Perhaps legendary football coach Vince Lombardi said it best: “Football is two things – blocking and tackling. You block and tackle better than the team you’re playing, you win.” Those basic fundamentals emphasizing focus, teamwork and execution within a game plan are keys to finding success on the gridiron.
The same strategy holds when looking to advance conservation initiatives in the political trenches. A Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation team just wrapped up its most recent road trip to Washington, D.C. It featured two days of nonstop meetings to ensure the future of elk and other big game, hunting and conservation.
“This trip to D.C. was not a flashy one. We were meeting with key staffers on the hill and in the White House to talk about the details of pending legislation and policy directives,” said RMEF Director of Government Affairs Ryan Bronson.
Each congressional term lasts two years and the current 119th Congress recently passed the halfway point so, with elections on the horizon, now is the time to push priorities forward. For RMEF, that includes the Fix Our Forests Act and the Pet and Livestock Protection Act, both of which passed the House of Representatives but are yet to receive votes by the full Senate. Other key legislation includes the Wildlife Movement Through Partnerships Act, which would codify Secretarial Order 3362 and its emphasis on conserving wildlife migration corridor habitat as well as grizzly delisting, wildlife highway crossings, public lands, access to checkerboard ownership patterns, active forest management and wildlife management.
With that in mind, RMEF had more than a dozen meetings with lawmakers and both congressional and White House staffers.
“I would compare this work to blocking and tackling in football. It won’t make the highlights on SportsCenter, but successful teams win the battles in the trenches,” said Bronson.
(Photo credit: Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation)