Marshall: Area Never Should Have Been OK’d for Development
Herring: Purchase Sets Precedent for What Amounts to Ransom

The decade-long fight over the Roadless Rule may finally be over--and it looks like sportsmen won.

That was the consensus among sportsmen's conservation groups after the U.S. Supreme Court Monday decided not to hear an appeal of a lower court decision that upheld the rule, which limits road building and timber harvesting on about 45 million acres of undeveloped Forest Service lands, most of which are in the West.

The state of Wyoming and the Colorado Mining Association claimed the Roadless Area Conservation Rule illegally hampered development on multi-use lands, while other petitioners said it created de-facto wilderness areas, a power the 1964 Wilderness Act gives only to Congress.

By now, most sportsmen with an internet connection know the results of some interesting recent polls: there are more people hunting and fishing in the U.S. than there were several years ago, most of those people want more environmental protections for the lands and waters where they fish and hunt, and the majority of those hunters and fishers identify themselves as conservative.

Even if it means putting up with some new people on our favorite creek, or running into a couple of orange-clad newbies in our elk country, the increase in hunters and fisher numbers is a positive for all of us. First it means more revenue for our state fish and game departments, many of which have been pretty well starved in recent years. That revenue translates into good biologists for better wildlife management, better law enforcement to keep fish and wildlife populations from getting hammered at a time when grocery store prices are at record highs, and commercial poaching operations are on the rise. The revenue can translate into habitat purchases, more and better public access, partnerships with private landowners to do everything from restoring wetlands to reducing the negative impacts of farming and logging, to creating blockbuster habitat for wildlife from bobwhites to whitetails.

Journalists often are stumped for the right words to explain amazing news that comes across their desk. But this time the simple words announcing the news were amazing enough:

"A wealthy hedge fund manager has set a record, donating 170,000 acres of prime wilderness land in Colorado’s pristine Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, making it the largest donation to the agency."

It gets better.

"Avid conservationist Louis Moore Bacon, 56, CEO and founder of Moore Capital Management, which is one of the largest hedge funds in the world, donated to the wildlife agency most of his 81,400-acre Trinchera Ranch Saturday, Sept. 15, adding to a previous 90,000 acre donation from his adjoining Blanca Ranch."

This is where all the political gamesmanship over the budget for the last year has put fish, wildlife and sportsmen: The current Farm Bill expires at the end of the month, which could bring a halt to the wide range of programs it supports, including Conservation Reserve, Wetlands Reserve and Grasslands Reserve. The Senate passed a bill that drew praise from sportsmen during the summer, and the House Agriculture Committee followed suit. But GOP deficit hawks think it gives too much to nutrition programs like school lunches and conservation, while some Democrats think the cuts to nutrition programs are too steep.

Veteran Hill lobbyists say they fear election year politics is now having an impact, with each side afraid a vote either way could be used against them.

"The calendar doesn't lie, and right now it says we've got eight legislative days (days when congress meets and can vote) before the end of September, and there's no evidence of a Farm Bill on that (House) calendar," said Steve Kline, director Center for Agricultural and Private Lands Director at the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.

Editor's note:
Go here for a video about the hunting and fishing opportunities at risk in the Mississippi Delta.

For an interview with Ryan Lambert, who owns a fishing lodge where Hurricane Isaac is projected to make landfall, go here.

Like all hurricanes these days, Isaac is bad news for Louisiana's coastal fish and wildlife.

Hurricanes are to the great estuary of the Mississippi River what fire is to western forests: A natural, needed force in a healthy ecosystem, creating openings for renewal of key species and leaving behind a surge of life in the wake of its destructive force.

A press release from the Department of Interior last week held some of the best news in recent years for sportsmen—and the quality of life of all Americans: After decades of steady declines, the number of hunters and anglers in the U.S. showed significant increases over the last five years.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2011 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation showed the number hunters and anglers increased 9 and 11 percent respectively, part of the 38 percent of all Americans who participated in wildlife-related recreation. That was an increase of 2.6 million participants from the previous survey in 2006. A Service spokesperson said the survey, which has been done every five years since 1955, last showed an increase was in the late the 1980s — which means we've halted a 30-year slide.