Tuesday, August 26, 2008

National Hunting and Fishing Day to be celebrated Sept. 27

By Pegasus News wire

Sometimes it's the fish who do the hunting.

Hunting and Fishing Day in Texas and across the nation is slated for Sept. 27 and every outdoors person is encouraged to extend a natural invitation to family, friends, neighbors and co-workers to step outside and share the values and the fun of the outdoors.

That invitation is being extended to Texans on Oct. 4-5 during Texas Parks & Wildlife Expo at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s headquarters complex.

A wide range of activities will mark Hunting and Fishing Day nationwide sponsored by sportsman’s clubs, conservation groups and civic agencies. Texas Parks & Wildlife Expo, while scheduled for Oct. 4-5, is working toward the same end, introducing the young and old to the outdoors.

Dozens of outdoor-related events will be ongoing throughout Expo, including demonstrations, adult and youth shooting, casting clinics and demonstrations, youth fishing derby, seminars and others.

Texas Parks & Wildlife Expo is designed to create public awareness to the importance of hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation; focus public attention on the contributions hunters, fishermen and other outdoor users have made to preserve the abundant wildlife and natural resources of Texas; inform new generations of Texans about the history of hunting, fishing and the outdoors; and underscore the critical role of hunting, fishing and the outdoors in wildlife management and conservation.

At the urging of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, Congress designated National Hunting and Fishing Day on the fourth Saturday of every September as a public reminder that good conservation depends on hunters, anglers and shooters. In fact, through licenses and excise taxes, these outdoor enthusiasts generate $100,000 every 30 minutes for fish, wildlife and habitat programs.

In Texas, hunting and fishing contribute more than $14 billion annually to the state’s economy, according to data in the 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation.

Findings from the report indicate the economic effect from Texas hunters, anglers and wildlife watchers was estimated to be $14.4 billion

Hunting and fishing play an important ecological role by managing wildlife populations and creating a healthy environment.

It has been more than a century since America’s first environmentalists — hunters and anglers — established the conservation tradition in our nation. These early environmentalists warned that the population growth and industrial development that offered prosperity for our nation also created serious threats to the future of our wildlife resources. Hunters and anglers fought for the laws and regulations that created a new system of wildlife management that would rescue many species of wildlife from near extinction and would set aside millions of acres of important habitat to help ensure future wildlife abundance.

In Texas, efforts by anglers helped create protection of red drum and other aquatic resources from commercial over-harvest, as well as conservation of aquatic habitat such as seagrasses and the control of invasive exotic aquatic vegetation.

Source: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

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