Earlier this year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) entered into settlement negotiations with activist organizations over a lawsuit regarding the use of traditional ammunition and tackle on over three million acres of federal land. Wicker and Hyde-Smith in May urged the FWS not to cave in to activists’ calls to restrict the use of lead ammo and tackle on public lands earlier this year. Over 800,000 Mississippians hunt and fish each year.
U.S. Senator Steve Daines (R-Montana) introduced Senate Bill 4940 after the FWS published a rule that, while expanding access to hunting and fishing at certain wildlife refuges, prohibited the use of lead ammunition and fishing tackle.
Mississippi’s two U.S. Senators, Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith, last week joined 21 Senators to advance legislation to prohibit the FWS from banning the use of traditional lead ammunition or tackle on public lands. Their hard work and leadership on this issue is very much appreciated.
The Protecting Access for Hunters and Anglers Act of 2022 (Senate Bill 4940) would stop the FWS, U.S. Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management from imposing such bans unless such an action is supported by science and state wildlife and fisheries agencies, like the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks.
Wildlife Mississippi is among the groups supporting the Senate bill, along with the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, American Sportfishing Association, National Shooting Sports Foundation, National Deer Association, and others.
This legislation that Senators Hyde-Smith and Wicker have co-sponsored is grounded in science, a key to managing fish and wildlife, it enables hunting and angling to continue to thrive, and takes into account the needs of ordinary people from my state of Mississippi to Montana.
“Mississippi’s sportsmen are some of our state’s strongest advocates for conservation, but recent moves threaten to limit their ability to hunt and fish on federal lands,” Wicker said. “Moving forward with a ban on traditional ammunition and tackle is not supported by science or good sense, and I am glad to join many of my colleagues to fight to preserve the rights of hunters and anglers across our country.”
“Attempts to ban traditional ammunition and fishing tackle was a bad idea in the Obama years and later in the Green New Deal. It remains a flawed and scientifically unjustified notion under the administration,” Hyde-Smith said. “Hunting and fishing is a way of life for many Mississippians and an economic staple in our state and across the country. Renewed efforts to ban traditional ammo must be stopped, which is what this bill will do.”
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 web site is www.wildlifemiss.org.
