Hunting News

Zinke order increases public access to federal lands for hunting, fishing

Zinke order increases public access to federal lands for hunting, fishing

By U.S. Department of the Interior

On Sept. 15, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke signed Secretarial Order 3356, which seeks to expand access on public and private lands and to promote hunting and fishing among youth, veterans, and minority communities.

The goal is to support and expand hunting and fishing, enhance conservation stewardship, improve wildlife management, and increase outdoor recreation opportunities for all Americans.  The new order is an extension of Zinke’s Secretarial Order 3347, issued March 2, which identified a slate of actions for the restoration of the American sportsmen conservation ethic established by President Theodore Roosevelt.

The new order comes days after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced a survey that found there are 2.2 million fewer hunters in America now than in 2011.

The order seeks to improve wildlife management and conservation, increase access to public lands for hunting, shooting, and fishing, and puts a new and a greater emphasis on recruiting and retaining new sportsmen conservationists. It focuses on engaging youths, veterans, minorities and other communities that traditionally have low participation in outdoor recreation activities. “Hunting and fishing is a cornerstone of the American tradition and hunters and fishers of America are the backbone of land and wildlife conservation,” said Secretary Zinke. “The more people we can get outdoors, the better things will be for our public lands. As someone who grew up hunting and fishing on our public lands, packing bologna sandwiches and heading out at 4AM with my dad, I know how important it is to expand access to public lands for future generations.”

Secretarial Order 3356 directs bureaus within the department to produce a plan to expand access for hunting and fishing on BLM, USFWS and NPS land within 120 days.

It amends national monument management plans to ensure the public's right to hunt, fish and target shoot, and expands educational outreach programs for underrepresented communities such as veterans, minorities and youth.

The order seeks to act a manner that respects the rights and privacy of the owners of non-public lands, by identifying lands where access to Department lands, particularly access for hunting, fishing, recreational shooting, and other forms of outdoor recreation, is currently limited. This includes areas of Interior Department land that may be impractical or effectively impossible to access via public roads or trails under current conditions, but where there may be an opportunity to gain access through an easement, right-of-way, or acquisition, and provide a report detailing such lands to the Deputy Secretary.

The goal, within 365 days, is to cooperate, coordinate, create, make available, and continuously update online a single one stop Department site database of available opportunities for hunting, fishing, and recreational shooting on Department lands.

A final goal is to improve wildlife management through collaboration with state, Tribal,  territorial and conservation partners.

Representatives from the National Rifle Association, the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the National Wildlife Federation, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus issued statements in support of the order.

To access Secretarial Order 3356 online visit here.

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