From our friends at Backcountry Hunters & Anglers:
“National fishing and hunting groups today expressed concern about an administration decision to review recent use of the Antiquities Act to conserve public lands and waters, warning that efforts to reduce in size or otherwise diminish U.S. national monuments could harm fish and wildlife, reduce hunting and angling opportunities and negatively impact cherished American landscapes. The Trump administration’s executive order directs the Interior Department to study dozens of national monuments covering tens of millions of acres that have been designated since 1996 and gauge whether their size, boundaries and scope conform to parameters established in the Antiquities Act.
Signed into law by Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, the Antiquities Act has been used by 16 presidents – eight Republicans and eight Democrats – to safeguard millions of acres of exceptional public lands and waters, including outstanding fish and wildlife habitat that provides some of the best hunting and fishing in the nation.”
Read the full press release here.
AFTTA President Ben Bulis weighed in, during a busy week working in our nation’s capital:
“The actions taken today by the administration are a thinly veiled attack on fish and wildlife cloaked under the guise of a review of the Antiquities Act,” said Ben Bulis, president of the American Fly Fishing Trade Association. “The Antiquities Act has been used by Republican and Democratic presidents to protect some of our nation’s most cherished landscapes. Our concern is a review will only lead to reduced protections of these national treasures.”