A report on the America’s Great Outdoor Initiative was released in Washington recently. It is a comprehensive vision for conserving our nation’s wild and scenic treasurers and re-connecting Americans with nature — and for those of us who hunt and fish — a critical step toward preserving a way of life we deeply treasure.
In this day and age, Americans increasingly live in urban areas and have little exposure to the natural world. How can people appreciate the importance or diversity of nature if they never have the opportunity to spend time in the woods, or on the water? Those who have spent a day in a duck blind watching myriad wildlife activities occur, dropped a fly on a blue-ribbon trout stream as the fog lifts from the water, or been in the woods on a cool morning and experienced the challenging bugle of a herd bull elk, know the power of connecting with the natural world. It is something we should have the opportunity to do in our own way — something I hope the AGO Initiative will make possible.
Sportsmen know that protecting wildlife habitat is the key to all that we hold sacred, so I’m pleased to see that the AGO report recommends investing in habitat through programs like the Land and Water Conservation Fund. During my many years as the manager of National Wildlife Refuges for the Department of the Interior, I saw many critical habitat lands preserved using funds provided by the LWCF.
This fund, established in 1964, is largely fueled by royalties from off-shore leasing of federally owned gas and oil rights, not taxpayer dollars. LWCF funds have been responsible for the addition of millions of acres to our wildlife refuge system since its inception, providing outdoor recreational opportunities for countless sportsmen. Just last year, over 400 acres of critical wetlands were added to Utah’s Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge using LWCF funds.
What most sportsmen don’t know is that, since enactment in 1964, LWCF has only gotten close to full funding twice. In fact, the very existence of LWCF is currently under attack. In the effort to preserve the very best of the remaining critical habitat in our country, those who hunt and fish must stand up for this fund. Congress long ago agreed the fund should protect wildlife habitat acquisition, but has consistently diverted the money to other purposes. At America’s Great Outdoors “listening sessions” held in Salt Lake City and across the country last summer, hunters and anglers asked for full funding of LWCF, and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar listened. LWCF is a cornerstone of the AGO Initiative, and critical to ensuring that our children and grandchildren can hunt and fish on Utah’s public lands as we do today.
If we can’t provide high quality habitat that the younger generation can access to experience the chorus of dawn on a vibrant marsh, to wonder about the family of otters that appeared on a family fishing trip, to gaze in wonder at a bald eagle soaring over a lake while taking a break from deer hunting, then our legacy to them is lesser for it.
Jay Banta is the former manager of the Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge and is an active sportsman living in southern Utah.