Protection of fishing, hunting, and shooting on national forest and public lands has taken a step forward with the Senate introduction of the Recreational Fishing and Hunting Heritage and Opportunities Act.

Several species of grouper, including black, red, yellowfin, scamp, yellowmouth, rock hind and red hind will close to recreational harvest from Feb. 1 through March 31 in Gulf of Mexico state waters excluding Monroe County.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) joins the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (AFWA), and other partners at the 2012 SHOT Show to announce the start of a yearlong celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program (WSFR), one of the most significant and successful partnership approaches to fish and wildlife conservation in U.S. history.

Through its Collegiate Shooting Sports Initiative (CSSI), the National Shooting Sports Foundation has awarded $299,200 in grants to 41 colleges and universities to assist in the development and expansion of shooting sports programs. Of those schools receiving assistance, 11 are in the process of developing new shooting clubs.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced a final rule to eliminate its special regulation authorizing the breeding, management and free trade of three endangered African antelope species ? the scimitar-horned oryx, addax and dama gazelle.

Here are some of the top stories we brought you in the NRA-ILA Grassroots Alert in 2011.  With what will be a critically important 2012, we must increase our efforts to ensure we're prepared to meet the great opportunities and challenges we will face next year.  We will continue to provide you with information in future Alerts to ensure our mutual success.

Talk to any wildlife biologist in the southern United States about wild pigs, and you’re likely to hear something akin to at least one of the following, “They’re the four-legged equivalent of fire ants;” “If the average litter is six, typically eight survive;” “Only a fence that will hold water will hold feral hogs.”