration programs, please click here. To browse the 2001 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation, please click here. For information about the economic activity generated by America’s sportsmen and women, please click here. For more information about the economic impacts of hunting please visit the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies website. For information about the economic impact of fishing, please visit the American Sportfishing Association website. |