Tell Your Governor to Keep Hunting Seasons Open During COVID-19
During the difficult and uncertain times brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, sportsmen and women need hunting now more than ever.
Hunting is critical to the state’s financial infrastructure and fund the vast majority of conservation efforts in the state through the sale of hunting licenses, tags and permits, as well as excise taxes placed on firearms, ammunition and other hunting-related equipment.
In addition to crucial economic role hunters play, hunting is engrained in the very culture of our society. Hunting, particularly during this pandemic, offers sportsmen and women the ability to enjoy the tangible physical and mental benefits that come with being outdoors.
Sportsmen and women are able to provide themselves, along with their friends and family, organic, free range, ethically sourced wild game during a time when some fear even going to the grocery store.
While some states have assured hunters that seasons will go unchanged, some are slowly starting to cancel certain seasons and hunts.
Urge your Governor to keep hunting seasons open by offering these three suggestions:
-Work with your state fish and wildlife agency or department of natural resources, as well as the hunting community, to ensure that hunting seasons are uninterrupted and administered in a safe and responsible manner.
-Allow public access sites for hunting opportunities to remain open to the best extent possible—sportsmen and women help fund the acquisition and maintenance of public lands and now, more than ever, need access to them.
-Classify hunting and firearms-dependent businesses as “essential businesses,” allowing them to remain open under safe operating procedures and social distancing guidelines.
These businesses are necessary for hunting seasons to continue, and they also contribute financially to wildlife conservation efforts by selling hunting licenses, tags and sporting equipment with excise taxes.
Click here to access SCI’s Hunters Advocacy Action Center today!
