USFWS Final Rule Expands Hunting and Fishing Access Across Refuges and Hatcheries

Hunters and anglers just got one of the biggest public-access wins the refuge system has ever seen.

The Department of the Interior says a new U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service final rule will add 1,488 hunting and sportfishing opportunities across 32 states. More than 92 million acres — over 95 percent of National Wildlife Refuge System lands — are now available for hunting where it is compatible with conservation.

The rule increases access at 111 field stations, including 107 national wildlife refuges and four national fish hatcheries. It also creates first-time hunting or fishing opportunities at 14 refuges and three hatcheries, while expanding upland game, migratory bird, big-game, and sportfishing access in other places.

There is another important piece here: USFWS says it is making more than 1,000 regulatory modifications to clean up station-specific rules and better align federal regulations with state fish and wildlife laws. That matters because hunters and anglers should not need a law degree to know where they can legally hunt or fish on public ground.

Access is conservation when it is managed right. License buyers, duck stamp buyers, Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson dollars, local economies, and families passing this life on all depend on actual places to go. Public land that locks out legal harvest is not serving the whole public. Open it, manage it, enforce the rules, and let responsible sportsmen do what we have always done: use the resource and pay to keep it healthy.