Background
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, animal-rights lawyers brought repeated lawsuits to shut down hunting on units of the National Wildlife Refuge System. Sportsmen’s Alliance was part of the legal defense teams that thwarted these suits. However, we determined in 1995 to stop playing defense and asked Congress to amend the law to specify that hunting on refuges was completely legitimate and to make hunting (and fishing) “priority public uses” on over 100 million acres of public refuge lands. We also asked that FWS be required to “facilitate” hunting and fishing on these lands when it was found that hunting and fishing would be “compatible” with wildlife conservation. For the next three years, we worked closely with Congressional leadership to craft the 1997 National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act, which did precisely what we sought.
Impact to Hunters
Even in defeat, HSUS cooked up a new scheme to attack hunting on refuges. They filed new a lawsuit claiming that FWS was obligated to prepare lengthy, expensive, time consuming “environmental impact statements” for each refuge to be opened to hunting ( even though the new law stipulated that regular refuge management plans were sufficient to provide for hunting; HSUS pressed to have the courts rewrite the law so that hunting would not be allowed until refuge plans and environmental impact statements were completed on hundreds of refuge units).
Verdict
Sportsmen’s Alliance took the lead with Safari Club International (SCI) and the National Rifle Association (NRA) in intervening in this litigation to ensure that the courts recognized that HSUS was trying to undermine the 1997 Refuge Act. In a long, hard fought case, we prevailed, and hunting continues on millions of acres of refuge lands protected by the 1997 Refuge Act and the precedent set by this case.
Help Us Fight for You
Your tax-deductible donation to the Sportsmen’s Legal Defense Fund directly supports our legal fights in courtrooms nationwide. The Sportsmen’s Legal Defense Fund was established to represent sportsmen in lawsuits that affect your ability to hunt, fish, trap and own firearms. Its funding ensures the sportsman’s voice is heard above the rhetoric of anti-hunting groups.
Join the fight for your hunting and fishing future by donating to the Sportsmen’s Legal Defense Fund today!
