Citing ongoing abuses to a 46-year-old law that costs taxpayers millions, Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) and Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) introduced the Fixing Egregiously Expensive Suits or FEES Act.

The Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), enacted in 1980, is designed to help ordinary Americans challenge federal overreach. It was intended to protect veterans, Social Security recipients, small businesses and other individuals from prohibitive legal costs when taking action against the federal government. Instead, well-funded environmental organizations transformed EAJA into a taxpayer-funded revenue stream to finance politically motivated litigation to advance their agendas.

The FEES Act includes the following EAJA reforms:

• Limits attorney fee awards to prevailing parties with a direct, personal financial interest in the case, such as those involving personal injury, property damage or an unpaid agency disbursement

• Caps EAJA awards at $200,000 per adversary adjudication and limits recipients to no more than three adversary adjudications per calendar year

• Requires courts to reduce or deny attorney fee awards for parties that acted in bad faith or engaged in dilatory, oppressive or otherwise improper conduct

• Prohibits attorney fee awards when a lawsuit is resolved through a settlement that results in the creation of a new federal regulation or guidance document

• Creates a carve out so lawsuits related to Social Security or Veterans Affairs are not affected

• Exempts successful class action lawsuits from these new limitations

• Directs the secretary of the Interior to convene an independent panel to evaluate the law's impact and send a report to the House Committee on Natural Resources and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

“EAJA was enacted to give veterans, small businesses and everyday Americans a fair shot at challenging government overreach. Instead, it has become a cash machine for well-funded environmental groups that sue federal agencies and stick taxpayers with the bill. The FEES Act shuts down that gravy train and returns EAJA to the people it was meant to serve,” said Rep. Tiffany.

From fiscal years 2019 through 2024, the Department of the Interior and U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded approximately $24.8 million under EAJA, with 76 percent of those funds flowing to a small number of environmental organizations and their lawyers, whose fees have been reimbursed at rates as high as $500 per hour—all at taxpayer expense.

“Radical environmental groups have exploited the Equal Access to Justice Act for decades, using taxpayer dollars to fund sue-and-settle schemes that undermine responsible land management and block critical projects across the West. The FEES Act closes loopholes and restores the original intent of EAJA by limiting attorney fee awards to parties with real, direct stakes in outcomes, not well-funded activist organizations gaming the system at the public's expense,” said Rep. Hageman.

The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is a longtime advocate of EAJA reform.

“The Equal Access to Justice Act was enacted with good intentions to give small businesses and individuals the ability to fight an unresponsive government in court. However, by letting well-funded and litigious environmental organizations get their lawyers’ fees paid, the incentive to file suits and delay important habitat management projects has only grown,” said Ryan Bronson, RMEF director of government affairs. “Litigation is now one of the biggest barriers to wildlife habitat improvement on federal lands. We support the FEES Act as a commonsense reform to get our foresters and biologists back in the field and out of the courtroom.”

The FEES Act parallels similar litigation reform introduced earlier by Rep. Mike Rulli (R-OH).

Hunt 2 Conserve supports the two measures and urges Congress to act to better protect conservation efforts and taxpayers.

About Hunt 2 Conserve

Hunt 2 Conserve is a 501(c)4 nonprofit organization affiliated with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Its mission is to advance a legacy of hunting and conservation by educating, activating and developing stewards and defenders of these fundamentally American ideals. For more information, go to hunt2conserve.org.

More than 90 U.S. representatives who make up the Congressional Western Caucus, unanimously endorsed legislation that helps ensure public safety and improves wildlife habitat and overall forest health.

The U.S. House and U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry already passed the Fix Our Forests Act (FOFA) by strong bipartisan margins but the full Senate is yet to introduce it. Now, members of the Congressional Western Caucus are speaking out to try to make that happen.

What Congressional Western Caucus members are saying about FOFA:

“Across America, our forests are burning while the clock is ticking. Every season of delay means more devastation, more communities at risk, and more land lost. Fix Our Forests is a solution with broad support. We can’t wait while the forests burn,” said Chair Celeste Maloy (R-UT).  
 
“Healthy forests require active stewardship, and that stewardship means we must find effective ways to strengthen wildfire prevention. The Fix Our Forests Act delivers the practical reforms needed to reduce wildfire risk and improve active forest management through timely restoration projects and proactive mitigation efforts. I am proud to support this legislation and the Western Caucus’ commitment to advancing practical wildfire solutions,” said Executive Vice Chair Nick Begich (R-AL). 
 
“The West is on fire, and Congress must act now. The Congressional Western Caucus’s endorsement of the bipartisan Fix Our Forests Act sends a clear and decisive message: send this bill to the President’s desk. I commend Western Caucus Chair Maloy for her leadership on this issue,” said House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-AR). 
 
”As we experience a catastrophic fire season and an overall trend of mill closures across the country, rural communities nationwide need bipartisan, common-sense legislation to mitigate the crisis in our forests. The Fix Our Forests Act provides us with the opportunity to prioritize high-risk fire sheds, streamline environmental review and permitting, and expand stewardship contracting and Good Neighbor Authority,” said House Agriculture Chairman Glenn Thompson (R-PA).

FOFA is a set of reforms that simplify and expedite environmental reviews for forest management projects, promotes collaboration in forest management like Good Neighbor Authority, deters frivolous litigation that delays essential projects including to reverse the 9^th Circuit Court’s Cottonwood decision and encourages adopting state-of-the-art science and techniques for federal land managers. 

From January 1 to July 21, 2026, there have been 41,000 wildfires that burned more than 3.9 million acres of forests, grasslands and wildlife habitats, including hundreds of homes and other structures. By comparison, there were nearly 39,000 wildfires in 2025 that burned 2.8 million acres.

Hunt 2 Conserve urges the Senate to introduce and pass the Fix Our Forests Act.

About Hunt 2 Conserve

Hunt 2 Conserve is a 501(c)4 nonprofit organization affiliated with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Its mission is to advance a legacy of hunting and conservation by educating, activating and developing stewards and defenders of these fundamentally American ideals. For more information, go to hunt2conserve.org.

An uptick in wolves getting into garbage caused officials at Isle Royale National Park to close parts of two different campgrounds over a five-day period. On July 9, the park closed the Three Mile Campground to off-trail camping including tent and hammock use.

Staffers saw a wolf in the campground, sniffing and pawing at tents, dragging backpacks away from tents and entering a tent. They say it continues to display increasingly bold behavior, including showing signs of habituation and a growing reliance on human food.

On July 14, park officials closed the Duncan Narrows Campground for the second time in a month because of increased wolf activity. It happened after a wolf or wolves entered the inside of a shelter by tearing, scratching and pushing through a screen. The animals pulled clothing and other items out of the shelter and chewed at a cooler stored improperly in the shelter. No campers were in the shelter or harmed when the incident occurred.

During the closure, park staff will intensify hazing efforts during daylight hours in campgrounds and developed areas to discourage the wolf from returning. Hazing methods include loudly shouting, stomping, clapping, sounding airhorns, and discharging paintball guns. Staff will also install noise-producing devices around Rock Harbor, Three Mile and Daisy Farm Campgrounds to alert staff and visitors of wolf presence.

“Visitor safety and the protection of wildlife are our highest priorities,” said Park Superintendent Denice Swanke. "We ask for your support in securing food, trash and scented items consistent with 2026 food storage guidelines.”

The closures are in effect until July 31. At that time, park officials will decide if they reopen the sites. Isle Royale National Park is a remote island wilderness in northern stretches of Lake Superior in northwest Michigan, not far from the Canadian border. It has no other large predators as black bears do not occupy the island. The current wolf population was introduced in 2019 after the previous population naturally died out.

About Hunt 2 Conserve

Hunt 2 Conserve is a 501(c)4 nonprofit organization affiliated with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Its mission is to advance a legacy of hunting and conservation by educating, activating and developing stewards and defenders of these fundamentally American ideals. For more information, go to hunt2conserve.org.

The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) says wolf numbers are down from earlier counts but maintains the overall population is well above minimum recovery levels.

The 2026 Wolf Report contains two population estimates as FWP moves toward an updated version of the wolf population estimation tool Integrated Patch Occupancy Model (iPOM). The new version, iPOM 2.0, is yet to be published in a peer reviewed scientific journal, like iPOM.

“We’re confident in iPOM 2.0 and see it as an advancement in science and modeling,” said Quentin Kujala, FWP chief of conservation policy. “However, it hasn’t been through the same peer-review process as the original iPOM. Until that happens, we want the commission and the public to see estimates from both models.”

Under iPOM, the wolf population is estimated to be relatively stable at 1,094 wolves. With iPOM 2.0, the population estimate is lower at 725 wolves.

By using iPOM 2.0 to analyze wolf population estimates from past years, it shows a steady decline in wolf numbers from 2021. As a result, FWP is recommending a reduction to the 2026/2027 wolf harvest quota to 250. This is down from a quota of 450 last year. In 2025, 247 wolves were harvested.  

The Montana Wolf Management Plan outlines 450 wolves as the minimum number necessary to ensure there are 15 breeding pairs in the state. These are minimum numbers and not a management objective for FWP.

At its scheduled Aug. 19 Fish and Wildlife Commission meeting, the commission will consider the wolf and furbearer trapping regulation proposal from FWP. Included in that proposal is the annual wolf harvest quota. The public can comment on the proposal through Aug. 12.

About Hunt 2 Conserve

Hunt 2 Conserve is a 501(c)4 nonprofit organization affiliated with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Its mission is to advance a legacy of hunting and conservation by educating, activating and developing stewards and defenders of these fundamentally American ideals. For more information, go to hunt2conserve.org.

Below is a letter from nearly five dozen organizations forwarded to both House and Senate leadership, urging passage of legislation that boosts conservation, hunting and public access. Hunt 2 Conserve is also in support.

The undersigned organizations, representing millions of hunters, anglers, conservationists, and fish and wildlife professionals, write to express our strong support for the bipartisan and bicameral America the Beautiful Act (S.1547) to reauthorize the Legacy Restoration Fund (LRF).

We also thank you for your bipartisan leadership in championing this bill through introduction and a unanimous committee vote.

The Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA), which first authorized LRF, stands among the most significant conservation achievements in recent history. By establishing the LRF, Congress made an historic investment in addressing the deferred maintenance backlog across our national parks, national forests, wildlife refuges, Bureau of Land Management lands, and Bureau of Indian Education facilities. These investments have improved roads, trails, campgrounds, boat ramps, fishing access sites, visitor facilities, and other critical infrastructure relied upon by millions of Americans who hunt, fish, hike, camp, and enjoy the outdoors.

For sportsmen and women, these investments are about far more than infrastructure—they are about access. Across the country, hunters and anglers depend on safe roads, maintained trails, functioning boat launches, campgrounds, parking areas, and other recreational facilities to reach public lands and waters. Deferred maintenance can limit access to hunting areas, reduce opportunities for anglers, and diminish the quality of outdoor experiences that support America’s longstanding outdoor traditions. The Legacy Restoration Fund has helped ensure that public lands remain accessible, welcoming, and functional for the millions of Americans who pursue hunting, fishing, recreational shooting, and other outdoor activities.

As our nation approaches its 250th anniversary, the work is not finished. Significant deferred maintenance needs remain across federal public lands, including many of the forests, refuges, parks, and public lands most frequently used by sportsmen and women. This historic legislation would build on the success of the original GAOA legislation by extending and strengthening the Legacy Restoration Fund and by preserving permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) without changes—thus, this bill continues to ensure that critical infrastructure improvements and recreational access continue and that America's public lands are prepared to welcome future generations of hunters, anglers, outdoor recreationists, and conservationists.

Together, this bill represents a commonsense and bipartisan commitment to conserving America's outdoor heritage. By investing in access, infrastructure, and stewardship, these bills will help ensure that future generations can continue to enjoy the traditions of hunting, fishing, and outdoor recreation that are central to America's conservation legacy.

We commend the bipartisan leadership behind these measures and respectfully urge you to pass the America the Beautiful Act (S.1547/H.R. 9250) as expeditiously as possible.

Thank you for your consideration of this request and for your continued commitment to America's public lands, outdoor recreation opportunities, and conservation legacy.

Sincerely,

American Catfishing Association

American Fisheries Society

American Sportfishing Association

American Woodcock Society

Archery Trade Association

Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies

Backcountry Hunters & Anglers

Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (B.A.S.S.)

BoatU.S.

Bonefish & Tarpon Trust

Boone and Crockett Club

California Waterfowl Association

Catch A Dream Foundation

Coastal Conservation Association

Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation

Conservation Force

Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports

Dallas Safari Club

Delta Waterfowl

Ducks Unlimited

Houston Safari Club

International Game Fish Association

Izaak Walton League of America

Major League Fishing

Marine Retailers Association of the Americas

Masters of Foxhounds Association

Mule Deer Foundation

National Association of Forest Service Retirees

National Deer Association

National Marine Manufacturers Association

National Professional Anglers Association

National Rifle Association

National Shooting Sports Foundation

National Trappers Association

National Wild Turkey Federation

National Wildlife Federation

National Wildlife Refuge Association

North American Falconers Association

North American Grouse Partnership

Orion: The Hunter’s Institute

Pheasants Forever

Professional Outfitters and Guides of America

Public Lands Foundation

Quail Forever

Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation

Ruffed Grouse Society

Safari Club International

Sportsmen’s Alliance

The Conservation Fund

The Wildlife Society

Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership

Trout Unlimited

Whitetails Unlimited

Wild Sheep Foundation

Wildlife Forever

Wildlife Management Institute

About Hunt 2 Conserve

Hunt 2 Conserve is a 501(c)4 nonprofit organization affiliated with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Its mission is to advance a legacy of hunting and conservation by educating, activating and developing stewards and defenders of these fundamentally American ideals. For more information, go to hunt2conserve.org.

Fresh off the U.S. Supreme Court announcing it will soon hear arguments about whether the Second Amendment allows Americans to own AR-15 Rifles, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled a New Jersey law banning the sale and possession of AR-15s and standard-capacity magazines is unconstitutional.

The case fully overturned an earlier district court which upheld parts of the state’s ban on semi-automatic rifles and magazines holding more than 10 rounds while reluctantly striking a ban on the Colt AR-15. The Third Circuit, sitting en banc (the whole court) ruled the entire ban on semi-automatic rifles unconstitutional on a 10-5 ruling. It also remanded the case to the district court for more proceedings about the constitutionality of the ban for semi-automatic shotguns and pistols.

The Third Circuit is the highest-level court nationwide so far to overturn such laws. The New Jersey case dates to 2018.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hold its hearing this fall.

Hunt 2 Conserve is a strong advocate of the Second Amendment.

About Hunt 2 Conserve

Hunt 2 Conserve is a 501(c)4 nonprofit organization affiliated with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Its mission is to advance a legacy of hunting and conservation by educating, activating and developing stewards and defenders of these fundamentally American ideals. For more information, go to hunt2conserve.org.

A new study shows that because mule deer numbers are declining, cattle are the No. 1 item on the menu for wolves in northern California. According to researchers at the University of California-Davis, samples collected from wolf packs during the summers of 2022 and 2023 found 72 percent of wolf scat contained cattle DNA.

“Whether it’s through scavenging or whether it's through depredation, it’s a huge component of the wolves’ diet,” said lead author Tina Saitone, a professor of Cooperative Extension in the UC Davis Agricultural and Resource Economics Department. “Their conservation success is because of livestock producers in the state.”

Researchers found cattle DNA in 86 percent of samples in 2022 and 55 percent in 2023. Scientists say California’s dwindling mule deer population gives wolves few wild ungulate prey options. They also say keeping wolves away from livestock is a daunting task.

“Conservatively, we’re talking about a million acres in our study area and 10,000 cow-calf pairs,” said Saitone. “It’s not as simple as putting up an electric fence on a two-acre pasture or putting cattle in the barn at night.”

One wolf pack killed more than 110 cattle over a seven-month span in 2025 across two California counties 125 to 160 miles northeast of Sacramento. Those depredations cost ranchers and the state millions of dollars, causing the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to euthanize four wolves.

A second UC Davis study showed wolves are a major stressor for cattle. Researchers compared cattle in areas shared by wolves with those in non-wolf areas. They found those close to wolves have stress levels 58 percent higher.

"What this really confirms is that death or depredation is not the only impact here," said Saitone. "Living among wolves for cattle is a chronically stressful experience, and that could ultimately have production-related impacts in both the short and the long term."

Next, researchers want to understand whether elevated stress levels translate into lower conception rates – a concern long raised by ranchers that has not yet been established through direct biological evidence. When breeding cows fail to conceive, it can directly affect a rancher’s bottom line.

"That's their whole purpose,” said Saitone. “These are mother cows that are supposed to be generating calves as a marketable product.”

Read the UC Davis news release here.

About Hunt 2 Conserve

Hunt 2 Conserve is a 501(c)4 nonprofit organization affiliated with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Its mission is to advance a legacy of hunting and conservation by educating, activating and developing stewards and defenders of these fundamentally American ideals. For more information, go to hunt2conserve.org.

(Photo credit: Tina Saitone/Kenneth Tate/Don Preisler/UC Davis)

Below is a blog post reprinted with permission from Jason Hayes and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a nonpartisan research and educational institute.

More foresters step forward to correct the record on wildfires

Wildfires are being drawn inexorably into the climate change hysteria as dueling experts seek to explain the warm, dry weather we have experienced this year.

One recent article correctly moved past the climate concerns to explain how "The truth about forest fires goes up in climate-change smoke." The author, Ross McKitrick, a professor of environmental economics at the University of Guelph, Ontario, gets it right when he describes how the number of wildfires and area burned have trended down over the past few decades in Canadian forests. He uses numbers from the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System. 

“Wildfires have been getting less frequent in Canada over the past 30 years,” McKitrick writes. “The annual number of fires grew from 1959 to 1990, peaking in 1989 at just over 12,000 that year, and has been trending down since. From 2017 to 2021 (the most recent interval available), there were about 5,500 fires per year, half the average from 1987 to 1991.”

The overall number of fires shows a similar, declining trend in the U.S. over the past 30 years, but the acreage burned has increased.

A June 2023 Congressional Research Service “report" explains, “The number of annual wildfires is variable but has decreased slightly over the last 30 years.” The same report notes that “the number of acres affected annually, while also variable, generally has increased.” Research Service authors write, “Since 2000, an annual average of 70,025 wildfires have burned an annual average of 7.0 million acres. The acreage figure is more than double the average annual acreage burned in the 1990s (3.3 million acres)”

That Congressional report cites data from the current National Interagency Fire Center website, which only shows data back to 1983. This is further than the 30-year window considered by the Congressional Research Service report. But looking at the Center’s total available data does not change the overall picture appreciably.

The area burned is again variable, which is expected because significant fires can often escape and burn millions of acres in a dry year. Adding numbers from previous large burns can add some perspective. 

The largest fire recorded in the U.S. was the Miramichi Fire in Maine, in 1825, which burned 3 million acres. Four of the ten largest fires reported in the United States occurred in or before 1910. The remaining six all occurred after 2000. The most devastating forest fire is the Peshtigo Fire, which occurred in October 1871 in Wisconsin. That single fire killed over 1,200 people and burned up to 1.5 million acres.

With several sources listing massive burns — more than one million acres —in the past two centuries, it’s interesting that the Fire Center’s data is limited to the past 40 years. For that additional information, the internet Wayback Machine is a helpful resource. A look at one past iteration of the Center’s website shows that up until December 2020, the National Interagency Fire Center showed wildfire data going back to 1926. This additional data reveals a great deal about the nation’s wildfire history.

U.S. wildfires have dropped dramatically over the past century, in both number and total acres burned. 

Despite the wide variability in the fire record, forest managers and fire modeling experts who are willing to speak out have argued that climate both is and is not a major factor in wildfires. As the redacted data on the Fire Center’s website indicates, our perceptions of trends in fire behavior depends on when we start counting.

Published information on wildfires will often motivate trained foresters to reach out. McKitrick’s Financial Post article “prompted an interesting email…from an experienced forester,” he noted in a June 16 tweet. 

"As someone who works in forestry and has worked fires, and been evacuated due to fire, I have looked into the data, and it bothers me to no end how ‘the science’ is ignored.” They continue, “Climate change doesn’t make fires more intense, fuel loading does.”

The Mackinac Center has similar experiences. Our June piece on wildfires, “Only who can prevent forest fires?", explains: “Wildfire science confirms a basic fact: Dry weather tends to dry out materials that fuel and intensify wildfires. But climate change is not to blame for this year’s or any year’s wildfires.”

That is the case, even though “more and more, ostensibly settled climate science aches to point out that there’s nothing climate change can’t do. Whether you’re worried about increasing or decreasing temperatures, increasing or decreasing precipitation, increasing or decreasing wildfires, climate change appears to have you covered.” But “forest management policies play the key role in determining whether wildfires increase or decrease in number and intensity.”

We’ve received emails from foresters who say they agree with our forestry work. Refusing to allow active management and failing to suppress fires immediately have heightened fuel loading conditions. Heavy fuel loads ensure that, when a fire does start, and fire crews are not immediately able to stop it, it is likely to explode into an intense conflagration that burns everything.

These massive fires can effectively take areas back to the earliest of seral stages—bare mineral s 000000 oil conditions, similar to when the glaciers retreated. From there, it can take decades for the land to transition from mineral soil back to grasses, to shrubs, and then to trees and forests.

People should be skeptical about the climate change hysteria that reemerges during every wildfire season. Instead, they should focus on active forest management practices, including harvesting, spacing and thinning, as well as prescribed fires. These practices implemented prior to dry years would reduce fuel loading and lessen the likelihood of a major fire. This would do far more to protect forested lands than locking them up in preserves and hoping lightning never strikes. 

About Hunt 2 Conserve

Hunt 2 Conserve is a 501(c)4 nonprofit organization affiliated with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Its mission is to advance a legacy of hunting and conservation by educating, activating and developing stewards and defenders of these fundamentally American ideals. For more information, go to hunt2conserve.org. 

That didn’t take very long. On July 1, the same day a legislatively mandated ban took effect on the commercial sale of Glock handguns in California, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit to challenge it as unlawful under the Second Amendment.

“The Second Amendment is a sacred right belonging to all Americans, even those in California. California cannot ban the most popular type of handgun in America,” said DOJ Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “We will work to stop this blatant trampling of our rights by the California government to protect the rights of lawful gun owners.”

California’s new law bans the retail purchase of common handguns manufactured by Glock and guns with similar firing mechanisms. The state’s existing “Handgun Roster” further limits the types of handguns citizens can lawfully buy in California. The U.S. Supreme Court recently reaffirmed that the Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect the right to carry handguns outside the home for self-defense in Wolford v. Lopez.

In that case, the Court reversed and remanded a Hawaii law that prohibited licensed concealed-carry permit holders from carrying handguns on private property open to the public. As such, the Court reiterated that states cannot prevent citizens from using commonly used firearms for self-defense.

The DOJ also filed suit against Virginia and Virginia State Police alleging a newly enacted Virginia law unconstitutionally bans the purchase and sale of ordinary semi-automatic rifles owned by millions of Americans. Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed the bill into law in May. It took effect on July 1.

“On April 10, I promised Governor Spanberger that we would sue Virginia if she signed this unconstitutional weapons ban into law. I keep my promises,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division. “Law-abiding Americans should not have to live under threat of criminal sanction for simply exercising their Second Amendment right to possess arms owned by millions of their fellow citizens.”

The Virginia law makes the commercial purchase of AR-15-style rifles a crime. The AR-15 rifle is the most popular rifle in America. Virginia’s enforcement of the new ban is a pattern or practice of conduct by commonwealth law enforcement officers that deprives the citizens of Virginia of their constitutional right to buy and sell arms protected by the Second Amendment.

However, on July 8, a Virginia’s 28^th Judicial Circuit judge released an order that the new restrictive gun law cannot be enforced anywhere in the state. The ruling takes effect on July 21, but gun dealers are already making plans to sell the firearms.

The U.S. Supreme Court also recently announced it will hear arguments about whether the Second Amendment allows Americans to own AR-15 rifles. A hearing is expected this fall.

Hunt 2 Conserve is a strong advocate of the Second Amendment.

About Hunt 2 Conserve

Hunt 2 Conserve is a 501(c)4 nonprofit organization affiliated with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Its mission is to advance a legacy of hunting and conservation by educating, activating and developing stewards and defenders of these fundamentally American ideals. For more information, go to hunt2conserve.org.

It is not the romantic western landscape from the movies. Nor is it a healthy one. Herds of wild horses and burros continue to balloon well beyond population markers that classify them as both overpopulated and unsafe.

A consortium of hunting, conservation and livestock organizations recently submitted public comment asking the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to rectify a situation that is only growing worse year by year. According to BLM, there are approximately 85,000 wild horses and burros across 10 western states. The population is more than three times the “appropriate management levels” of 25,600 WHB (wild horses and burros) and increases 15 to 25 percent annually, roughly doubling in size every four years.

“Animals are starving on landscapes stripped bare by overpopulated WHB herds, native wildlife populations are declining, habitat and water sources are being destroyed, and taxpayers are paying ever more to hold excess animals for decades,” according to submitted comments.

The groups offered four recommendations:

• Healthy horses, burros, wildlife and rangeland ecosystems require managing WHB to a substantially lower population

• Managers should embrace the full set of tools provided by Congress to reduce on-range and off-range numbers

• Existing management methods have failed to lower WHB populations to sustainable and legally required levels

• Restoring ecological balance on the landscape benefits American taxpayers and allows more funding to support WHB and rangeland ecosystems

“The WHB themselves suffer through starvation and thirst as herds outstrip the range’s capacity. In addition, more than 62,000 animals now sit in holding facilities at a cost exceeding $100 million per year, over 70 percent of the program’s budget,” according to comments. “This status quo is not financially sustainable, causes ecological damage and is contrary to federal law.”

The groups support stipulations spelled out in the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, which directs BLM to manage animals to maintain a thriving ecological balance on public lands and protect the natural ecological balance of all wildlife species that live there.

Hunt 2 Conserve supports management action to benefit native wildlife, their habitat and the health of wild horses and burros.

About Hunt 2 Conserve

Hunt 2 Conserve is a 501(c)4 nonprofit organization affiliated with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Its mission is to advance a legacy of hunting and conservation by educating, activating and developing stewards and defenders of these fundamentally American ideals. For more information, go to hunt2conserve.org.

(Photo credit: Bureau of Land Management)