Biden Attacks on Hunting, Fishing are “Politics at its Worst”
IOTR Fighting Administration Attacks on Hunting
[Scottsdale, Ariz.] – An article published in Fox News details the attacks the Biden
Administration has leveled on fishing and hunting in America. IOTR Executive Director Luke Hilgemann weighed in on how his organization is fighting back and standing up for the rights of anglers and hunters to protect the nation’s hunting heritage.
Read the full story on FoxNews.com or find excerpts below.
Hunting, fishing and hiking at risk due to Biden admin regulations, critics warn: ‘Politics at its worst’
Kendall Tietz
Fox News Digital
Aug. 25, 2023
The Biden administration has repeatedly prioritized policies critics argue are politicized environmental efforts which will make conservation and recreational activities on public lands more difficult.
Rules coming down from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could make land unavailable for hunting, fishing and even hiking, outdoorsmen argue.
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In another move that critics argue would limit hunters’ access to public lands, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is moving forward with its plans to phase out lead bullets on eight major public hunting grounds across the country by September 2026, which Luke Hilgemann, the executive director of the International Order of T. Roosevelt (IOTR) told Fox News Digital would cause millions of acres of previously open public hunting land to become much less accessible.
The rule plans to require hunters to use copper, non-lead based bullets as a stipulation for
access and hunting privileges, which is not cost prohibitive because copper bullets are also not readily available at most sporting goods shops, according to Hilgemann.
“All this is going to do is just set up another barrier to the outdoors for America’s hunters, who are depending more on that wild game to feed their families and to bring back to their
neighborhoods and friends,” he said. “We just see it as just a totally restrictive, useless ban on our hunting privileges and rights that have been passed on for generations here in America.”
IOTR plays an active role in trying to protect and defend the outdoor traditions he argued are under attack in America, including hunting and fishing, as well as the 75% of the conservation efforts which are accomplished by hunters, anglers and trappers, according to Hilgemann. As a result of the restrictions, he said 2 million hunters have walked away from the sport in the last five years alone.
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“This is politics at its worst, right? This isn’t based in science, as we’ve been saying,” Hilgemann said. “There has been no conclusive study that has shown that lead bullets are having a detriment in our wild game populations.”
“We as hunters, most of us who take to the woods and waterways, we consume the animals that we either harvest or catch and we’re not going to put something in our body that could potentially harm us,” he added.
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IOTR’s is working to broaden access to public hunting lands by enacting a constitutional right to hunt and fish in all 50 states, which 23 states currently already have written into their state
constitutions.
“We see hunting and fishing and conservation in America as as as a uniting issue,” Hilgemann said. “People want to get to the outdoors to experience God’s creation and see these wonderful public lands and we really believe that the best way to protect them and set up a firewall against some of the efforts that are being pushed, like in states like Oregon, where they’re considering potentially criminalizing hunting and fishing, that a state constitutional right to hunt and fish can be that protection.”
