President Trump announced a wide range of initiatives to expand public access and support the country’s hunting community in an executive order on Thursday night while speaking at the White House Rose Garden.
The executive order Reinvigorating America’s Hunting Heritage includes provisions to encourage easements and land exchanges to boost access to landlocked federal land, using volunteers to target invasive species and work on wildlife management, and stressing the use of lead ammunition and fishing tackle.
“I would applaud it for what it is,” says Ryan Callaghan, CEO of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. “It’s a clear nudge or go ahead for the agencies and departments to put an emphasis on these things, which are largely all positive.”
The White House also announced a second wide-ranging executive order, Restoring American Saltwater Angling and Recreation, on Thursday. The executive order on hunting requires between 60 and 365-day deadlines for the regulations and policy changes, which is “where we’re going to see the actual details,” Callaghan notes.
The White House cited a decline in hunting across the country as reason for the initiatives. It also addressed a wide array of federal agencies. It named those agencies usually involved in the hunting and fishing space, like the Department of Interior and U.S. Forest Service, and also the departments of War and Commerce.
Many of the hunting-related initiatives named in the order are voluntary and some, like encouraging more hunting on Sundays, are generally up to states and outside the purview of the federal government.
“We appreciate the administration’s support for wildlife corridors, access to landlocked public land, and management of invasive species and wildlife disease,” says Joel Webster, chief conservation officer for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “We look forward to working with the departments and agencies to implement several elements of the order.”
Initiatives specifically mentioned include:
- Allowing hunting access in Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho and Castle Mountains National Monument in southern California. Opening hunting on both monuments has been a priority for hunting groups like BHA, says Callaghan.
- Using volunteers to manage invasive species and wildlife. While most wildlife management occurs at the state level, Callaghan says this could emphasize using hunters to manage species like expanding mountain goat populations in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park and invasive pythons in Florida’s Big Cypress National Preserve.
Related: National Park Service Announces New Hunting Opportunities to Control Invasive Species. Volunteers Could Save Taxpayers Millions
- Reviewing high-demand river access lotteries on Forest Service-administered land. It also gives the Secretary of Agriculture 60 days to reform the lotteries to “prioritize United States citizens, including prior unsuccessful applicants, and prohibit the use of automatic computer entries into the lotteries,” which has been an increasingly large issue on some of the country’s most popular rivers.
- Prioritizing voluntary access easements, land exchanges and cooperative agreements with states to reach “difficult-to-access federal lands and waters.”
- Removing or reducing wildlife movement barriers and improving connectivity. The order calls out invasive species removal and habitat degradation, and also stresses “targeted management of predators.”
While sportsmen’s groups in general applauded the focus on improving access, Callaghan wants the administration to acknowledge backcountry travel by foot or horseback is just as important as other modes of access.
The second Trump administration recently plowed forward on rescinding the popular Roadless Rule and overturn travel management plans, both of which are largely supported by the hunting community because they provide unparalleled habitat for big game species and opportunity for hunters.
Callaghan also wants to see a boost in funding and staffing for land management agencies tasked with each of these priorities.
It’s why Land Tawney, co-chairman of American Hunters and Anglers, says the portion of Thursday’s executive order that focuses on increasing access to isolated chunks of public land “is substantive and welcomed,” but the rest “is common sense and doesn’t amount to much.”
“Starting with the dismantling of the agencies in charge of public lands through DOGE, proposed budgets that drastically cut management agencies, and an energy abundance agenda that puts billionaires before the people, the attacks [on the hunting community by this administration] have been sustained and numerous,” Tawney says. “So while we appreciate some of what in this order, by no shape or form does it bring them out of the doghouse.”
In his remarks in the Rose Garden on Thursday evening, President Trump addressed a collection of guests hailing from federal public lands agencies, outdoor brands, and conservation organizations. Attendees included Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, Bass Pro Shops CEO Johnny Morris, and Jeff Crane, the president and CEO of the Congressional Sportsmen Foundation.
Related: Mike Lee Moves to Block Any Future Restoration of Bears Ears National Monument, Conservation Groups Warn
“Lead ammunition — lead ammunition is a problem huh?” Trump asked the gathered guests. “Is it better than other ammunition I assume, huh? That’s pretty good. I don’t know what the hell that means, but I know you wanted it [Interior secretary Doug Burgum] and I’m here for you. So the order protects the use of affordable, traditional lead ammunition, that sounds good to me.”
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