Regarding the March 13 Guest Commentary by Will Coggin, “President’s lock-up of lands prevents their use”: The piece attacks the president’s recent use of authority under the Antiquities Act to designate a national monument in Southern California. Coggin also attempts to disparage the integrity of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and other sportsmen’s groups that recently released an approach to creating national monuments where local hunters and anglers are in favor of the designation.
These attacks are disingenuous and blatantly hypocritical. Coggin writes from the Environmental Policy Alliance, a front-group for industry lobbyists, and yet he presumes to tell readers who the real sportsmen are. Character assassination is easy. Working on complex policy solutions — those that balance the needs of fish, wildlife, and sportsmen with the many other demands on our nation’s natural resources — is difficult.
The TRCP is beholden to no funder. The only litmus test we ever apply is what science indicates is good for fish and wildlife, and therefore America’s sportsmen. And that is why we joined dozens of hunting and fishing groups in producing a report that outlines places where national monuments augment sportsmen’s access and protect species or habitat we value. The findings focus on a smart and collaborative way forward for national monuments, rather than distracting and divisive anti-government rhetoric.
When sportsmen work together, sportsmen win. But this is something Coggin clearly does not want to see happen. I urge your readers to see through these attacks and question why Coggin so desperately wants to weaken the voice of hunters and fishermen.
Whit Fosburgh
President and CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership
Washington, D.C.
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