Director Steve Williams Remarks for the Boone & Crockett Club in Napa, California

December 5, 2002

Thank you. I am honored to be with you today.

I have appreciated the contributions of the Boone and Crockett Club for many years. Your organization boasts a long and successful history. In many ways, it was people from Boone & Crockett who laid out the path for my agency. We share many of the same founding fathers -- people like Theodore Roosevelt and Ding Darling. Today, we share many of the same goals, and you are still making awesome progress toward balancing the needs of people with their wildlife resources.

I want to thank President Morgenroth for inviting me. I was intrigued by some of the Boone and Crockett initiatives that he described in his letter: using technology in management programs; protecting state management of wildlife; and preserving the hunting tradition.

These goals are right in line with the priorities I have set for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: ensuring the scientific integrity of our decisions, maintaining balance in our conservation programs, and restoring our partnerships with America's hunters and anglers.

I want to start by saying that I know that some of you – our traditional partners – have felt left behind as the conservation mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has expanded over time. I am committed to renewing our partnership with America's sportsmen and women –– people like you, whose ethics and support have been the backbone of wildlife conservation for more than a century.

As many of you know, in 2003 we will be celebrating the Centennial of the National Wildlife Refuge System. Looking back on the refuge system's history, you have to be amazed by how far we have come. But the Refuge Centennial is also a good time to think about where we are going in the next hundred years. Is the computer age a good thing, or a bad thing, for wildlife? How are we going to use the new tools for our old trade? What kind of wildlife resources will be available for Americans 100 years from today? What public demands and expectations will wildlife managers of the future be dealing with?

When I was a biology student – you know, back in the Stone Age – I had a professor who told us that in the near future, people would use computer-generated images to present biological data. Of course, we all thought he was nuts. A lot of us thought that "wildlife" and "technology" sounded like a real contradiction in terms.

But in fact wildlife managers have always embraced technology. It didn't take biologists long to figure out that aircraft could help them count waterfowl. Everything from special banding pliers and pop bottle bird feeders to air boats were conceived by, and for, wildlife managers.

Today's technology can help us with increasingly complex wildlife issues. We now have tools at our disposal that I couldn't have dreamed of when I was a student. Advanced global positioning systems and geographic information systems, digital infrared photography and high-res satellite imagery – these help us monitor wildlife populations, collect biological data, map vegetation, and assess habitat conditions. By seeing what the human eye cannot, they help reveal situations requiring immediate action. We have other amazing tools at our disposal as well. At the Fish and Wildlife Service, our National Wildlife Forensics Laboratory uses the latest techniques in genetic analysis and other technology. The lab can tell us, for example, whether imported caviar comes from endangered sturgeon species.

So the computer age has brought us some great advancements that provide an edge in dealing with pressing wildlife issues. That's a good thing, because today's wildlife managers are facing a variety of new problems that seem to stem from the increasing mobility of our global community – problems like the spread of invasive species, and the appearance of diseases like West Nile virus and chronic wasting disease.

I know CWD concerns all of you, and I want to take a moment to say that Interior Secretary Gale Norton understands the wildlife and economic impacts of this devastating disease. She has named me as the Department's point person on this issue and I take this responsibility very seriously. The brunt of this situation has fallen on the States, of course, since they manage deer and elk, but we also have some incidences of CWD on Federal lands – most recently on a national park in South Dakota. We are working closely with States and other Federal agencies to coordinate the fight against CWD. There is a great deal of excellent work being done on CWD, and I am confident we will win this battle.

CWD is actually a good example of why high-tech tools will never substitute completely for the meat and potatoes of old-fashioned wildlife management – good field work, and the support of America's sportsmen and women. It's observant wildlife managers and hunters and anglers in the field who report these kinds of problems – and it takes the support of hunters and anglers to address them.

As we look forward to the next hundred years, I have some concerns about maintaining that kind of support. That is why I strongly believe we must preserve the hunting tradition.

When I was a kid growing up in Pennsylvania, I used hunt and fish with my dad. With my own son, I've found that some of our greatest experiences together have been doing the same things.

These experiences allow parents and kids to bond, but they do more than that. They strengthen our tie to the natural world. Hunting and fishing instill in us a lasting respect for the outdoors. We keep a keen eye on the lay of our land and a steady finger on the pulse of our wildlife.

But I am concerned that in this increasingly urbanized world, fewer folks get the same kind of opportunities I did growing up. For the sake of our children and the future of our resources, we need to get kids to put down the Gamecube and pick up a deer rifle or a fly rod.

I'm not just saying this because hunters and anglers contribute a huge share of the money that goes back into fish and wildlife conservation. But we all know that they do, through their license fees and the Federal Aid programs for Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration. The Federal Aid program, by the way, has been one of the most successful user-pays programs the Federal Government has ever used. A small Federal tax on hunting, fishing, and boating equipment, generates substantial revenue for state conservation programs. Federal Aid gives States close to half a billion dollars each year.

Of course I'm concerned about funding for wildlife management, but I'm more concerned about what kind of publics our wildlife managers of the future will have to contend with. If we do not maintain our hunting and fishing traditons, 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.

This would be a tragedy not only for our outdoor heritage and for wildlife, but for our economy as well. The Fish and Wildlife Service conducts a survey every 5 years on the economic value of hunting, fishing, and wildlife-associated recreation. Our latest survey figures show that hunting contributes more than $20 billion dollars to the economy annually. A lot of this money is being spent in rural communities, at independent guide services, or mom-and-pop stores.

When I was Director of the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, we had a hunter recruitment program called "Pass It On." We provided mentors, youth hunting seasons, shooting opportunities, and equipment. This program is becoming very popular with Kansas youth. We also had a Walk-In Hunting Areas program which provides landowners financial incentives to conserve natural habitat and public access to private property. By doing so, it links landowners with hunters and gets landowners interested in wildlife conservation. We need more of these kinds of programs.

Let me offer a couple of thoughts on things we can all do to reverse the declining trend in hunter numbers. First, let's welcome and encourage new participants. That is where not just youth, but women and minority shooting and hunting recruitment programs come in. These programs need to keep up with America's changing demographics. We need to make sure these new participants feel welcome.

Second, let's develop more shooting ranges to increase firearm training and shooting opportunities. Just like wildlife is being displaced by urban sprawl, so are shooting ranges. We must find ways to alleviate conflicts and make room for this element of hunter education. Third, let's develop new technology to appeal to today's plugged-in youth. We need an alternative delivery system, such as CD and Internet-based instruction and 3-D hunting simulators, which provide solid shooting instruction.

Most importantly, we need to develop hunter education, not only as training on ethics and safe and responsible firearm handling, but as a portal, an open door to the actual hunting and shooting experience.

At the Fish and Wildlife Service, we are expanding fishing and hunting opportunities on refuges. Both activities were identified as priorities under the Refuge Improvement Act, and I think that says a lot. In essence, it confirms how important it is to continue those traditions which have so often supported conservation. We are also establishing youth hunting days for waterfowl hunting.

Theodore Roosevelt understood the importance of planning for the future. We too must plan ahead. Certainly, our children, and their children, will grow up under circumstances that differ vastly from ours, just as we did from our parents and grandparents.

In closing, I'd like to invite all of you to join us as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Wildlife Refuge System. Come out to a National Wildlife Refuge, and bring your family. As you enjoy the wonderful diversity of the Refuge System, I hope you'll consider that today we are in much the same position that Roosevelt was in 1903. We are at a time of great technological change, and we don't know what the future will bring. But we know we want to pass on the outdoor sporting tradition, and conserve our wildlife resources for the future.

Theodore Roosevelt succeeded, and left us a great legacy. By working together, I believe we too can succeed, and leave a similar legacy for our children and grandchildren.

Thank you.