87,000 More Acres To Hunt, Fish and Enjoy
How does 87,000 more acres to hunt, fish and enjoy sound? It sounds pretty good to me, and Doug Burgum agrees. Burgum, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, proposed 42 new hunting and fishing opportunities earlier last month. These areas are a part of the National Wildlife Refuge and Fish Hatchery Systems and include vast areas of land nationwide.
The areas are located in Alabama, California, Idaho, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, North Carolina, Texas and Washington. That’s an average of about 7,909 acres per area. This is big news for hunters and fishermen across America. Not only would we have more access to public lands, but this will also create more jobs and more revenue to the economies surrounding these areas.
Economic Benefits
There is always an economic ripple effect, with a proposal like this, that often gets overlooked. Sure this would create a decent amount of government jobs, but it also brings more jobs to the private sector in the communities surrounding these areas. Now, instead of one bait and tackle shop, they have three. There will now be a demand for more sporting goods stores in the areas, to include more firearm sales.
We will follow this topic closely and keep you updated as the lands become available to us. I personally hope this proposal makes it through as I’m sure many of you do as well.
A Patriot’s View
This is a win-win across the board. Our government acquired and maintains these lands with our tax dollars anyhow. We have every right to use it and benefit from it as well. Sportsmen are some of the greatest conservationists on the planet. There are always “bad apples” in any group of people, but sportsmen all across the country do more good to private and public lands that far surpass the few that disrespect them.
Ask any hunter and I’m sure they will tell you they have planted, or helped to plant, at least one food plot in their lifetime. Ask that same hunter if they have a process for deciding which animal to let walk and which one to harvest and I’m sure you will hear a detailed plan. Ask a fisherman about their culling process. Ask a landowner the process of keeping the bodies of water on their property clean and productive. I could go on and on, but the point is that there are no better stewards of our public lands than WE THE PEOPLE and I’m glad to see our government extending these opportunities to us.
