Legislation introduced this week in Congress could axe what has amounted to federal subsidies for environmental extremist and animal rights groups making big business out of suing the U.S. government.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) -- the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry -- is encouraging all hunters, shooters and gun owners to contact their United States Senators and Representatives to urge them to become an original co-sponsor of the Hunting, Fishing and Recreational Shooting Sports Protection Act, legislation that will clarify that Congress has not given the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) authority to regulate ammunition and its components under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).

Cuts proposed by the House of Representatives would slash funding for a range of policies affecting fish and game management, hunting and angling access and public- and private-lands administration.

Often times you’ll hear sportsmen say “it won’t happen here.”  They’ll say that they know there are real threats to our right to hunt, fish, or trap out there – in other states – but they don’t think that it could ever happen to them where they live.   Nothing can be further from the truth nor more dangerous for our sports. 

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, trade association for the firearms and ammunition industry, calls the 3.6 percent rise in paid hunting license holders for 2009 one of the most encouraging signs for hunting in recent years.

President Barack Obama has nominated Dan Ashe to be the next Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).  If confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Ashe will succeed Sam Hamilton who passed away last February while serving as Director.

The country’s largest anti-hunting group, the Humane Society of the United States, appears to be on the verge of getting a $250,000 grant from Pepsi Cola.  The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance (USSA) and others are working to inform Pepsi about HSUS’ true, animal rights agenda.

The mid-term elections of November 2 coupled with retirements of long-term U.S. House of Representatives and Senate members will bring a very different look to the next Congress, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is seeking proposals from states and U.S. territories interested in obtaining federal financial assistance to acquire land or conduct planning efforts for endangered species conservation.

From the perspective of the Texas Wildlife Association and its members, the "Death Tax" is one of the largest causes of habitat fragmentation in the nation.  The tax not only threatens the agriculture industry, it threatens the very landscape that provides air, water, and home to our treasured wildlife.