News & Commentary | Wildlife for All

Roadblocks to good wildlife management: beavers could be the answer to flooding and drought issues caused by climate change

Jul 27, 2022

With climate change transforming the American West, an industrious mammal could help mitigate some of the worst of the coming drought and flooding crises. The West is getting drier in the dry season and more prone to flooding in the wet season. Beavers could well be a relatively low-cost part of resiliency efforts. As natural ecosystem engineers, these largest-of-North-America’s rodents “increase water storage in ponds and surrounding floodplains, thus slowing winter flows, increasing riparian and meadow water availability, and extending stream flow up to six weeks into dry summer seasons.”

Op-Ed: It’s Time to Decouple Wildlife Conservation From the Gun Lobby’s Agenda

Jul 12, 2022

By Kevin Bixby, Wildlife for All Executive Director

It’s time to get guns out of wildlife conservation.

The firearms industry and state wildlife agencies have been joined at the hip since Congress passed the Pittman-Robertson (PR) Act in 1937. The law redirected an existing federal tax on firearms and ammunition to the states to help restore depleted game populations.

At the time, taxing firearms to produce more game animals to benefit hunters under a “user pays” model made sense. It was assumed that most gun owners were hunters, and hunters were seen as the main “users” of wildlife.

The proliferation of guns in the U.S., however, has upended this model. Nonhunting gun buyers have far surpassed hunters as the main source of PR Act funds.

Editorial: Why does NM give elk-hunt permits to private landowners, fire commissioners who question the status quo?

Jul 3, 2022

By Albuquerque Journal Editorial Board

This editorial looks at the current flawed system in which New Mexico Game and Fish Commissioners are appointed and removed by the Governor with little to no oversight. This year, two commissioners were dismissed because their positions clashed with those of the governor. All appointed commissioners are supposed to by confirmed by the state Senate, although that has not happened in recent years. “The system is stacked so the only qualification to serve is showing fealty to the governor rather than making independent decisions about a resource you’re entrusted to manage and protect on behalf of the residents of New Mexico. That has to change.” State lawmakers should pass a bill that would protect commissioners from being removed simply for disagreeing with the governor on a singular issue, allowing them to do the job they were appointed to do.

WFA’s Kevin Bixby talks wildlife management reform on latest Rewinding Earth podcast

Jun 27, 2022

Wildlife for All’s Executive Director Kevin Bixby recently talked about wildlife governance reform, RAWA, Pittman-Robertson, and the overbearing influence of hunting, fishing, agriculture, the gun industry, and oil and gas on the fate of non-game species in every state on Rewinding Earth’s podcast (Episode 92).

Listen on the Rewilding Earth website

Rewilding Earth #92: Wrestling Wildlife Governance Reform from the Tight Grip of the Hunting, Fishing, and Gun Industries – Kevin Bixby

Jun 24, 2022

About Kevin Kevin is founder and executive director of the Southwest Environmental Center. He received a BS in Biology from Dartmouth College, and a MS in Natural Resources Policy at the University of Michigan.

Listen to Podcast ►

Three new Vermont Fish and Wildlife Board members with a love of hunting appointed without due process

Jun 14, 2022

By Emma Cotton

Gov. Phil Scott of Vermont recently appointed three new members to the state’s Fish and Wildlife Board. “All three cite a love of hunting that began during childhood.” Qualified candidates, including a retired environmental sciences teacher as well as a wildlife rehabber, submitted applications – yet never received any reply. Meanwhile, Scott appointed members who never submitted an application, making it clear that the Governor operates without transparency. The public has no information on these board members who are making public policy decisions on our shared public “asset” – wildlife!

Appointments to commissions need to be transparent and follow due process.

Conserving – not killing – wildlife should drive Wisconsin’s natural resources strategy

Jun 14, 2022

By Fred Koontz & Adrian Treves

This op-ed, co-authored by Wildlife for All board member Adrian Treves and Fred Koontz, examines Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources and its priorities (which are at odds with current human values and biodiversity needs). Ongoing threats to climate and biodiversity, as well as shifting human values towards wildlife, require that the DNR rethink its purpose and policies. “Clarifying the DNR’s mandate around a top priority of conserving all wildlife for all people will provide a unifying direction for the floundering board and strengthen the department’s biodiversity mission. Changing the department’s purpose recognizes that government agencies require modifications as society’s needs and public values change.”

Read article as a PDF

Lead ammo and fishing tackle is dangerous for wildlife health, yet legislators resist ban

Jun 10, 2022

By Michael Doyle

US Fish and Wildlife Service plans to open and expand hunting and fishing at 19 wildlife refuges which will open up 54,000 acres of land to hunting and fishing. While the federal agency will limit these opportunities to non-lead shells, ammo, and tackle, opposing senators have argued that “Policies or actions that reduce or limit sportsmen activities necessarily implicate wildlife conservation programs by affecting state agencies’ revenue.” These legislators are holding funding hostage in wildlife policymaking by urging the FWS Director not to ban lead – a move that is detrimental to the health and safety of humans and wildlife alike.

Four California Bumblebee species newly listed as endangered

Jun 9, 2022

By Ashley Stimpson

The California Fish and Game Commission (CFGC) recently designated four species of bumblebee as endangered species after California’s Superior Court ruled they fell under a broad definition of what constitutes a “fish”.

Former U.S. senator: Time for changes on the N.J. Fish and Wildlife Council

May 21, 2022

By Robert Torricelli

In this op-ed, former U.S. senator Torricelli makes the case for reform of the New Jersey Fish and Wildlife Council, explaining that many of the state’s regulations are not based on legitimate science. Torricelli talks about the “need to protect wildlife and all of our interests by changing the council to reflect our common humane values.”