OUTDOOR HERITAGE
Fighting for your outdoor lifestyle...
Anti-hunting interests have become increasingly well-organized and well-funded, and regularly work to whittle away our rights and privileges as sportsmen and women through a barrage of efforts to inhibit our hunting and fishing opportunities.
CSF fights against these attacks wherever they are offered and, with your support, will continue to combat anti-sportsmen policies including proposed legislation, regulations, and ballot initiatives.
Trapping
Trapping is an essential wildlife management tool used by state and federal managers and sportsmen and women throughout the nation. It is also one of the most targeted aspects of our sporting traditions by the antis. CSF has worked to defeat hundreds of anti-trapping bills at the state level, and in 2019 blocked over 40 of them. Additionally, CSF has successfully defeated anti-trapping legislation at the federal level, including several bills that would ban trapping on all National Wildlife Refuges.
Firearms
Firearms and ammunition are essential tools for sportsmen
and women throughout the nation and provide a critical source
of funding for state fish and wildlife agencies. However, each
year hundreds of misguided proposals are introduced at the
state and federal levels to restrict firearm ownership and use
throughout the nation. CSF has worked to defeat these efforts
wherever possible including bans on modern sporting rifle, microstamping, standard capacity magazine bans, and more.
Hunting Bans / Closures
Anti-hunting interests and organizations continually attempt
to restrict hunting through closing specific areas, eliminating
seasons for certain species, and more. CSF fights these proposals wherever they are offered, and has successfully defeated closures in many states across the nation in recent years.
Lead Tackle and Ammunition Bans
CSF has worked in states across the nation to block proposed bans on the use of lead fishing tackle and ammunition fishing and hunting.
Additionally, CSF worked at the federal level to clarify in statute that the Environmental Protection Act does not have the authority to regulate lead ammunition or its components under the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 and is actively working to extend the same protections to fishing tackle.
Protection Against Antis
CSF has worked to drive constitutional amendments to the ballot box in states across the nation to protect the right to hunt and fish. Presently, 22 states have added the right to hunt and fish to their constitutions, and two states have adopted the right to fish. Additionally, CSF has worked to block anti-sportsmen ballot initiatives by clarifying state fish and wildlife management authority in statute and eliminating the potential for fish and wildlife management decisions to be made at the ballot box.
Trophy Importation and Ivory Bans
Revenue generated by licensed, regulated safari hunting is the
single most important source of funding for conservation and
anti-poaching efforts in Africa. In many Southern and Eastern
African countries, revenues generated from licensed, regulated
hunting are the primary source of management, conservation, and anti-poaching funds for national wildlife authorities. The harvest of Cecil the Lion was used by animal rights groups opposed to hunting to draw negative national attention to so-called “trophy hunting,” and has resulted in legislative measures that seek to restrict hunters’ abilities to import "Big 5" species and ivory from successful hunts. CSF has played a pivotal role in defeating or favorably amending over 50 such bills in recent years.