President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order on July 3 establishing the “Make America Beautiful Again” Commission. It prioritizes expansion of public land access for hunting and encourages wildlife conservation efforts through proactive, voluntary, on-the-ground collaborative efforts.
The Executive Order’s mandates include, “providing to the President actionable recommendations for improving conservation efforts,” and “developing policies to expand access to public lands, national parks, national forests, and wildlife refuges while promoting a wide range of outdoor recreation opportunities like hunting, fishing, hiking, biking, skiing, climbing, boating, off-roading, and wildlife viewing.”
The commission will be chaired by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum. Its focus will be conserving America’s national treasures and natural resources, facilitating interagency coordination on conservation efforts and developing recommendations to improve conservation efforts and policies to recover fish and wildlife populations through collaborative efforts that include state wildlife agencies.
“President Trump’s Executive Order is a significant step toward ensuring public lands continue to be places where the public can safely practice and pass along the traditions of hunting and recreational target shooting,” said Joseph Bartozzi, National Shooting Sports Foundation president and CEO. “Equally important is the commitment to sustainable wildlife conservation. Thriving wildlife across America is successful only through the investments by hunter-conservationists and firearm and ammunition manufacturers that pay the overwhelming share of excise tax dollars to fund this vital effort. America’s successful wildlife conservation is the envy of the world. Conservation-minded policies keep us connected to the lands and the wildlife we enjoy.”
Key to these efforts will be developing policies that will expand access to public lands, national parks, national forests and wildlife refuges to promote outdoor recreational activities, including hunting. The Executive Order noted that hunters, hikers, anglers and outdoorsmen and women have been stripped of their ability to access public lands through mismanagement of public land resources, regulatory overreach and neglect of routine maintenance. It also recognized that bureaucratic restrictions have undermined outdoor traditions and threatened conservation funding.
The Executive order follows Secretary Burgum’s Secretarial Order to begin implementing key provisions of the Expanding Public Lands Outdoor Recreation Experiences Act, which was signed into law last year.
