Summary: Interior Secretary Doug Burgum signed Secretarial Order 3455 to restore active wildlife habitat management and cut bureaucratic red tape. The directive prioritizes hunting and fishing across the National Wildlife Refuge System.
Nearly three decades ago, the Sportsmen’s Alliance led the charge on Capitol Hill to defeat radical anti-hunting campaigns and pass the landmark National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997. That historic statute cemented a non-negotiable truth into federal law: compatible wildlife-dependent recreation, specifically hunting and fishing, is a legitimate, priority public use of our National Wildlife Refuge System.
Last week, Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum signed Secretarial Order 3455, “Making America’s National Wildlife Refuges Great Again.”
“It is a long-overdue directive to restore the Refuge System to the statutory mission we fought to establish in 1997,” said Sportsmen’s Alliance Director of Legislative Services Naomi Farmer. “The Sportsmen’s Alliance applauds this decisive action and stands ready to work alongside the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to turn this order into lasting, on-the-ground results for wildlife and America’s sportsmen and women.”
A Legacy Built and Defended by Sportsmen
Since President Theodore Roosevelt established Pelican Island in 1903, sportsmen have helped build and expand the National Wildlife Refuge System. Hunters and anglers have invested more than $1.2 billion into refuge habitat through the purchase of Federal Duck Stamps alone. In the early 1990s, animal-rights extremists used lawsuits to lock sportsmen out of federal refuges. At that critical moment, the Sportsmen’s Alliance (then the Wildlife Legislative Fund of America) went on the offensive. Working with bipartisan champions in Congress, we helped write and enact the 1997 Improvement Act. That law guarantees that hunting and fishing receive priority consideration across refuge units nationwide.
Our team has defended that law ever since. When anti-hunting groups filed lawsuits to shut down refuge hunts, we intervened in federal court. Whenever federal agencies pushed arbitrary gear bans or access restrictions, we fought back. Those efforts ensured USFWS dollars went toward actual wildlife biology instead of paperwork.
Why Secretarial Order 3455 Matters
Over the years, bureaucracy and shifting politics have pulled USFWS away from the 1997 mandate. Secretarial Order 3455 requires the Department to carry out seven core directives:
- Restore Mission-Focused Management: Every policy, program, and dollar spent must advance the statutory mission of the Refuge System. Management must also honor the specific purpose of each individual refuge.
- Put Refuge Management Back in the Field: The order directs staff and resources to local refuge operations and strips away administrative layers. It also requires coordination with the U.S. Wildland Fire Service so field expertise drives prescribed fire planning.
- Restore Active Habitat Management: Refuge managers gain access to the full range of land and wildlife tools to protect sensitive species. These tools include forest management, prescribed fire, grazing, cropland management, water control,invasive species removal, and predator management.
- Expand Hunting, Fishing, and Public Access: The directive prioritizes hunting, fishing, and other compatible wildlife-dependent recreation. It also uses refuges as a teaching platform so future generations understand conservation and our outdoor calling.
- Align Resources with the Mission: The agency must move personnel, funding, maintenance, and infrastructure dollars out of administrative overhead. Those resources will go straight into on-the-ground conservation.
- Strengthen State and Local Partnerships: USFWS will work directly with state fish and wildlife agencies, governors,tribes, landowners, ranchers, farmers, and sportsmen. This coordination aligns refuge management with the people and agencies on the ground.
- Stop Stalling on Permits and Compatibility Determinations: USFWS must act promptly on compatibility determinations, grazing permits, and easements. The order sets a 180-day completion goal once an application arrives so land management and access do not stall on a desk.
Ready to Move the Order Forward
Issuing a Secretarial Order is a critical first step, but implementation determines the outcome. As USFWS drafts its implementation plan and overhauls agency policies, anti-hunting organizations will undoubtedly mobilize. Those groups will resist active habitat management and expanded sporting access at every turn.
The Sportsmen’s Alliance helped build the modern statutory framework for the National Wildlife Refuge System in 1997. Our organization has defended that framework in Congress and the courts ever since. Today, we are ready to bring our legislative, legal, and grassroots strength to the table to assist Interior and USFWS. Together, we will execute Secretarial Order 3455 and keep our refuges actively managed, biologically thriving, and open to the sportsmen and women who built them.
The Sportsmen’s Alliance guarantees hunting, fishing, and trapping for the American sportsman now and forever. We’re there when sportsmen need us most. We are the only organization specifically created to protect the individual hunter, angler, and trapper – no matter the threat. We will never compromise when it comes to defending our way of life in the courts, in the legislatures, in the public square, and at the ballot box. We make this promise to the American sportsman: we will never give up and never give in while proudly securing our future against those seeking to destroy our values, beliefs, and traditions.
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