Congressional Sportsmen Foundation Reception

Since 1989, the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation has maintained a singleness of purpose that has guided the organization to become the most respected and trusted sportsmen’s organization in the political arena. CSF’s mission is to work with Congress, governors, and state legislatures to protect and advance hunting, angling, recreational shooting and trapping.

CSF Director of Southeastern States and Forest Policy John Culclasure kicked the summit off by illustrating many of the CFS’s recent policy wins, both on a federal and state level, many policy measures that are in direct line with the NWTF mission.

NWTF National Director of Government Affairs Matt Lindler recounted the highlights from the 117^th congress.

“One positive aspect of the generally divisive 117^th congress is that natural resource conservation was one of the biggest winners through unprecedented legislative funding and bipartisan support,” he said. “Natural resources and wildlife conservation is a unifying topic that brings both sides of the aisle to the table. Congress awarded funding at extraordinary levels to federal and private lands conservation, bringing natural resource management to high-priority status.”

Lindler also set the table for the 118^th congress that is now dawning.

“Looking toward the 118^th Congress, the NWTF has already been deeply engaged in the 2023 Farm Bill planning,” he said. “The Farm Bill is extremely important to our mission delivery on private and public lands. We have developed our own 2023 Farm Bill priorities for the conservation and forestry titles. The NWTF is a steering committee member for the Forest in the Farm Bill Coalition and participates in a number of other Farm Bill working groups to ensure our priorities are echoed by the general conservation community.”

NWTF National Director of Field Conservation and State Policy Tom Spezze mentioned the NWTF’s vast network of its volunteers, district biologists and directors of conservation operations who ensure the NWTF’s voice is represented in statehouses across the country.

Spezze noted that, for 2022, NWTF state chapters were engaged in a total of 55 state-related bills that covered a variety of topics. On issues that had a final disposition, 73% of the issues the NWTF engaged in resulted in a favorable outcome. The NWTF was also actively engaged in commission policy, direct engagement with agency staff, relationship building with legislators and more. NWTF state chapters engaged in an additional 33 issues that were not directly related to bills.