Contact Pete Muller at (803) 637-7698

NWTF commends secretarial order on hunting-access issue

EDGEFIELD, S.C. — The NWTF is pleased with secretarial order 3373 – which Acting Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt recently signed to ensure recreational access on public lands.

“We applaud this secretarial order by Acting Secretary Bernhardt that ensures access to our public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management,” NWTF CEO Becky Humphries said. “Recreational access to our public lands is of the utmost importance to sportsmen and women and the future of hunting.”

Bernhardt’s secretarial order, Evaluating Public Access in Bureau of Land Management Public Land Disposals and Exchanges, directs the BLM to consider the impact that selling or transferring land will have on the public’s ability to access other public lands for outdoor recreation – including hunting and fishing – and places a priority on retaining those lands critical to public access.

In the DOI’s news release about the order, Bernhardt said, “This order will help ensure that the Bureau of Land Management considers public access to public lands. It requires that before the BLM exchanges or disposes of any land, they must first consider what impact the disposal or exchange of land will have on public access. The Trump Administration will continue to prioritize access so that people can hunt, fish, camp, and recreate on our public lands.”

Read the full order.

About the National Wild Turkey Federation
When the National Wild Turkey Federation was founded in 1973, there were about 1.3 million wild turkeys in North America. After decades of work, that number hit a historic high of almost 7 million turkeys. To succeed, the NWTF stood behind science-based conservation and hunters’ rights. The NWTF Save the Habitat. Save the Hunt. initiative is a charge that mobilizes science, fundraising and devoted volunteers to raise $1.2 billion to conserve and enhance more than 4 million acres of essential wildlife habitat, recruit at least 1.5 million hunters and open access to 500,000 acres for hunting. For more information, visit NWTF.org

National Wild Turkey Federation
770 Augusta Rd., Edgefield, SC 29824