Inflation Reduction Act would impact New York sportsmen, women
Known as the Inflation Reduction Act, the reconciliation bill passed by the US Senate last weekend includes $369 billion in energy and natural resource investments ostensibly aimed at combating climate change, according to the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.
Since seeing is believing, I’ve decided to delve into the bill to enjoy all it offers to the sports community. That turned out to be much easier said than done. The bill – HR 5376 – is 335,000 words spread across 970 pages, depending on how you format it.
The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership was formed on July 30, 2002. Its primary purpose is to ensure quality hunting and fishing for all Americans by protecting important habitats, productive hunting grounds, and preferred fishing spots for this and future generations. To conclude, the organization has spent the last year promoting legislation to be included in the Anti-Inflation Act that it believes will benefit hunters and anglers. As for the result, I remain skeptical.
Outside: Juvenile Pheasant Hunt Approaching; how to obtain necessary licenses, certifications
Outside: trout fishing heat wave; how to find success, choose the right stream
Outside: Legal hunting activities exempt from New York’s new gun laws
Here are specific elements of Bill Number HR 5376 that should pique the interest of athletes:
A boost for the preservation of private land
The agreement makes a major investment in US Department of Agriculture conservation programs, providing $20 billion over the next four years. The current Farm Bill contributes approximately $6 billion annually to private land conservation programs. This legislation would nearly double conservation efforts to increase resilience to natural hazards like drought and improve fish and wildlife habitat.
What this means for hunters and anglers: More quality habitat and huntable areas, cleaner water and richer fish and wildlife populations.
Improvements in energy leasing and development
Energy leasing reforms on our public lands that align with other values such as habitat and access, consistent with both the Interior Department’s Leases Report and many previous recommendations from the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.
The bill ensures funds are available to restore fish and wildlife habitat if an operator abandons an oil and gas well. This recognizes other uses of our public lands such as hunting, fishing and other forms of outdoor recreation.
Investments in forests, coasts and public land
It devotes great resources to efforts to protect coastal and marine habitats, maintain healthy forests, and restore watersheds. It also includes $500 million for habitat preservation and ecosystem restoration projects on Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service lands, and $100 million for reconstruction and restoration of units of the National Wildlife Refuge System .
What this means for hunters and anglers: More projects to restore wetlands and reefs along coasts, restore banks and wet meadows in forested watersheds, actively manage forests near communities, and remove invasive species and improve access to our public lands. These efforts would expand hunting and fishing opportunities.
Increased technical support
The bill also provides $1 billion for conservation technical assistance to ensure well-trained personnel are available on site to meet with producers and process applications for private land conservation programs.
According to the partnership: “If the Anti-Inflation Act is passed, a lot will depend on these decisions for hunters and anglers, and the (partnership) will work with decision makers to drive outcomes that increase hunting and fishing opportunities and conserve fish and wildlife habitat for decades to come.”
If the House of Representatives passes the bill, I’m sure it will have the President’s signature on it before the ink dries.
How ‘Tackle Box’ helps anglers
I overheard a conversation between a young man and a man more my own age while shopping at one of the local hardware stores this weekend. The younger of the two – the cashier I was in line for – mentioned that he had recently taken up fishing. Almost in passing, he said he wished he knew more places to go.
It was perfect timing; The Department of Environmental Conservation just announced a new mobile app called Tackle Box this week. Since the boy was trapped right in front of me, he would listen to the new app whether he wanted to or not.
Tackle Box is a feature of the HuntFishNY Mobile App. It’s all FREE. In fact, you don’t even need to buy a fishing or hunting license to access the app, which is available on both Android and Apple platforms.
HuntFishNY offers sportsmen and sports enthusiasts the ability to view their licenses and privileges – ie turkey, archery, muzzleloader, etc. – and other hunting and fishing related information.
In addition to the many resources available on the DEC website, hunters, trappers and anglers can electronically access their sporting licenses, privileges and permits and streamline wild harvest reporting. It also links to useful information such as season data summaries, fishing information and a DEC contact list, as well as a variety of other information.
It also offers intelligent filtering to collect harvest data from cities, counties and wildlife management units, as well as information on the season and method of collection, the ability to view current and past harvest reports, and it shows you the current year Hunting and Trapping and Freshwater Guides too fishing regulations and sunrise and sunset information.
As of this week’s announcement, hunters will no longer be able to hog the Hunt/FishNY app.
The new Tackle Box feature gives anglers a one-stop shop for water-specific information on fishing regulations, stocking and fishing/boating access locations. Tackle Box is part of the work the Department’s Bureau of Fisheries has been doing to make fishing easier, more enjoyable and more accessible to all. Like it or not, people these days want information at their fingertips.
Tackle Box features include:
- the ability to search bodies of water by name or to zoom/pan a state map;
- water-specific fishing regulations;
- Information on fish species and stocking;
- fishing access information, including boat docks and parking areas;
- Navigation function for driving directions.
To accommodate people with an electronic disability like me, DEC has produced a short but informative 2-minute video on DEC’s YouTube channel.
For technical assistance, users can call DECALS’ call center at 866-933-2257. For fishery-specific questions, users can email [email protected].
Bill Conners of the Federation of Fish and Game Clubs writes on outdoor topics. Email: [email protected].