Director Steve William Remarks for Southeastern Outdoor Press Association Springfield, Missouri

October 7, 2004

Thank you. It’s an honor to be here with you.

In a recent issue of BASSMASTER Magazine, there’s a great article by one of your active members, Wade Bourne, on US soldiers in Iraq who have found ways to cast rods during their leisure time. This is an impressive testament to the significance of the sport to Americans. As the author writes in the introduction of his piece, "you can take a bass angler away from his fishing, but you can't take the fishing away from the bass angler."

As Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, I will add that, not only can you not take the fishing away from the heart of the angler, or the hunting from the heart of the sports shooter for that matter; the future health of our fish and game resources depends on the hearts of yet more sportsmen and women to inherit the love of the outdoors as we all do.

You know, I love to fish and hunt and have many stories to tell but I know better than to try and tell them in front of this audience. You are the premier regional outdoor communications group and represent a part of the country that is home to many of the nation’s most ardent hunters and anglers. I applaud you as you celebrate your fortieth year. It is a milestone anniversary that means your organization’s work has outlived the span of a single generation; I think that is very promising for future generations. Because communicating the stories of the outdoors is essential to preserving hunting and angling as well as the health of the fish and wildlife resources that support these recreational traditions.

Hunters and anglers are the backbone of wildlife conservation. We offer money, expertise, and the strength of tradition in the conservation of our fish and game. I’d like to illustrate a few examples that show exactly how.

So many dollars that are invested in on-the-ground conservation come directly from hunters and anglers. We all know how much we spend each year buying Duck Stamps or the excise taxes we pay on fishing gear – money well spent since it goes right back into programs that conserve the wildlife resources we so enjoy.

Just a couple of days ago, as a matter of fact, I had the privilege of seeing many of the entries at the annual Federal Duck Stamp Art Contest. It is the only federally sponsored art contest in existence, and it features beautiful waterfowl art by some of the nation's most prominent and talented wildlife artists. This year’s winner (Mark Anderson of Sioux Falls, South Dakota) was announced just two days ago, and you will see his painting grace the next Duck Stamp, which will go on sale in July. Proceeds from the sales go to the purchase of land for the National Wildlife Refuge System. Since the program's inception in 1934, sales of Federal Duck Stamps have generated nearly $700 million that has been used to help acquire and protect more than 5.2 million acres of habitat.

That figure pales though in contrast to the total amount generated by our Sportfish and Wildlife Restoration Programs, more than $8 billion since 1952. These programs are among the most successful user-pays programs the Federal Government has ever administered. A small Federal tax on hunting, fishing, and boating equipment, generates substantial revenue for state conservation programs. States receive close to half a billion dollars each year.

In addition to opening our wallets, hunters and anglers offer a brand of expertise that can only be perfected by numberless hours spent afield. As skilled observers of the woods and streams, we notice when things aren’t quite right. When duck populations are low, for example, or when deer are diseased, or when invasive fish have infested our waters. Not far from my office in Washington, DC, a few years ago, it was an angler who reported the odd fish on his hook, the first known case of the Chinese snakehead infestation. Today, the infestation is a serious conservation challenge that could be much worse had he not noticed it when he did.

To me, the example serves as another reminder that policymakers in Washington, DC, should not forget the value of their sportsmen constituents. I am proud to say that I feel I’ve made some positive impact in this regard, yet naturally I am humbled by those great conservation champions of the past whose legacies we have all inherited.

This leads me to the strength of tradition that hunters and anglers bring to the forefront of our game and fish resource conservation challenges. More than a century ago, in 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt declared a tiny island off the eastern coast of Florida as a preserve for water birds.

Roosevelt and other sport hunters were concerned by the indiscriminate slaughter of the birds by market hunters; and, in fact, many of the oldest hook and bullet clubs in the country boast the strongest success stories in our shared conservation history.

Today, Pelican Island is part of a 95-million acre network of lands, including over 540 units throughout the country, devoted to the conservation and enjoyment of wildlife resources. The National Wildlife Refuge System continues to develop today, as I mentioned, from the proceeds of Duck Stamp sales, primarily by hunters.

Yet, while we sportsmen bring cash, a keen eye, and a strong past to the table of conservation, our resource challenges become increasingly complex. In the view of the Fish and Wildlife Service, this makes it imperative to continue balancing our conservation problems with the solutions that hunters and anglers represent.

On our still-growing refuge system, the Service is working hard at providing first rate hunting and fishing opportunities by expanding programs on these refuge lands. In fact, since 2001, we’ve established more than 60 new hunting and fishing programs to units of the refuge system in nearly two dozen states.

We are making strides in other program areas as well. Our Migratory Bird Strategic Plan, for example, continues to yield optimistic results in bringing various plans under a broader scope. In developing this comprehensive plan, we used direct input from our partners which include states, international agencies, and many hunting groups.

Incidentally, next year marks a 50th anniversary for our aerial waterfowl survey program and this offers some great fodder for you writers and photographers. We have a select crew of pilot biologists who fly small planes around the continent to conduct surveys of waterfowl and wetlands and help determine how hunting should be used as a tool in managing migratory bird populations. We need your help in telling their story.

Some of you will remember a few years back when low duck populations gave impetus to the creation of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan. The phenomenal success of the program has inspired similar efforts for other species.

The National Fish Habitat Initiative is one such example. Leaders in the Fisheries community have begun to realize that something needs to happen to improve the state of fish habitat if we are going to be successful in stabilizing and improving fish populations. Seeing that success can occur through locally based, partnership-driven efforts like Joint Ventures, people decided that working at the local level to improve fish habitat would also be effective in improving the status of fish populations nationally. The Service, along with the Sport Fish and Boating Partnership Council and the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, is taking a leadership role in beginning the process of drafting a national habitat plan. While this ongoing effort is still only in its infancy, I think you will be hearing about it more and more.

Cumulatively, these kinds of efforts will lead to more and better fishing and hunting opportunities throughout the country. With this in mind, we are also expanding personnel to oversee this priority, and increasing our outreach and education efforts.

It is our outreach and education efforts that I believe will be of the greatest consequence. I am concerned that in this increasingly urbanized world, fewer folks get the same kind of opportunities I did growing up. If we do not maintain our hunting and fishing traditions, there
will be more people who are not familiar with the necessity of balancing wildlife populations with available habitat; who don't understand that deer herds or snow goose populations may need to be thinned; or even worse, who just aren't interested in wildlife and wildlife habitat. Certainly, unless we do something, the kids of the computer age will grow up to be adults who are never out in the field to notice whether our fish and wildlife populations and habitats are healthy. For the sake of our children and the future of our resources, we want to get kids to put down the Gameboy and pick up a deer rifle or a fly rod. Because, in the end, it is true: you can't take the fishing away from the heart of an angler – and you’d certainly better not try messing up his stream. I certainly know that you, as outdoor communicators, can – and do –
play a very powerful role, and I thank you. I mentioned at the beginning of my remarks that the fact that your work, now in its 40th year, is promising for future generations. It is groups such as yours that will continue to play a crucial role in keeping our hunting and angling traditions alive from generation to generation.

In closing, I would like to invite you to join the Fish and Wildlife Service next week in celebrating National Wildlife Refuge Week. Our theme this year is “conservation in action,” and I think it is more than appropriate that people get out to take advantage of the recreation of our
refuges. I urge you to find a refuge near you that permits fishing or hunting, take your sons and daughters, enjoy what we have to offer. And then, do what you have been doing best for 40 years -- share your experience of the Great Outdoors with the public.

They need to know about it.

Thank you.