White House Budget Strongly Condemned by Public Lands Sportsmen

By Ammoland Editor Joe Evans

WASHINGTON -(Ammoland.com)- Public lands fish and wildlife habitat, public access funding, and hunting and angling opportunities will face severe negative impacts in the administration’s fiscal 2018 budget, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers announced today.

Key resource agency funding is slashed, important staff positions are eliminated and programs important to public lands and sportsmen are cut in the budget, a draft version of which was released in March.

Notable measure include an 11 percent overall reduction in the Interior Department, an 84 percent cut to the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and complete elimination of funding for a decade-plus collaborative effort to conserve the Western sagebrush steppe.

BHA President and CEO Land Tawney called the cuts “unprecedented” in both nature and scope.

“The administration’s budget starves our public lands of critical funding,” said Tawney. “The cuts they would levy on our natural resource agencies, resource professionals and key programs are unprecedented and far-reaching in scope: Not only would they profoundly diminish our lands and waters, fish and wildlife habitat, and outdoor opportunities; they also would hobble America’s potent outdoors economy – currently $887 billion strong, sustainable and growing.

“On his first day at Interior, Secretary Zinke …Read the Rest

Source:: AmmoLand