Reports

In 2021, the TRCP partnered with Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) and the Meridian Institute to host two roundtable discussions with Latino hunters in Colorado. A group of 14 individuals from the Latino hunting and outdoor recreation community, as well as CPW staff, met to identify opportunities to improve CPW programs that engage Latino audiences in hunting and conservation. The goals of these efforts were to take steps toward building a trusting relationship between the Latino communities and CPW and to identify challenges, opportunities, and concrete recommendations for CPW and other state wildlife agencies to enhance engagement with Latino communities. The Toolkit is intended to be used by wildlife agencies and the public to engage with diverse audiences. Many of the recommendations included below could be applied outside of hunting and conservation.

Over the past several years, sportsmen and sportswomen cheered as hunting and fishing opportunities on national wildlife refuges have been expanded. Looking ahead to the future of the National Wildlife Refuge System—including the potential expansion of the System—the hunting and fishing community must continue to advocate to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the conservation of fish and wildlife habitat and for the continuation of our outdoor pastimes. Here’s a look at 12 principles that should guide the System’s future from the perspective of hunters and anglers.

In recent years, big game migration has taken center stage at the intersection of science, policy, and management. We’ve known for decades that these animals migrate, but recent research and technology have helped to define the exact locations of critical corridors and stopover areas, and how animals use these habitats. As a result, it is imperative that efforts to conserve these habitats advance on both public and private lands.

While public lands and waters provide great access, 70 percent of the nation’s lands, exclusive of Alaska, are in private hands, including some of the best fish and wildlife habitat in the nation. That is why we cannot afford to overlook the recreational opportunities and conservation value offered by private lands and made possible through the Voluntary Public Access and Habitat Incentive Program.

Untapped hunting and fishing opportunities in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

In a follow-up to our 2018 Unlocking Public Lands Report, the TRCP and onX have identified an additional 6.35 million landlocked acres of state-owned public lands across the West. This new report also highlights the various ways states are addressing this access issue, so that effective solutions can be more widely adopted across the region.

Americans are locked out of 9.52 million acres of federal public lands that are entirely landlocked and can be accessed only with the permission of neighboring private landowners. Surprisingly, though, little has been done to understand the scope of the problem, its effect on our hunting and fishing opportunities, or what it will take to systematically unlock these lands—until now.

Created by the Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development coalition, which is led by TRCP, Trout Unlimited, and the National Wildlife Federation, and supported by 16 other hunting and fishing organizations and businesses.

Seven recommendations for modernizing the federal management of marine fisheries to improve fish populations, long-term sustainability, and the ability to continue holding our nation’s fisheries in the public trust.

This collaborative report backed by more than 20 hunting and fishing organizations outlines a new approach to designating national monuments with hunter and angler support and using the Antiquities Act thoughtfully, in the right places, as a tool for conservation. PLUS: Five case studies of existing national monuments that offer great hunting and fishing.