Firearm Industry Helps Idaho Recruit Hunters

The firearm industry's trade association, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, has awarded a $112,000 grant to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. The foundation says the grant recognizes the agency for developing one of the nation's most promising ideas for recruiting and retaining hunters. "We rewarded the strongest concepts for strengthening America's hunting and conservation system into the future. Recipients this year have developed proposals that are creative and far-sighted and resolve some of the real barriers facing hunters today," foundation President Doug Painter said. Idaho's proposal is to survey hunters, anglers and landowners to evaluate overall success of Idaho's ACCESS YES! program. ACCESS YES! creates public hunting opportunities on and across private lands, with a goal of using easements and leases to acquire access to 700,000 acres of public land through private property by March 2007. "The National Shooting Sports Foundation is a wonderful partner, and I know we will convert that support into significant and direct benefits for sportsmen through long-term public land access and for landowners with our Responsive Management Survey," said Jim Unsworth, wildlife bureau chief with Fish and Game. The grant was made through the 45-year-old foundation's Hunting Heritage Partnership program, which this year awarded $365,000 in grants to nine state conservation agencies chosen from 19 proposals from 15 states. This is the fourth year of the grant program. To date, the program has allocated more than $1.7 million to 33 states. "More and more, state conservation agencies nationwide are getting into marketing, youth programs, responsive management and human dimensions research," Painter said. "Our industry believes that's vital, and we're willing to help pay for it."