The U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee approved on June 28 the fiscal year 2013 Interior and Environment Appropriations bill that includes $7.5 million to expand and enhance access for hunting, fishing and recreational shooting on U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management lands. If included in the final appropriations measure, the funding will allow the Forest Service and BLM to acquire rights-of-way and other land interests from willing-seller landowners to open access to existing federal lands for hunting and fishing where it is closed or significantly restricted. A 2004 report to the House Committee on Appropriations concluded that more than 35 million acres of BLM and Forest Service land have inadequate access. Specifically, nearly 2 million acres (or 10 percent) of Forest Service lands in Montana and 8.4 million acres (or 29 percent) of BLM lands in the Montana/Dakotas region were identified as having inadequate access.—courtesy National Shooting Sports Foundation
