Anti-wildlife lobbyists ask for more of our taxes

The group called Sportsmen for Fish & Wildlife is seeking $500,000 from the Utah legislature. Along with its sister organizations Big Game Forever and Stag Consulting, this group has received more than $12 million from the state to politicize wildlife management while fighting in court to keep Utahns from knowing how they spent the funds. The group was the subject of a legislative audit for inappropriately commingling money from public and private sources, and there is a direct connection with the Utah Lake islands project (details below). They have been called out by multiple groups ranging from the National Rifle Association to Utah's Legislative Auditor General.

Starting tomorrow with the appropriations process, our legislators will decide whether to use more of our money to support this group. There are 20 legislators on the Executive Appropriations Committee. You can find their emails listed on pages 15 and 16 of the Great Salt Lake Audubon Society's legislative update. Please take a few minutes to email or text these legislators to refuse the "Hunter Nation" funding request. Many budget items only get a brief mention, and your message could make sure that our taxes are used for their best and highest purpose. The legislative update also recommends several good uses of funds, including water conservation for Great Salt Lake.

It doesn't come natural to many of us, but having the courage to send a short and polite message can make a big difference. Thank you for your concern and action at this important time.

Here is some background on these guys that I put together for my blog post last year:

[This group] has a history of faux-conservation activities and personal enrichment from public funds. Though they present themselves as champions of the private sector, their two environmental consulting firms have together taken $12 million in taxpayer dollars while refusing to disclose how they used the funds. Big Game Forever (BGF) has been seeking to delist the gray wolf (a species that does not currently occur in Utah), and Stag Consulting has been trying to keep the greater sage grouse (which is in decline across the West) from being listed as threatened. Their original organization called Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife has been accused of insider dealing and corruption. 

Questions about state payments to these organizations led to a legislative audit, which found BGF had commingled private funds with state money, and that there were inadequate safeguards and fiscal accountability. They reported to the state that BGF had more than 100,000 members, but independent reporting found fewer than 600 members, based on the membership fees reported in taxes.

Indeed, their anti-science advocacy has raised the ire of hunters and sportsmen across the West, who have spoken out about his companies' misuse of hunting license fees, attacks on public land and public hunting, and concerns about shifting money among 10 nonprofit and private organizations. Randy Newberg, one of the most prominent hunters in North America, takes these groups groups to task in his podcast, calling them "Johnny-come-latelys" and "carnies of crisis" who have muddied the water and harmed collaborative restoration and conservation efforts:

I'm referring to a group that tried to say they were representing hunters in the wolf issue, and they screwed us over so bad that if they would have just shut up and went home, we would have a way better outcome, a quicker outcome... I mean let's face it, there are some people who know that a crisis is an opportunity to profit, and nobody has built a franchise model any better than those groups out of Utah. And I don't mean to make this a bash those guys thing, but they stick their nose where it doesn't belong, they don't have any professional qualifications like you do. They’re manned by attorneys and other stuff.

These groups even got called out by three of the most powerful pro-hunting organizations in the country when they emailed a press release to all 535 members of the U.S. congress falsely claiming endorsement. The hunting groups issued a joint public statement to disavow all affiliation: 

Today the National Rifle Association, Safari Club International and the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation publicly disavowed a misleading press release distributed on Friday, March 11th to congressional offices and other outlets. The press release blatantly misrepresents the position of these organizations regarding legislation to delist gray wolves under the Endangered Species Act...Due to the blatant misrepresentation contained in the press release circulated by these two groups, any claims they make in the future should be thoroughly investigated and independently confirmed.