To the Editor:

In the early 1900s, sporting organizations and state wildlife agencies, concerned with declining wildlife populations in the United States due to years of market hunting enacted the Federal Aid And Wildlife Restoration Act. This act, better known as the Pittman-Roberson Act, provides funds for wildlife restoration. Laws were also enacted banning market hunting and setting seasons and bag limits, thus creating our modern day wildlife management plans. With no grocery store on every corner and no factory farms, the masses, just like today, had to be fed.

The P-R Act generates funds through an 11 percent excise tax on long guns, ammunition, and archery equipment and a 10 percent excise tax on handguns. The revenue from this tax goes into the Wildlife Restoration Account administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). Funds are then apportioned annually to state wildlife agencies. The money is used for the restoration and improvement of wildlife habitat, and wildlife management research. The act was amended in 1970 to include funding for hunter education programs making hunting one of the safest outdoor activities.

 According to public records, since 1939 the Wildlife Restoration Account has generated over $10 billion which has funded the purchase of approximately 4 million acres of land to support wildlife with another 40 million acres being managed for wildlife under agreements with land owners. 

Funds from the P-R Act, along with a similar tax on fishing equipment, fees from the sale of licenses and permits, help from private organizations such as National Wild Turkey Federation, Ruffed Grouse Society, and Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation to name just a few, have paved the way for the abundance of wildlife on the additional millions of acres they have helped preserve.  

Currently, funds are being used in our national forests in WNC for road maintenance, wildlife openings and food plots. With less than one percent of our national forests in early successional habitat, and with declining populations of ruffed grouse, deer and song birds that depend on this type of habitat, this is much-needed funding. As a proud outdoor sportsman, I am glad to help fund this worthy cause.

Mark B. Rogers

Canton