June 14, 2013

Legislation ensuring sportsmen’s access to federal lands cleared its first hurdle this week as the House Natural Resources Committee voted 28-15 in favor of H.R. 1825.  Known as the Recreational Fishing and Hunting Heritage and Opportunities Act, H.R. 1825 is the most significant legislation protecting sportsmen’s access in 16 years, according to the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance (USSA). The bill shuts the door on lawsuits brought by anti-hunting groups aimed at pushing sportsmen and women off federal lands.  H.R. 1825 spells out in plain language that fishing, hunting and recreational shooting are legitimate and important activities on National Forests and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands.  The key provision of the bill is the “Open Until Closed” language, which mandates that U.S. Forest Service and BLM lands are open to hunting, fishing and recreational shooting unless specific steps are taken to close those lands for necessary and demonstrable reasons. According to the USSA, the “Open Until Closed” provision is a “game changer” for the future of hunting, fishing and recreational shooting on public land. The USSA led the charge for similar 1997 legislation that protects sportsmen’s access to National Wildlife Refuge land that has resulted in new refuges open to hunting all across America. “We urge Congress to move this critical legislation quickly,” said Bill Horn, director of federal affairs for the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance. Click for more details. Posted June 14, 2013

Tighter regulations governing wildlife training preserves, also known as fox pens, were approved by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. Animal welfare groups urged that such facilities be closed, but sportsmen working with wildlife officials agreed on new rules to improve the safety of penned foxes. Among the new regulations: one hundred acres minimum for a preserve; no training for one week after restocking; a limit of one hound per ten acres from eight to fourteen days after restocking; a limit of one hound per acre after that; one man-made dog-proof escape structure for every twenty acres; all fence corners to be rounded to prevent a fox from being trapped in a corner by hounds; all hounds to be vaccinated for rabies; no monetary prizes during special events. The changes will affect the less than forty foxhound training preserves that operate in Virginia. Posted June 14, 2013