The Interior Department recently announced a “historic expansion” of hunting and fishing opportunities on the lands it manages. While there are no doubt some real wins for access, much of these “expanded” and “new opportunities” amount to crumbs. Things like eliminating the restrictions on the use of toxic lead lures hardly seem historic. Much of these lands are already open to hunting and the historic opportunities include things like “being able to shoot from trails” and “the use of tree stands.” These may be legitimate, but again, amount to nothing more than crumbs from an administration that has been working to take the bread and butter of the hunting and angling community and is nothing short of hostile to the very foundations of our hunting and fishing opportunities.
Books will be written on all the ways the Trump administration has undermined the interests of hunters and anglers, but here’s a few of the hits.
Right off the top, the most recent budget proposal cuts the budget of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) by 32%. This already underfunded agency is the very one that would implement the supposed expansion of opportunity.
Recently Doug Burgum and Trump rescinded the Public Lands Rule. This rule put conservation and recreation (including hunting and fishing) on equal footing as other typical multiple uses of federal public lands such as mining, grazing and energy development. To be clear, it didn’t even make conservation more important, just equal. This admin took away a powerful tool for protecting the habitats that make up the healthy landscapes where game and fish can thrive. They came right out and said that conservation and recreation are not as important as mining, grazing and energy development. This one decision affects 245 million acres, almost 3 times the acreage of the “historic expansion.”
Trump also nominated Steve Pearce to head the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Pearce has long been an advocate for transferring public lands out of public hands. He said we should “divest public lands” and reverse the “trend of public land ownership.” As a congressman he voted to shrink National Monuments where hunting is permitted and wildlife is protected. He voted for a failed attempt that would have allowed the government to sell public lands for less than market value. He also voted to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, build a road through another Wildlife Refuge and he is now in charge of the largest public lands agency in the country.
The Trump administration is also transferring public lands. Recently it transferred almost 1.4 million BLM acres to the state of Alaska along the Dalton Highway corridor. This transfer will almost certainly lead to more development and expedite the building of the Ambler Road. The Ambler Road is another project this administration supports that has been strongly opposed by the sporting community and will benefit a foreign mining company at the expense of habitat.
They also rewrote and gutted the Clean Water Rule which eliminated protections for half of all wetlands in the US. This amounts to the potential loss of tens of millions of acres of habitat and hunting. Anyone who fishes or hunts waterfowl will be adversely affected by this.
And while they talk big on access, they redirected (some might say stole) funds away from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. This $387 million was meant specifically to acquire new lands and access for the general public.
Perhaps the biggest blow to our hunting and fishing resources come from the administration’s DOGE cuts and proposed budget cuts:
• Cutting the BLM budget by 34% and the National Conservation Lands by 76% while also eliminating all funding for BLM managed Wilderness Areas
• Cutting the Forest Service Budget by 75% and completely eliminating its forest and rangeland research
• Cutting the National Park Service by 25%
• Cutting the US Fish Wildlife Service by 32%
Hunters and anglers have long been willing to sacrifice for the good of the resource. Including the understanding that animals we love to hunt and fish need a place to rest, breed and feed without being hunted, hence, National Wildlife Refuges. Over and over again we have voted to tax ourselves to conserve wildlife and the habitat they depend on. As a group we are the most likely to give our time and money to charity. We proudly cover our vehicles and camping gear with stickers showing the groups we support. We gladly pay license fees knowing they fund the agencies and boots on the ground that protect the fish, game and the species that share their habitat. We show up to public meetings, write letters and call our representatives. Hunters and anglers show up in November and vote. We vote for the candidates that understand and support the importance of habitat, wildlife, hunting and fishing. And we vote out the ones that don’t.
Corey Ellis lives in Missoula.