Biden administration rules are ‘not friendly’ to recreation or energy development: Experts
Experts say that new rules from the federal government will impede access to public lands and negatively impact hunters and fishermen.
The Biden administration has repeatedly prioritized policies critics argue are politicized environmental efforts which will make conservation and recreational activities on public lands more difficult.
Rules coming down from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could make land unavailable for hunting, fishing and even hiking, outdoorsmen argue.
"It really seems to show to me the lack of consideration and thought that is being put in from bureaucrats from D.C. making decisions about how public lands, in the West predominantly, are being managed," Sarah Montalbano, an education policy analyst at the Alaska Policy Forum told Fox News Digital. "It's not getting a lot of input from people who are actually close to these situations."
Montalbano, who is also a visiting fellow at Independent Women's Forum (IWF), told Fox News Digital that, in general, the rules coming out of the Biden administration are not friendly toward recreation or energy development.
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Experts argue the new rules coming out of BLM and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will only make it more difficult to access and utilize public lands for their intended purpose. (Photo by Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Gabriella Hoffman, a senior fellow at the Independent Women's Forum's Center for Energy and Conservation, said the U.S. government is trying to redefine conservationism through its newly proposed Public Lands Rule, resulting in decreased access to public lands.
"When you see that they're trying to remake conservation into something else, is it really conservation or is it an alternative kind of view, environmentalism, which is preservationist, which is more restricted [and] really doesn't welcome people on the landscape and can be exploited."
Hoffman describes herself as an avid angler and hunter, which makes her familiar with conservation issues.
This "is very much against what public lands are for, it's supposed to be accessible to all, especially for not only commercial uses if you're living by the land or close to land or off the land, but also to recreational access," she said.
"This rule, to me, sticks out as something that is kind of presenting mixed messages," she added. "It's largely stemming away from what true conservation is and the conservation lease component to me could be exploited by preservation and environmental groups to heavily outbid smaller individuals, smaller groups because they're very powerful, they have millions, billions of dollars that they can use."
Hoffman said this betrays the mission of the BLM and detracts from their true intent to protect natural resources and promote multiple use of lands.
"It's disappointing that this is the direction that the area that the Interior Department is going in," she said. "They're not instilling confidence in people, especially out West and so, there's going to be a lot of distrust between Western states and Western stakeholders and the federal government, and that is not something they want to have."
Kerrie Cox Romero, the Executive Director of the New Mexico Council of Outfitters and Guides, (NMCOG) said conservation is already a cornerstone of the hunting and fishing industry to ensure healthy wildlife, ecosystems and watersheds." She explained the history of outfitting as a profession that "goes back to basically the dawn of time" which "helped to facilitate the discovery of America."
"Outfitting is one of the oldest professions you can be in and it is extremely responsible way for tourism to take place on public lands," she added. "Any kind of recreation, you're talking hunting and fishing … whitewater rafting, hiking, mountain biking, the outfitting industry is subject to laws that basically mandate we operate at a more responsible level than the general public."
"It really is the most responsible way for a creator to access public land and to completely eliminate that on conservation lease lands under this new rule is is is backwards, in my opinion," she added.
But Romero said the BLM's new rule could jeopardize the outfitting industry in the West, and actually harm their ability to do conservation work.
When the language of BLM's Conservation and Landscape Health rule came out, Romero said their minds were completely changed once they discovered that, if implemented, the rule would "completely eliminate the outfitting industry" by only allowing for short term noncommercial use of outfitters and guides.
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"It doesn't matter what kind of recreational activity that you are operating on the BLM, if it is outfitted, it is considered commercial," she said. "Any time there is a commercial or a conservation lease implemented under this new rule, it will completely eliminate outfitting from those leased lands, essentially preventing public access, because really what outfitters do is facilitate responsible recreational access to public lands."
Instead of promoting conservationism, the BLM rule will instead prioritize environmentalism and preservationism, Romero explained. (iStock)
As an industry, Romero said hunters, anglers and outfitters are in favor of conservation, "but that's not what this rule does," echoing Hoffman's sentiment that it will incentivize environmentalist organizations that are "fundamentally anti-hunting … to enter into these conservation leases with the intention of preventing access under the guise of restoration or conservation."
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In another move that critics argue would limit hunters' access to public lands, the U.S. Fish and Wildilfe Service is moving forward with its plans to phase out lead bullets on eight major public hunting grounds across the country by September 2026, which Luke Hilgemann, the executive director of the International Order of T. Roosevelt (IOTR) told Fox News Digital would cause millions of acres of previously open public hunting land to become much less accessible.
The rule plans to require hunters to use copper, non-lead based bullets as a stipulation for access and hunting privileges, which is not cost prohibitive because copper bullets are also not readily available at most sporting goods shops, according to Hilgemann.
"All this is going to do is just set up another barrier to the outdoors for America's hunters, who are depending more on that wild game to feed their families and to bring back to their neighborhoods and friends," he said. "We just see it as just a totally restrictive, useless ban on our hunting privileges and rights that have been passed on for generations here in America."
IOTR plays an active role in trying to protect and defend the outdoor traditions he argued are under attack in America, including hunting and fishing, as well as the 75% of the conservation efforts which are accomplished by hunters, anglers and trappers, according to Hilgemann. As a result of the restrictions, he said 2 million hunters have walked away from the sport in the last five years alone.
Hilgemann explained that many hunters and fishers consume the animals and fish they harvest or catch. (iStock)
Hilgemann said the "misguided policy" driven by "anti-hunting rhetoric that has no basis in science" will simply increase the costs of hunting on public lands that were previously open to millions of Americans.
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"This is politics at its worst, right? This isn't based in science, as we've been saying," Hilgemann said. "There has been no conclusive study that has shown that lead bullets are having a detriment in our wild game populations."
"We as hunters, most of us who take to the woods and waterways, we consume the animals that we either harvest or catch and we're not going to put something in our body that could potentially harm us," he added.
Hilgemann said the ruling is "another encroachment on foundational freedoms that have been passed on in America for generations."
"This is, we believe, a maneuver by the Biden administration to end hunting practices in America as a way to make people more dependent on the government for their food," he added.
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IOTR's is working to broaden access to public hunting lands by enacting a constitutional right to hunt and fish in all 50 states, which 23 states currently already have written into their state constitutions.
"We see hunting and fishing and conservation in America as as as a uniting issue," Hilgemann said. "People want to get to the outdoors to experience God's creation and see these wonderful public lands and we really believe that the best way to protect them and set up a firewall against some of the efforts that are being pushed, like in states like Oregon, where they're considering potentially criminalizing hunting and fishing, that a state constitutional right to hunt and fish can be that protection."
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