Wildlife conservation and sportsmen groups on Tuesday voiced strong opposition to a bill that would put wildlife management under the purview of the Kentucky Department of Agriculture and its Republican commissioner.
Senate Bill 3, sponsored by Sen. Jason Howell, R-Murray, would move the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) from the tourism cabinet, overseen by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, and attach it to the agriculture department overseen by Republican Agriculture Commissioner Jonathan Shell, a former House leader who was elected to the statewide post last November.
The bill also would transfer authority for appointing Fish and Wildlife Commission members from the governor to the agriculture commissioner.
Howell told the Senate Agriculture Committee, which he chairs, that the bill is needed because of years-long conflicts between Beshear’s administration and the KDFWR. He said Beshear had tried to sweep funding from KDFWR — which is primarily funded through revenue generated by fishing and hunting license fees and doesn’t receive General Fund monies — in 2020, something a Beshear spokesperson had denied at the time.
The committee passed the bill on a near party line vote with one Republican joining Democrats in opposition.
“There’s been a problem back and forth with Fish and Wildlife and various governors for a long time,” Howell said. “There’s going to be inherent conflicts with any governor that we have for things that they want to do, or not do, and what Fish and Wildlife’s true mission is.”
Howell said he saw a lot of “synergies” from coupling wildlife management with agriculture, focusing on rural economic development. He said he had spoken to Shell and KDFWR Commissioner Rich Storm, who oversees the daily operations of the department, and that both were in favor of the bill.
But a number of Kentucky organizations representing hunters, fishers and wildlife conservationists thought much differently. Several representatives of those groups were present in the committee room wearing orange hunter vests.
Larry Richards, the legislative affairs committee chairman for the Kentuckiana Chapter of Safari Club International, said the “political outcome” of this bill would be the “immediate overhaul of this commission favoring agriculture interests.”
“The department of ag is diametrically anathema to the Fish and Wildlife department, to the biologists and the staff that work at that department, so much so as to be antithetical to the proven, science-based methodologies that have been used by the department for years,” Richards said. “This mix is oil and water, folks.”
Richards pointed out that the Kentucky Farm Bureau, a powerful lobbying presence in the state, continues to advocate for reduced wildlife populations to lessen impacts on crops and livestock.
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Categories: Kentucky, Crops, Livestock