Status update: The governor has decided to not sign the bill at this time. There may be an opportunity for consideration during the October 2023 special session. Houston Safari Club has sent additional correspondence to the governor’s office in support of a change in the Texas raffle laws and requested that the topic be addressed during the October special session. Background: Non-profit organizations in Texas are currently not allowed to sell raffle tickets online. HSC has been involved in the effort to allow Texas-based non-profit organizations to market and sell raffle tickets online, for the past three Texas legislative sessions. A House bill was approved earlier this year. HSC provided testimony in favor of the bill before the Texas House Licensing & Administrative Procedures Committee in March. A Senate bill, mirroring the House bill language, is in process. If passed, these changes would allow for fundraising related to raffles on a greater scale. Reach out to your local Representative and let them know you support HB 2138 and your Senator, in support of SB 1582.
Hunter Safety, Archery Education & Wilderness Education Programs In Schools
Houston Safari Club joined thirty-nine other hunting, fishing, and outdoor recreation organizations to express its displeasure that the U.S. Department of Education will no longer permit Elementary and Secondary Education Act grants to be used for hunter safety, archery education or wilderness education programs. The full body of the letter sent to the Secretary of Education is below:
Houston Safari Club (HSC) is a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization dedicated to legislative and policy initiatives that may affect the future of hunting. HSC supports initiatives that protect the tradition of hunting and hunters’ rights. We take an active role in efforts to effect policy, protocols, and legislation. Our mission is to protect the rights of hunters and the hunting heritage through advocacy, policy, and legislation. Houston Safari Club (HSC) is a non-profit organization, exempt from federal income tax, under section 501(c)(4) of the United States Internal Revenue Code. Payments to HSC are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. Please contact your tax advisor concerning deductibility of any payments as business deductions. HSC EIN: 76-0082197. HSC is an independent organization, is not affiliated with Safari Club International (SCI) or its affiliates and is not a chapter or affiliate of any other organization.
Non-profit organizations in Texas are currently not allowed to sell raffle tickets online. HSC has been involved in the effort to allow Texas-based non-profit organizations to market and sell raffle tickets online, for the past three Texas legislative sessions. A House bill was approved earlier this year. HSC provided testimony in favor of the bill before the Texas House Licensing & Administrative Procedures Committee in March. A Senate bill, mirroring the House bill language, is in process. If passed, these changes would allow for fundraising related to raffles on a greater scale. Reach out to your local Representative and let them know you support HB 2138 and your Senator, in support of SB 1582. Status update: The governor has decided to not sign the bill at this time. There may be an opportunity for consideration during the summer 2023 special session.
Lead Ammunition & Tackle Ban on the National Wildlife Refuge System
USFWS Director Martha Williams has decided to reject the Center for Biological Diversity’s petition and not undertake a national rulemaking concerning lead ammunition and tackle on the National Wildlife Refuge System. HSC is in support of H.R. 615 and S. 1185, the Protecting Access for Hunters and Anglers Act of 2023 to prohibit the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture from prohibiting the use of lead ammunition or tackle on certain Federal land or water under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture, and for other purposes.
UK Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill
The Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill, currently before the Lords, is intended to ban the import of hunting trophies from a list of around 6000 species (as listed in a European Council Regulation now referred to in the Bill as the Principal Wildlife Trade Regulation). The bill has received approval in the House of Commons and is currently under consideration by the House of Lords.
Research & Management of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)
HSC joined other organizations expressing support of $30 million in federal funding for the research and management of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) as part of the FY24 appropriations process. Passage of the Chronic Wasting Disease Research and Management Act in the 117th Congress authorized additional annual funding to be divided equally between CWD research and state and tribal CWD management efforts. Though this bill authorized up to $70 million for research and management programming annually, the group is seeking $30 million in FY24 based on demonstrated need in FY23.
Houston Safari Club (HSC) is a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization dedicated to legislative and policy initiatives that may affect the future of hunting. HSC supports initiatives that protect the tradition of hunting and hunters’ rights. We take an active role in efforts to effect policy, protocols, and legislation. Our mission is to protect the rights of hunters and the hunting heritage through advocacy, policy, and legislation. Houston Safari Club (HSC) is a non-profit organization, exempt from federal income tax, under section 501(c)(4) of the United States Internal Revenue Code. Payments to HSC are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. Please contact your tax advisor concerning deductibility of any payments as business deductions. HSC EIN: 76-0082197. HSC is an independent organization, is not affiliated with Safari Club International (SCI) or its affiliates and is not a chapter or affiliate of any other organization.
Non-profit organizations in Texas are currently not allowed to sell raffle tickets online. HSC has been involved in the effort to allow Texas-based non-profit organizations to market and sell raffle tickets online, for the past three Texas legislative sessions. A House bill was approved earlier this year. HSC provided testimony in favor of the bill before the Texas House Licensing & Administrative Procedures Committee in March. A Senate bill, mirroring the House bill language, is in process. If passed, these changes would allow for fundraising related to raffles on a greater scale. Reach out to your local Representative and let them know you support HB 2138 and your Senator, in support of SB 1582.
New York Big 5 Act
The state of New York is once again attempting to ban the import of legally and ethically hunted game animals. The “Big Five African Trophies Act” to ban the importation, transportation and possession of certain African wildlife species and products has been reintroduced for the 2023-2024 session. The animals included are the African Elephant, African Leopard, African Lion, Black Rhinoceros, White Rhinoceros and African Giraffe. The bill also requires the owner of any part or taxidermy of the listed animals to obtain a certificate of possession from the secretary of state, even if they are in possession of such if this law should be passed. This bill has been passed by the Senate and must pass the Assembly before being sent to the Governor for approval.
Cottonwood Fix
Houston Safari Club joined several conservation organizations to petition the Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources to request the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources favorably report the Bipartisan Manchin/Daines, Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute to S. 2561, the “Cottonwood Fix”. Since the Ninth Circuit Court issued the 2015 Cottonwood Environmental Law Center v. United States Forest Service (Cottonwood) decision, the Forest Service (USFS) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) have been required to reinitiate consultation with the Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Land Management and Forest Management Plans at the programmatic level when new Endangered Species Act (ESA) information came to light. This continues to block and slow many essential USFS forest management, wildlife habitat enhancement and wildfire fuel reduction projects.
Forest Conservation Easement Program
Houston Safari Club was part of a consortium of conservation organizations expressing support for the creation of a Forest Conservation Easement Program (FCEP) in the Farm Bill. The purpose of FCEP is to keep forests as forests through the use of conservation easements that purchase development rights from willing private landowners to prevent conversion to non-forest uses. Private forests in a conservation easement can remain privately owned and working. FCEP accomplishes this via two program components: Forest Land Easements (modeled after Agricultural Land Easements under NRCS’s Agricultural Conservation Easement Program) and Forest Reserve Easements (as the successor to NRCS’s Healthy Forests Reserve Program). Private forests comprise 58% of all forested land in the U.S. While the total area of forestland in the U.S. has been largely stable historically, private forests now face significant threats, mainly from conversion to housing and urban development. A stand-alone Forest Conservation Easement Program would be the successor to and expansion of the Healthy Forests Reserve Program that ensures private forestland remains intact and in production, continuing to provide numerous benefits to rural and urban communities. FCEP expands upon HFRP by providing an opportunity for eligible entities, like land trusts, to hold forest conservation easements.
Fiscal Year 2024 Operations and Maintenance Funding for the U.S. National Wildlife Refuge System
Houston Safari Club expressed its support for the continued funding of the U.S. National Wildlife Refuge System. The budget increased in Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 to $541 million for the U.S National Wildlife Refuge System (the System) and the President has proposed a 2024 budget of $624 million for the System. A recommendation was made for the FY24 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations bill, to provide the System with even more robust funding to correct both historic underfunding and meet the growing needs of the System. Hunting and fishing are fundamentally linked to the System, and trace back to earliest days of the refuge System. With the passage of the Wildlife Refuge Improvement Act of 1997, Congress recognized wildlife-dependent recreational uses, which includes hunting and fishing, as priority uses in refuge planning and management.
Houston Safari Club (HSC) is a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization dedicated to legislative and policy initiatives that may affect the future of hunting. HSC supports initiatives that protect the tradition of hunting and hunters’ rights. We take an active role in efforts to effect policy, protocols, and legislation. Our mission is to protect the rights of hunters and the hunting heritage through advocacy, policy, and legislation. Houston Safari Club (HSC) is a non-profit organization, exempt from federal income tax, under section 501(c)(4) of the United States Internal Revenue Code. Payments to HSC are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. Please contact your tax advisor concerning deductibility of any payments as business deductions. HSC EIN: 76-0082197. HSC is an independent organization, is not affiliated with Safari Club International (SCI) or its affiliates and is not a chapter or affiliate of any other organization.
BRI research technician Nicole Dickan sits with an anaesthetized black bear that was recently outfitted with a tracking collar. Photo Credit: Borderlands Research Institute
TPWF is partnering with the Borderlands Research Institute (BRI) at Sul Ross State University on a research program investigating the natural repopulation of black bears in West Texas. This research project seeks to understand the region’s current black bear population and habitat needs, monitor their range expansion in West Texas, and foster that expansion through science-based management strategies.
“We are grateful to Houston Safari Club Foundation (HSCF) for its decades-long partnership protecting the wild things and wild places of Texas. In addition to supporting training and equipment for Texas Game Wardens, Trans-Pecos pronghorn restoration, and mentored hunting experiences for the next generation of conservation stewards, we’re excited for HSCF’s most recent gift for research on the black bear population now returning to West Texas. Thanks to generous donors, this research project will help us better understand the ecology of this iconic species to minimize human-bear conflicts and inform management decisions,” said Anne Brown, Executive Director of Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation.
“Conservation of wildlife and habitat is an integral part of our mission at HSCF. Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation has been a valued, long-time partner of HSCF and we are honored to be part of this critical research study,” stated Joe Betar, HSCF Executive Director.
About Houston Safari Club Foundation Houston Safari Club Foundation (HSCF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to preserve the sport of hunting through education, conservation, and the promotion of our hunting heritage. HSCF has awarded 646 scholarships totaling $2.92 million dollars. HSCF conducts youth outdoor education programs, career training, hunter education and field experiences throughout the year. HSCF has provided over $4 million in grants for hunter-funded wildlife, habitat, and various conservation initiatives. HSCF is an independent organization, is not affiliated with Safari Club International (SCI) or its affiliates and is not a chapter or affiliate of any other organization. Visit our website at wehuntwegive.org or call 713.623.8844 for more information. HSCF. We Hunt. We Give.
HSC, along with Conservation Force and Dallas Safari Club, requested that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provide a 60-day extension of a comment period for its proposed revisions to its elephant regulation entitled Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Revision to the Section 4(d) Rule for African Elephant and requested inclusion of the petition for revision of 50 CFR 17.40(e)(6)(E) jointly filed by Conservation Force, Dallas Safari Club and Houston Safari Club on September 28, 2022 to revise section (6)(E) of the same special 4(d) rule that limits trophy imports to two elephant per annum regardless of the period taken.
2023 Farm Bill Development
Houston Safari Club aligned with several NGO’s, to submit an offer of assistance for development of the 2023 Farm Bill, to the House Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry and Senate Agriculture Committee. The offer requested the prioritization of fish and wildlife related to enhancing, restoring, and conserving natural resources on private lands to provide broad ecosystem services, including providing fish and wildlife habitat, improving water quality and quantity, and promoting landscape resilience.
Professional Hunters Association of South Africa (PHASA) Endorsement of updated MTPA Bowhunting Policy
Houston Safari Club is part of an effort, in support of the Ashby Bowhunting Foundation, expressed their endorsement and support of PHASA’s recommended changes and updates to the Mpumalanga Nature Conservation Act Bowhunting Policy. PHASA is lobbying for updates to the Bowhunting Policy to bring the policy current, including the legalization of bowhunting pachyderms. In PHASA’s effort to bring this policy current, PHASA has requested assistance from the Ashby Bowhunting Foundation, a non-profit organization that is the leading global authority on arrow lethality with a cumulative of nearly fifty years of research and data that shows these animals can be ethically and humanely harvested with bowhunting equipment if specific guidelines are followed.
Tajikistan Argali (Marco Polo) Imports
HSC, in partnership with Wild Sheep Foundation (WSF), Safari Club International (SCI), Safari Club International Foundation
(SCIF), Dallas Safari Club (DSC), Dallas Safari Club Foundation (DSCF), Grand Slam Club/Ovis (GSCO), International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation (CIC), Conservation Force (CF), and IUCN SSC CEESP Sustainable Use & Livelihoods Specialist Group (IUCN SULi), provided a letter to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior support the methodology, repeatability, and reliability of a 2021 Tajikistan Marco Polo survey. The reason for the correspondence is based on concern regarding the continued denial of 2021 import permit applications and the failure to process any Tajikistan import permit applications since the 2021 period denials. The letter stated that this delay is unacceptable to the sustainable use conservation community, and most alarming, is now jeopardizing the most successful argali conservation and restoration program in Central Asia. USFWS preciously stated that the delay and denials are because information the USFWS has requested from the Tajikistan CITES authority has not yet been provided by said authority. The task force issuing the letter saw no justification for the lack of movement other than vague references to the above and request the Department provide the specific information that the Tajikistan CITES authority has not yet provided with a commitment to work with both the USFWS and the Tajikistan CITES authority to bridge what may be a communication gap and help assure that necessary information is provided.
Houston Safari Club (HSC) is a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization dedicated to legislative and policy initiatives that may affect the future of hunting. HSC supports initiatives that protect the tradition of hunting and hunters’ rights. We take an active role in efforts to effect policy, protocols, and legislation. Our mission is to protect the rights of hunters and the hunting heritage through advocacy, policy, and legislation. Houston Safari Club (HSC) is a non-profit organization, exempt from federal income tax, under section 501(c)(4) of the United States Internal Revenue Code. Payments to HSC are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. Please contact your tax advisor concerning deductibility of any payments as business deductions. HSC EIN: 76-0082197. HSC is an independent organization, is not affiliated with Safari Club International (SCI) or its affiliates and is not a chapter or affiliate of any other organization.
HSC Part Of Request To U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) For Shooting Range Projects in New Mexico
HSC expressed its willingness to work in partnership as part of a plan to develop and expand a framework of cooperation among groups at the national, regional, and local levels for planning and implementing mutually beneficial projects and activities related to hunting, fishing, and shooting sports conducted on federal lands. Specifically, comments were provided in regard to BLM’s Notice of Intent (NOI) To Amend the Taos Resource Management Plan and Prepare an Environmental Assessment for the Proposed Recreational Shooting Range Project on Public Lands in Santa Fe County. One concern was that the shooting ranges under consideration for lands managed by the Field Office will result in the premature closure of surrounding public lands currently open to dispersed recreational shooting. The preliminary planning criteria identified in the NOI for the plan amendment includes several important considerations including: the closure to a public land use will be applied to the smallest area necessary to provide for public safety, sustainable resource management, and the protection of important resource values, consistent with the Dingell Act of 2019.
HSC Petitions Climate, Energy, Environment, and Science Office of Management & Budget For Migration Corridors
Houston Safari Club aligned with several NGO’s to encourage the Department of the Interior (DOI) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to implement administration priorities to maintain, conserve, and enhance wildlife migration corridors and seasonal ranges, especially for big game species. To successfully implement these priorities, specific and sufficient funding is necessary. Historically, funding for these efforts has been redirected from existing agency budgets and programs, competing for limited agency resources. This uncertain and underfunded approach has created challenges for consistent implementation by the agencies and their partners from year to year. The request to OMB is to work with the agencies as they develop the President’s Fiscal Year 2024 budget to consolidate and target sufficient funding to address the needs of conserving wildlife migration corridors and ranges.
HSC Opposes Michigan House Bill 6192
Houston Safari Club expressed opposition in a letter to the Michigan Senate Oversight Committee in regard to HB 6192. This proposed legislation would strip the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) of its ability to make necessary and informed decisions to suspend or regulate the open seasons of fish, fur-bearing wildlife, and waterfowl species when those species are in danger of depletion or extermination. The legislation removes the Michigan DNR’s authority to suspend open seasons of certain species without an alternative plan of wildlife management being provided.
Houston Safari Club (HSC) is a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization dedicated to legislative and policy initiatives that may affect the future of hunting. HSC supports initiatives that protect the tradition of hunting and hunters’ rights. We take an active role in efforts to effect policy, protocols, and legislation. Our mission is to protect the rights of hunters and the hunting heritage through advocacy, policy, and legislation. Houston Safari Club (HSC) is a non-profit organization, exempt from federal income tax, under section 501(c)(4) of the United States Internal Revenue Code. Payments to HSC are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. Please contact your tax advisor concerning deductibility of any payments as business deductions. HSC EIN: 76-0082197. HSC is an independent organization, is not affiliated with Safari Club International (SCI) or its affiliates and is not a chapter or affiliate of any other organization.
Houston Safari Club Foundation (HSCF) is a non-profit organization, exempt from federal income tax, under section 501(c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code. The charitable deduction for contributions to HSCF is the cash amount of the contribution, less the value of goods and services received, to the extent permitted by law. HSCF EIN 74-2177975. Please contact your tax advisor concerning deductibility of any payments as business deductions. HSCF is an independent organization, is not affiliated with Safari Club International (SCI) or its affiliates and is not a chapter or affiliate of any other organization.
