Bill would hurt wildlife conservation permanently

Wildlife Mississippi has expressed its staunch opposition to a bill, that if passed, would cripple wildlife conservation permanently not only in Mississippi, but throughout the United States. It would destroy the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation.

H.R. 8167, the so-called Return Our Constitutional Rights Act of 2022, will eliminate the 85-year-old Pittman-robertson Act (coauthored by the late U.S. Senator Key Pittman, who was born in Vicksburg), a program that helped save white-tailed deer, wood ducks, wild turkey, and other wildlife from near extinction to huntable populations, and continues expanding their populations today. The bill disguises this senseless result by claiming to defend our Second Amendment rights.

Sportsmen – there are more than 780,000 sportsmen and women in Mississippi and eight in 10 of them state that a candidate's position on sporting issues is important in who they vote for – are the best promoters of our Second Amendment rights. This is an unbelievably confused bill, yet many members of the

U.S. House of Representatives are supporting it. If passed, this bill will destroy the nation's most powerful wildlife conservation funding program in the name of the Second Amendment, contrary to the wishes of the Second Amendment's strongest supporters. Our ethical exercise of these rights is inseparable from the wildlife conservation programs this bill will eliminate.

The Pittman-robertson Act redirects a user-supported federal excise tax on firearms, pistols, ammunition, and archery equipment to state wildlife managers. This is the nation's most successful wildlife conservation funding program and it is the envy of the world. The bill would essentially “gut” funding for the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks. It would change the funding mechanism to an already unpopular tax on oil and gas leases from public lands and waters, even for non-coastal states. Furthermore, game conservation programs, such as those for deer and turkey, would no longer be funded; funding would be shifted to nongame programs.

Pittman-robertson has generated over $15 billion – $116 million to Mississippi alone – to conserve wildlife, enhance public recreational shooting opportunities, acquire state wildlife management areas for hunting, fund hunter education programs, provide technical assistance to private landowners, and recruit America's next generation of hunter-conservationists. In 2021 alone, over $1.1 billion was raised and distributed for on-theground funding for state wildlife agencies.

Without the funding, advocacy, and input from sportsmen, wild places and wild things would not exist in the health and abundance they do today that all Mississippians, and all Americans, enjoy. This bill has recommitted hunter-conservationists to explaining and reminding elected officials of this fact and what makes wildlife and habitat conservation work not only in our state, but throughout our great Nation.

James L. Cummins is executive director of Wildlife Mississippi, a non-profit, conservation organization founded to conserve, restore, and enhance fish, wildlife, and plant resources throughout Mississippi. Their website is www.wildlifemiss.org.