Boone and Crockett Club Welcomes Opportunity to Implement Collaborative Conservation Through 30 by 30 Proposal

MISSOULA, Mont. – The Boone and Crockett Club welcomed today’s release of the Biden Administration’s Conserving and Restoring America the Beautiful report guiding implementation of the 30 by 30 vision. The report outlines a broad framework for meeting the goals set forth by President Biden in January to conserve 30% of the nation’s lands and waters by the year 2030. The plan’s eight principles emphasize the importance of collaborative, locally led conservation efforts that honor private property rights and encourage an approach that uses science to build on existing successful strategies. In addition, the recommendations include six areas of early focus that support voluntary conservation efforts, embrace programs that are showing results on the ground, and promote outdoor recreational access—priorities that have been put forward by the hunting-conservation community through the Hunt-Fish 30x30 coalition.

“The Boone and Crockett Club supports the broad framework of this vision and welcomes the opportunity to work with the Administration to ensure that it leads to attainable landscape conservation that benefits those that live, work, and recreate in the areas where the vast amount of biodiversity in this country still remains,” said Jim Arnold, president of the Boone and Crockett Club. “How 30 by 30 is implemented can make or break the success of the initiative—and ensuring continued broad public support for conservation, particularly through continued access to the great outdoors, is essential. We appreciate that this administration has embraced the recommendations of the hunting and fishing community to ensure that the conservation foundation developed by visionaries like Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot, Aldo Leopold, and others continues into the 21st Century.”

Meeting the aspirational 30 by 30 goal will depend on implementing collaborative conservation efforts that are already being embraced by local communities and are making a difference for biodiversity and land conservation. The Club and partners in the Hunt-Fish 30x30 coalition met with Administration officials to outline programs that have been used successfully for decades. Many of these examples were included in the report released today, in particular recognizing the importance of outdoor recreational access, voicing support for successful big game migration corridors and seasonal ranges, and clearly articulating the importance of voluntary conservation on working landscapes. The recommendations build on programs that are already working across public and private lands through locally led initiatives and the plan places increased emphasis on engaging in tribally led conservation and restoration priorities. In addition, the report affirms support for investments in habitat restoration projects that will improve the sustainability of forests, rangelands, watersheds, and other natural systems. The priorities also focus on investing in parks and safe outdoor opportunities in places where there is disproportionately less access to nature which will better connect communities to the great outdoors.

“Our community has served as a foundation for conservation since the late 1800s, and the leadership of hunters and anglers will once again be essential to ensure we have natural systems that can support a diversity of species, as well as our way of life,” Arnold concluded. “We welcome the opportunity to work with political leaders to implement a conservation vision that will sustain our wildlife and wild places for generations to come.”