By Cindy Sandoval, USFWS

The season has turned. Shortening days pull us outside, tugging on old instincts and traditions. It’s hunting season. It’s the final hurrah for warm weather fishing. For many of us, it’s time to come together to gather, to reflect, and to give thanks.

On cold mornings, we rise early and take to public lands and waters, sneaking in a few more days outdoors before winter settles in. We fill our freezers, share thermoses of coffee, swap stories with family and friends, and build the kind of memories that are passed down over campfires and kitchen tables.

Pheasant hunters at Peaceable Hill Farm in Vermont’s Champlain Valley. Photo Courtesy of USFWS

Memories made in the field or on the water, often come full circle at the Thanksgiving table. Of the over 1,150 species of birds and mammals in North America around 145 species can be lawfully harvested through hunting. These species contribute enormously to food resources, collectively providing billions of meals throughout the country. Over a two-year period, U.S. hunters harvested enough game for more than 1.8 billion deer meals, 272 million elk meals, and 43 million wild turkey meals, according to the Wild Harvest Initiative. These meals are not only celebrated, but are often shared with family, friends, and communities. In Texas, 42 percent of hunters reported sharing their harvest with people outside of their household. In Wyoming, over 68 percent of hunters shared their harvest. 

Across America, we have access to some of the best outdoor opportunities on Earth. Wild turkeys roam our woodlands. Native trout swim in our cold streams. Elk bugle across our mountain ranges. And in so many places, it’s ours to enjoy. It’s public. It’s abundant.

That abundance is something to be deeply thankful for, because it wasn’t always this way. We live in a golden era of conservation and public access. So golden, in fact, that we often forget this abundance was forged out of scarcity. A century ago, many of the species we see today were fighting for survival. Habitat was vanishing. Waterways were polluted. Game laws were non-existent. There was no coordinated national effort to bring wildlife back, and few dollars to do so even if there had been. 

Then came a shift. In 1937, hunters and conservationists led the charge to create lasting change. Their efforts led to the Pittman-Robertson Act, redirecting a federal excise tax on firearm and ammunition manufacturers, marking funds for wildlife restoration and habitat conservation. In 1950, angler efforts followed with the Dingell-Johnson Act, which placed a similar tax on fishing tackle manufacturers and later a portion of the fuel tax attributed to motorboat fuel. Together, these funds created the foundation of the industry-state-federal partnership that fuels American conservation.

For over 80 years, this partnership has worked in the background, putting wildlife back on the landscape and creating access for outdoor pursuits. These federal excise taxes, administered by the Office of Conservation Investment, have paid for state fish and wildlife agency biologist salaries, species restoration, fish hatcheries, wetland restoration, boat ramps, Wildlife Management Areas, public shooting ranges, and hunter education. Every state, commonwealth, and U.S. territory has benefited. Through these acts more than $27 billion have been apportioned to state fish and wildlife agencies for the management of over 500 species of mammals and birds, sport fish populations, and the habitats needed for species survival. 

When matched with state hunting and fishing license fees, these funds support conservation for current and future generations, all without costing the general taxpayer a dime. And here’s the kicker, it’s been so successful that we rarely think about it. We step out onto a Wildlife Management Area like it’s always been there. We cast into a lake certain fish have been stocked from the local state hatchery. We call in waterfowl over restored wetlands hoping the off-season practice at the public target shooting range pays off. We do all of this with a quiet assumption that this abundance of species and access will always be here. Thanks to decades of investment and continued partnership, it will. 

Sharing a waterfowl harvest and cooking techniques. Photo courtesy of Delta Waterfowl

In this season of gratitude, we give thanks for another year outdoors, for time well spent with loved ones, for meals gathered from the land and waters we all share, and for the generations of foresight that made this abundance possible.