Sportsmen Laud Conservation & Access Components of America’s Great Outdoors Initiative

Sportsmen Laud Conservation & Access Components of America’s Great Outdoors Initiative
Billed as a ‘conservation and recreation strategy,’ initiative stresses the importance of fish and wildlife habitat conservation, public-access measures.

Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership

WASHINGTON -- Following today’s release of the America’s Great Outdoors initiative, billed by the White House as a “21st century conservation and recreation strategy,” the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership lauded measures in the document that reflect the priorities of American hunters and anglers.

President Obama invoked the legacy of the nation’s greatest conservation president, Theodore Roosevelt, as he addressed an audience of conservationists from the East Room of the White House this afternoon in unveiling the AGO report.

The president established the initiative last spring to promote and support community-level conservation efforts and reconnect Americans to the outdoors. It drew input and ideas from thousands of citizens, including sportsmen, who stressed the urgency of funding key programs that facilitate the acquisition of public lands, access to both public and private lands and conservation of valuable fish and wildlife habitat.

“The America’s Great Outdoors initiative enabled sportsmen to impress upon our leaders the importance of programs like the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which has acquired and conserved some of our nation’s most popular public lands for hunting and fishing, and Open Fields, which facilitates sportsmen’s access to farms and ranches and encourages fish and wildlife habitat management on private lands,” said TRCP President and CEO Whit Fosburgh, who attended today’s announcement.

“Sportsmen appreciate the president’s receptiveness to our concerns and his enthusiasm for the hunting and fishing traditions so central to the American identity,” Fosburgh continued. “Yet our ability to conserve both our shared resources and our outdoors way of life hinges on these and other programs receiving ample funding. Fully funding the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and allocating some of that funding to expand recreational access on public lands, is a significant step in the right direction. We strongly encourage Congress to pass it.

“America’s hunters and anglers urge President Obama and the administration to redouble their efforts to sustain the places and outdoor opportunities that make our nation great,” Fosburgh concluded, “and we stand ready to support their work during the budgetary challenges we presently are confronting.”