There are over 9,000 Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) across the United States. These lands provide places for wildlife to thrive, ecosystems to function, and people to connect with the outdoors.
Iowa Department of Natural Resources fish biologist Jonathan Meerbeek recently released the findings of a multiyear research project that should enthuse muskie anglers in Iowa and beyond. His work stands to make muskie conservation more efficient and the fishing better anywhere state fish and wildlife agencies rely on supplemental stocking from hatcheries.
Barton Evermann was among the most accomplished American fisheries scientists. He was born in 1853, came of age in central Indiana, enrolled in ichthyology in 1881 at Indiana University and studied under Professor David Starr Jordan.
Hunting regulations informed by science, created under the aegis of the firearms and archery industries through the reliable and steady funding under Pittman-Robertson, are responsible for the unparalleled restoration of birds and mammals in America from a nadir a century ago.
For outdoor enthusiasts, wetlands are more than just places on a map. They are where outdoor skills are sharpened, traditions are carried on, and the connection between people and resources are strengthened season after season.
Beyond gestures, real or perceived, this is fact: hunters commonly share the bounty of the harvest; it’s a custom—a common courtesy, common etiquette.
Idaho Fish and Game, in an act of both conservation and ecological insurance, is relocating fisher into the forests of the Coeur d’Alene Mountains. With the support of Pittman-Robertson funds biologists hope to boost the state’s fisher population.
There’s a quality in the quantity of brook trout populations on the rise, thanks to Sport Fish Restoration.
The leading-edge conservation work was an intersection science, technology, know-how, and reliable Pittman-Robertson funding—the federal excise taxes paid by the manufacturers of firearms, ammunition, and archery gear.
In California’s Central Valley, along the Merced River, the low rumble of bulldozers signals renewal. Crews are returning clean, sorted gravel to the riverbed, rebuilding spawning habitat that salmon and steelhead have relied on for thousands of years.
Once a familiar sight across America’s waterways, river otters dwindled across much of their native range by the mid-20th century. Today, cleaner waterways, conservation professionals supported by Pittman-Robertson funds, and an evolving understanding of resource management has allowed river otters to reclaim their place in ecosystems.
Cutthroat trout are the only trout native to Utah, but not that long ago the state’s iconic cutthroats were in jeopardy of disappearing. Thanks to conservation measures supported in part by Sport Fish Restoration funds, Utah’s four cutthroat subspecies have made a remarkable comeback.
