The Boone and Crockett Club has had a history of working closely with the Secretary of the Interior dating back to Secretary, and Club member, John W. Noble (1889-1893) who set aside the first forest reserves, which birthed the national forest system. Last week, the Senate confirmed David Bernhardt to lead the Department of the Interior and the Boone and Crockett Club looks forward to working closely with the Secretary.
“Having issues of importance to sportsmen heard at the highest levels of government has been the hallmark of the conservation movement,” said Timothy C. Brady, president of the Boone and Crockett Club. “After all it was sportsmen who led this movement well over a century ago. The only thing different today is the business of conservation has become more complex requiring an even more balanced approach between the opportunities for both conservation and economic development.”
The Club’s founder, Theodore Roosevelt, recognized this balance and once said, “Conservation means development as much as it means protection.” This is why Roosevelt combined the two by creating wildlife refuges and national forests while also building irrigation works in the West that enabled farms and cities to feed and house the region.
Brady said, “Conservation today is not much different than its beginnings, except that now every conceivable demand on the Department has an organized constituency pressing it. Combine this with the fact that ‘conservation’ has lost its meaning in the polarized fray of environmental politics, and the Secretary has his work cut out for him.”
“We’ve been working with David already and believe he is up to the task,” Brady concluded. “He has expressed a keen interest in listening and then acting on common sense recommendations that will benefit wildlife and all those who value these resources.”