Access to hunting and fishing sites on federal lands would get improved under legislation recently introduced in the Senate. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) introduced the Hunt Unrestricted on National Treasures (HUNT) Act (S. 1554) which became available online on the official congressional website on Wednesday, Oct. 2.
You can read it here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c113:S.1554:.
At the moment, people can't enter many public lands anyway because of the government shutdown. But when they reopen, the bill would, in Heinrich's words “require federal land management agencies to identify public lands that lack public access routes, develop a plan to provide access routes to those lands that have significant potential for recreational use, and direct 1.5 percent in funds from the Land and Water Conservation Fund each year to purchase road and trail easements and rights-of-way from willing sellers who own private land adjacent to inaccessible public lands.”
Read Heinrich's statement at http://www.heinrich.senate.gov/press-releases/heinrich-introduces-bill-to-improve-hunting-and-angling-access-on-public-lands-grow-outdoor-recreation-economy-.
The bill would also require federal land managers to identify main roads leading to their facilities, which should help state and local road managers in planning.
The new rules would apply to the National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest Service, and Bureau of Land Management.
The bill was referred to the Committee on Energy & Natural Resources, where Heinrich sits. It picked up no cosponsors.
