Hosted and facilitated by the Pope and Young Club, a National Bowhunting Summit was held in Springfield, Missouri on April 17th and 18th. The historic gathering of the representatives of 32 state and provincial-level bowhunting organizations was for the purpose of sharing information and strategies on a variety of important bowhunting issues.
The U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance provided an update on the substantially increased anti-bowhunting threat as the result of the recent merger of the Humane Society of the United States and the Funds for Animals. The USSA's pro-active Bowhunter Rights Coalition is designed to fight the anti-bowhunting movement. All state bowhunting organizations can directly assist in combating anti-bowhunting efforts through their active support of the BRC.
To assist the state organizations in being more effective politically, the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation presented the CSF's rapidly expanding State Legislative Sportsmen's Caucus Program. States are organizing their sportsmen legislators through the caucus program to increase effectiveness in addressing hunting, fishing and other wildlife related issues at the state level.
"Our organization has long wanted a forum such as the National Bowhunting Summit to share ideas and strategies," stated Mike Foust, president of the United Bowhunters of Pennsylvania. "Many of the issues that individual states and provinces face are being experienced, or have been experienced, in other parts of the country. The summit provided the opportunity to address many of those issues and put in place the means to accomplish effective follow-on networking."
The organizational representatives at the Bowhunting Summit were unanimous in their opposition to crossbows being allowed in bow seasons. The position taken is that crossbows are not bows and therefore they should not be allowed in bowhunting only seasons, except where the states already have exemptions for qualified physical disabilities.
To further address important bowhunting issues, the state and provincial organizations will meet again August 6th and 7th at the Pope and Young Club's headquarters in Chatfield, Minnesota.
