Kentucky hunters, anglers decry proposal to put Fish and Wildlife under agriculture department

Edwin Nighbert, president of the League of Kentucky Sportsmen, speaks against Senate Bill 3. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

FRANKFORT —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. 

Richards also criticized Howell over what he described as lack of transparency surrounding SB 3, saying sportsmen’s groups were not contacted at all before the bill was filed. He noted that SB 3 was filed on the very last day for filing bills in the Kentucky Senate — leaving  stakeholders less time to respond than if the bill had been filed earlier in the session which began in January. 

No representatives from the Kentucky Department of Agriculture or the KDFWR spoke at the committee meeting. A call to a Kentucky Department of Agriculture spokesperson was not returned. 

Lisa Jackson, a KDFWR spokesperson, in a statement said Storm wanted a change in SB 3 to maintain “the agency’s operational independence.”

“Commissioner Storm appreciates any opportunities to engage in conversations with bill sponsors and works to maintain positive relationships with all members of the Legislative and Executive branches,” Jackson said in her statement. 

KDFWR is administratively attached to the state executive branch through the Kentucky Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet. But the department does manage much of its duties independently, including issuing and enforcing a number of hunting and fishing regulations; managing wildlife through maintaining a mussel nursery and controlling a number of wildlife management areas; and maintaining a mussel nursery; and overseeing hunting seasons for deer, elk, turkey, bears and other wildlife. 

SB 3 would also strip the power of the governor to appoint commissioners to the nine-member Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commission, a volunteer board of hunters and anglers who oversee the department and tens of millions of dollars of revenue received from the sale of hunting and fishing licenses. 

The commission is made up of representatives of nine districts representing hunters and anglers around the state, and these sportspeople nominate a commissioner through a vote at a meeting in their district. A list of the top five vote-getters from that meeting are then sent to the governor, who can then appoint a member to the commission or reject the list, restarting the nomination process. Any appointments made by the governor must be confirmed by the Kentucky Senate.

SB 3 would instead give Republican Agriculture Commissioner Shell the power to choose from the nomination lists, including nominating candidates for five Fish and Wildlife Commission appointments made by Beshear that are currently awaiting Kentucky Senate confirmation. Three of those pending appointments are to fill current vacancies on the Fish and Wildlife Commission. 

Edwin Nighbert, the president of the League of Kentucky Sportsmen representing thousands of hunters across the state, said the voices of sportsmen in the Fish and Wildlife Commission appointment and confirmation process had been “slowly eroded.” 

“We have sent up names to the governor. The governor sends the Senate five nominees,” Nighbert said, referring to the five Fish and Wildlife Commission appointments made by the governor awaiting Senate confirmation this legislative session. “We expect those nominees to be confirmed as long as they are vetted, and the governor has vetted them.” 

“You’re interrupting the process in my opinion right now, and quite frankly, have been. We have sent up very, very good people in the past for that commission, and the Senate has weaponized their confirmation process against the sportsmen,” Nighbert said. 

The Kentucky Senate, which the GOP took control of in 2000, has had the power to confirm the governor’s appointments to the commission since the legislature passed a 2010 law, which also implemented term limits for members of the Fish and Wildlife Commission. 

The majority of Beshear’s appointments to the commission haven’t been confirmed, according to an analysis of past appointments and confirmations by the Lantern. One of the appointments was voted down on the Senate floor. 

Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, responded to the criticism from sportsmen by saying the Kentucky Senate was not a “rubber stamp” for the governor’s nominees to the commission. 

“We have the right to not confirm or to confirm. We have not confirmed in the past, and trust me when I tell you that possibility is out there again this session,” Thayer said. “Please, don’t ever come up here and just say that we should confirm all five appointees.”

Thayer said the five appointees this session awaiting confirmation would be vetted by the Senate staff before a decision is made on whether to confirm them. 

Sen. Jared Carpenter, R-Berea, also took issue with sportsmens’ assertions that agriculture interests can’t coincide with wildlife management interests. 

“I don’t think that there’s any way that you can say that farmers are wanting to decimate a population of wildlife,” Carpenter said. “You shake your head all you want, but I just don’t feel like that’s the truth.” 

James Hatchett, a spokesperson for Gov. Andy Beshear, in a statement said the Senate was “thwarting the legal process and disrespecting the sportsmen and women” and their elections by not confirming the appointments sent by the governor. 

“These actions have resulted in nearly all the major organizations representing sportsmen and women opposing the current bill and opposing the current leadership of Fish and Wildlife,” Hatchett said. 

Hatchett didn’t address Howell’s reference to a past budget sweep, saying the governor “has no interest in and would not move any fish and wildlife funds.”

Before the bill passed out of committee, Sen. Robin Webb, D-Grayson, gave emotional testimony against the bill, referencing her father’s long-time role serving on the Fish and Wildlife Commission. 

“I’ve lost sleep over this,” Webb said, saying she was moved “to tears because of the priority of the bill number.”

Webb said the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation, a system of policies and laws designed to safeguard wildlife through “sound science and active management,” embraces priorities that are distinctly different from those of agricultural interests. She said she was involved in an effort to kill a similar bill in the past. 

“This is going to set our agency back 40 years, at a minimum, and we’re going to be the laughingstock of the nation,” Webb said. “It means a lot to me, this agency does, and it’s bigger than any commissioner, it’s bigger than any political party.”

Webb said she would try to be the “voice of those species” that the state manages for the benefit of wildlife, hunters and anglers. 

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