Texas -

It is the season of thanks in this great country. A uniquely American holiday, Thanksgiving originally celebrated the bounty of the season and the gifts provided by the fields, forests and waters. These days, fewer Americans are closely connected with the wealth of the traditional harvest. But those of us who still spend the fall hunting and fishing understand the notion of giving thanks for our nation's bountiful fish and game.

More and more outdoorsmen, however, are faced with a challenging situation: where to go in pursuit of outdoor adventure? With land lost to subdivisions and strip malls every day, America's network of federal, state and local public lands - the places that offer habitat to fish and wildlife and opportunities for sportsmen to hunt and fish - are the one thing for which we should be the most thankful. And this year, expanding access to places for us to hunt and fish is something that we can take action to support.

After Thanksgiving, Congress will continue their lame duck session and could vote on a bill that would fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a program that has helped to safeguard many of the public lands that we cherish. Signed into law in 1964, the LWCF reinvests a small portion of revenues from offshore oil and gas development toward land conservation and outdoor recreation, a logical trade-off for the use of a non-renewable natural resource to promote the conservation of our precious land resources. But it is a promise that has been chronically unfulfilled.

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