Conservation News

In the wake of mounting pressure from both colleagues in Congress and hunters and anglers, Senator Mike Lee announced this evening that he has removed his public land sale provision from the "one, big, beautiful budget bill." "Over the past several weeks, I've spent a lot of time listening to...

An Idaho man allegedly at the center of a black market scheme to buy and sell big game tags was sentenced this week, but some Gem State hunters are skeptical that the punishment fits the crime. Karl Studer had been charged with seven felonies and over a dozen misdemeanors for harassing wildlife with...

Just hours after the Senate parliamentarian shot down the first version of Utah Senator Mike Lee's public land sale bill, Lee submitted a revised edition he hopes will be more amenable to public land advocates and his fellow senators. But it still mandates the sale of hundreds of thousands...

A Wisconsin man tried to pull a fast one by passing off the rack of a game farm deer as a fair chase buck—and got his just desserts. According to reporting by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 62-year-old Richard Waters admitted to lying about killing a potential state record nontypical whitetail...

Since the first grey wolves were reintroduced to Colorado in 2023, Colorado Parks & Wildlife (CPW) knew they had a headache on their hands. Just how immense the migraine was, however, surpassed their expectations—and continues to do so. At commission meetings, members regularly spend an outsized...

Update (6:40am MT 6/24/25): In the wake of reports that the Senate parliamentarian had struck Sen. Mike Lee's public land sales from the budget reconciliation bill, the senator posted on X that he plans to amend his proposal. The details of these changes remain unclear, and we don't know whether...

Connecticut legislators recently moved to expand hunting opportunities in the state but limited their action to private lands and certain types of game. On June 16, the Connecticut General Assembly passed Public Act 25-138, which repealed parts of a “blue law” from the state’s Protestant history...

Every year in the United States, taxes on sporting goods sales generate around $1.5 billion for conservation initiatives via the Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson acts. Together, these bills levy a 10% tax on most fishing equipment and an 11% tax on firearms, ammunition, and archery gear (see...

Editor's Note: Since this article was first published, the Senate has amended the original version of this legislation to allow to sale of federal lands under grazing permits. That changed added over 130 million acres to the original total. So, the original estimation we published was 120 million...

Wildfire, workforce reductions, and the timber economy dominated USDA undersecretary nominee and Clearwater Analytics co-founder Michael Boren’s nomination hearing in the Senate Ag committee on June 3. But beyond the hearing room, conversations swirled about the Idaho businessman’s confrontational...

A dispute between two California anglers resulted in a fatality earlier this week. According to a press release from the Monterey County Sheriff's Office, witnesses notified officials of an altercation between two fishermen—Joshua Timothy Holtzclaw and Trenten Paul Black—on the morning of June 11 in...

Oklahoma has seen an increase in mountain lion sightings in recent years. Now, photos have led the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (ODFW) to confirm the “first instances of possible reproduction of mountain lions within the state” in the agency’s history. According to a press release...