[Music]
[Narration] This is the face of conservation in America.
And this is the face of conservation America.
Hunters, anglers, shooters, and boaters.
Through the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Funds along with hunting and fishing license
sales, these are the people that provide the funding for real fish and wildlife conservation.
[Clayton Wolf] Wildlife Sport Fish Restoration Funds that
come to Texas and all the other states are significant.
They're a significant part of the Wildlife Division Budget they pay for many wildlife
conservation activities out there, monitoring of wildlife populations, and also our biologists
working with private landowners to give them the technical guidance they need when they're
seeking advice and managing their habitat for the benefit of wildlife for all Texans.
[Narration] This funding source began in 1937 with the
passage of the Pittman-Robertson Act.
It created an excise tax on firearms, ammunition and archery equipment.
Since then other legislation followed, some taxing sport fishing equipment and motorboat
fuels.
Together, these laws are called the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program.
For over 75 years it has contributed more than 12 billion dollars to fish and wildlife
conservation nationwide.
Over the years in Texas we have received 650 million dollars.
[Rosie Roegner] This critical funding has allowed Texas to
do things like purchase Wildlife management Areas and operate them, conduct important
wildlife research, restore native habitat, and even populations of wildlife.
Some of the species restored were turkey, pronghorn, deer, waterfowl species have come
back.
We're still working on bighorn sheep.
[Narration] Aquatic species have also benefitted and fishing
in Texas is better than it has ever been, thanks to these funds.
[David Terre] Really the Sport Fish Restoration funds provides
about 18 million dollars to the state of Texas each year.
This is huge for our state.
Most of those monies are spent on managing freshwater and saltwater fisheries resources,
doing research.
[Biologist] 204
[David Terre] Doing habitat protection and also for stocking
fish.
[Biologist] There they go.
[David Terre] These funds have been used to create literally
hundreds of boat ramps, fishing piers that people can use to access our public water
bodies throughout the state of Texas.
[Narration] Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration funds
also support outreach and angler education, hunter education and training, leasing of
some public hunting lands, and the construction of target ranges and other public shooting
facilities.
Angler Alright, we ready to put him back in?
[Rosie Roegner]
Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act was passed about 75 years ago so we're celebrating
the anniversary this year.
Today many wildlife species face new challenges to survival but one thing's for sure, without
the financial support provided over the years by America's sportsmen and women, the relative
abundance of wildlife we enjoy today would not have been possible.
[Narration] Most people are completely unaware that they
are the ones that fund the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program because the manufacturers
of the products pay these taxes directly to the federal government.
[Laura Huffman] Well here is the message to hunters and anglers
and boaters, you're some of the best conservationists in the state and when you invest in those
activities that connect you to the great places in Texas, you're also investing in their protection.
[Carter Smith] You know there's no greater tradition in our
state than the history of hunters and anglers investing in the future of their fish and
game.
Today we're celebrating 75 years of that tradition.
Every single one of our Texas anglers and hunters has made a difference in the future
of their lands and waters and fish and wildlife in the state.
Without your investments as a hunter and angler, we wouldn't have wild turkey, we wouldn't
have white-tailed deer, we wouldn't have bighorn sheep.
We also wouldn't have recovered species like the brown pelican and so hunters and anglers
have paved the way for every single one of us now and to come who care about our great
future and we owe every one of you an enormous debt of gratitude.
[Narration] Over the years the faces have changed but
the legacy of conservation by hunters, shooters, anglers and boaters continues, 75 years and
counting.