There are, of course, many pressing issues as voters begin casting their ballots for the 2020 elections. But as sportsmen and sportswomen, we have a responsibility to make informed decisions about who will best steward our land, water, fisheries, and wildlife.
Here are 10 questions that can help you find out where your federal candidates stand on conservation and why you should ask them.
Do you believe that climate change is a threat? If so, how do you plan to address it?
This is a critical question because sportsmen and women are on the front lines of climate change, witnessing impacts on our nation’s fish, wildlife, and habitat. And policymakers are integral to pushing bipartisan solutions to address these effects on our hunting and fishing opportunities.
Do you support investing in conservation as a way to get Americans back to work?
The COVID pandemic has hit our economy hard, and there are many creative ways to employ workers and spur economic growth. Investments in conservation are a win-win for jobs and the outdoors.
What will you do to increase participation in hunting and fishing?
Hunters and anglers pay for conservation through our gear and license purchases. When fewer people hunt and fish, investments in conservation drop off too. So, decision-makers who care about conservation funding will have a plan for recruitment, retention, and reactivation of hunters and anglers.
How would you use the Farm Bill to incentivize landowners to be even better stewards of the land?
The Farm Bill makes major investments in private land conservation. The next five-year bill will provide a golden opportunity to restore habitat and support the wildlife that we love.
How will you enhance public access to hunting and fishing opportunities?
There are 16.25 million acres of inaccessible public land across 18 U.S. states. These places could be home to your next outdoor adventure, but you can’t get to them. These lands belong to all of us, and hunters and anglers shouldn’t be missing out because access policies aren’t being improved.
Do you believe that chronic wasting disease threatens the future of deer hunting? If so, what steps would you take to address it?
Chronic wasting disease has spread rapidly among wild deer and elk populations, particularly in the last ten years, with positive cases now found in 26 states. This disease is 100 percent fatal, manifests slowly, and can remain in an infected environment for years.
What can you do to restore habitat connectivity and conserve migration corridors?
Animals big and small—from grizzly bears to bog turtles and elk and deer to salamanders—all —need to move between their seasonal ranges. But migrating through human-altered landscapes isn’t always easy. There are many barriers that threaten this habitat and these habitats and migratory species .
What steps would you take to ensure that headwater streams and wetlands are protected?
Clean, productive wetlands and headwater streams are important for everyone, but essential for hunters and anglers. Not only do they provide habitat for fish and wildlife, these waters and wetlands also reduce flooding, filter pollution, and recharge aquifers that provide drinking water. Recent rule changes threaten these protections.
What is your plan for improving the marine fisheries ecosystem and recreational fishing?
Changing water temperatures, ocean acidification, human development, habitat loss, and overfishing of forage fish all threaten our marine fisheries ecosystem and the $125 billion recreational fishing economy.
How will you strengthen the nation’s $778-billion outdoor recreation economy?
The Bureau of Economic Analysis reports that our nation’s outdoor recreation economy is a major job creator and contributor to the U.S. gross domestic product. By supporting outdoor recreation businesses and conservation work that creates more hunting and fishing opportunities, we can help pull our nation out of this economic downturn.
Photo Credit: Bureau of Land Management
I would change “believe” in first question to “Think….”…
These ideas are vital to restoring balance, cleaning up ecosystems and helping everyone survive in a better planet.
Fair questions, that you could of prefaced by noting President Trump‘S signing of the Great American Outdoors Act, a powerful conservation spending package that will now be forever linked to the president and one hailed almost universally in the outdoors industry as a monumental achievement by his administration.
So important is the new law that nearly three-quarters of the members of Congress supported it during its journey through the House and Senate this spring and summer, enthusiastically throwing support behind an act that provides full and permanent funding of $900 million annually for the Land and Water Conservation Fund as well as providing $9.5 billion in funding over five years for a backlog of maintenance work needed on lands managed by various federal natural resource agencies. He deserves credit for signing this bill.
I contacted my congressman and was told there have been 18 solar farms on public land. These make the land inhospitable for most wildlife and it appears they require constant application of chemicals making it unfit for animals and runoff into water is a concern.
The first question is by far the most important and it’s probably a good predictor of all/most of the responses to the questions that follow. I would be shocked if 1/4 of Congresspeople knew what Chronic Wasting Disease was.
There is really no choice here, it’s vote Biden/Harris is a vote for the earth!! Trump will destroy it in the next few years given the chance, as he destroys everything he touches!!!
Biden! Trump has shown over and over again with his actions and appointees that he cares nothing about our home – the earth.
Trump opposes the Pebble Mine (surprised? True). He also supported and signed the Great American Outdoors Act.. And then there’s the elephant in the room – the Second Amendment. Joe Biden and his troupe of outdoors backers say – even in promotional material – that he would protect “Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans to purchase and responsibly use firearms for hunting and sporting.so people can buy firearms.” I was unaware the Second Amendment was about deer-hunting rifles and over-under shotguns for clay target games.
Jeffrey (above)…President Trump has never said he opposes the Pebble Mine (surprised? True.). Follow closely and you’ll see that the most recent action merely delays any decision on the permit from the Army Corps of Engineers beyond the election date. If he really opposed Pebble, he’d instruct his EPA to use the Clean Water Act to veto the permit. And that has not happened.
Up until President Trump virtually every GOP president has expressed strong support for Pebble… Has he been great? No. Yet his record has also been badly manipulated. The President has opened an additional 23 million acres of federal land (most on refuges to hunting and fishing). Last year it was 1.3 million acres. When George Bush the Elder lost I sent a letter to him saying that he’d be welcome around my campfire any day. I would never do that for Donald Trump. But there is THAT elephant in the room and 2A is too big and too important to push aside. Talk about protecting “my” guns because they are used for hunting or recreational target shooting is simply a disingenuous smokes screen.
Trump is most definitely the better choice! Joe has been at it to long and can not be trusted and for his running mate, she is a snot!! We will not have anything if we don’t keep China in check! We need trump another 4 years!! Wake up to the real problems!!
I can’t vote for a deranged, incompetent, narcissistic sociopath, regardless of the 2nd Amendment, and I doubt that he really supports that, except that he knows that he would lose votes if he doesn’t. This poor excuse for a president has damaged this country in so many ways, both domestically and in our foreign affairs, that I can’t understand how anyone, conservative or liberal, can both care for America and vote for him. On the other hand, how can the Democrats say that they support our civil liberties and trash the 2nd Amendment? It’s the second of the enumerated civil liberties, for God’s sake; doesn’t that clue them in to its importance. They want to have it both ways, but they can’t without exposing themselves to hypocrisy, which they righteously (and correctly) label many Republican actions. Someone needs to give them a mirror.
So, for the greater good of the country, I will hold my nose and vote for Biden. And, while I think that the whole Republican Supreme Court maneuvering stinks of the height of hypocrisy (and that they eventually will pay a price for opening this can of worms), if Barrett is appointed to the Court at least one of our civil rights will be protected, even if others will undoubtedly be endangered.
I have lived a long time, and never imagined to see our country in such a state. My heart weeps for what we could have been.
president trump actually cares about our country. The opposition has continually edited and misconstrued his comments. While I don’t agree with everything he does (can anybody say they have agreed with a leader entirely?) he is the best choice to keep this country great. He won’t sell us out to the middle east or China or Russia, I believe the Biden machine will. Trump has held other nations accountable for their treaty promises and financial responsibilities. As for the pandemic it is not his fault (China?) When he wanted to close off travel the political machine stopped him, now they blame him for not doing it. He is crass and rough and very tough. If you want to be taxed out of your middle class life style and lose more and more rights vote Biden. If you want a strong and prosperous country that may still may not be perfect but have a chance to work with vote Trump. But above all do not let a single issue drive your vote,