heh heh heh
Posted on 08/30/2004 3:27:37 PM PDT by Reagan Man
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration said Monday it will give people who hunt and fish new access to hundreds of thousands of acres of lands and streams within 17 national wildlife refuges and wetlands.
The decision as the Republican National Convention was opening in New York was announced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Asked if it might help President Bush's re-election efforts, the agency's director, Steve Williams said, "This is just another example of the president's commitment to sportsmen."
"By law, Congress directed the service to consider and provide opportunities for hunting and fishing where it's compatible on the refuges. We take that quite seriously," Williams added.
Both Bush and Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry have cast themselves as sportsmen in campaigning for votes among hunters and conservationists. Groups that promote hunting and fishing rights or habitat for fish and game - such as the Boone and Crockett Club, Ducks Unlimited and the National Rifle Association - claim millions of members.
Hunting and fishing, along with observing and photographing wildlife, have long been allowed in the 95-million-acre refuge system. That includes 544 national wildlife refuges and thousands of small wetlands and other specially managed areas.
Currently, more than 300 wildlife refuges and about 3,000 small wetlands are open to hunting, and more than 260 wildlife refuges are open to fishing.
Monday's decision opens another 243,500 acres as of Sept. 1, wildlife officials said.
Federal officials opened to hunting and fishing four more national wildlife refuges: Mountain Long Leaf in Alabama, 3,300 acres; Cypress Creek in Illinois, 100 acres; Red River in Louisiana, 2,700 acres, and Waccamaw in South Carolina, 10,500 acres.
Also opened were six more wetlands management districts: Devils Lake in North Dakota, 56,000 acres; and in South Dakota: Huron, 11,000 acres; Lake Andrews, 20,000 acres; Madison, 38,500 acres; Sand Lake, 45,000 acres, and Waubay, 4,400 acres.
Seven refuges where officials added to the land and marshes available for hunting are Savannah in Georgia and South Carolina, 2,000 acres; Big Oaks in Indiana, 10,000 acres; Big Branch Marsh in Louisiana, 6,000 acres; Crescent Lake in Nebraska, 5,000 acres; Cross Creek and Tennessee in Tennessee, 24,000 acres, and Trinity in Texas, 5,000 acres.
Officials said the agency was not adding money to the budget to help with managing the additional activity in the newly opened areas.
Amazing...and all along I thought Bush just wanted to turn America into one big oil field...
Excellent!!
WE EAT TONIGHT!
I can't wait for kerry, the sportsman, to say something against this.
ping
I wanna see him hunting while crawling on his belly. Even that little "tale" had a Vietnam connotation.
Allowing Americans to enjoy the land they pay for is the right thing to do...the environmentalists are going to scream bloody h*** - however,the other way to look at this, with our use of the lands heretofore closed to us by others, will keep the forests less likely to house felons growing Marijuana and terrorists from using roadless, hard to reach places for their work...and other nations from telling us what to do with America's land, like the United Nations.............Good move GW!
looks like meat's back on the menu boys...
Those dirty rotten SOB's. This administration has just gone over the top. This is utterly ridiculous. Those sportsmen don't need that land. He has just got to go. :) HA! Denote heavy sarcasm.
BTTT YEAAAAHHHH!
I question the 'timing'. :)
Yep. Isn't it amazing.
They've thrown hunters a bone.
BTTT!!!!!!!
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