Fire prevention front and center

Again we are hammering fire prevention. This time it is Fish and Wildlife placing restrictions on the lands they control.

From Fish and Wildlife: The arrival of hot, dry weather, combined with drought conditions, has prompted the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to restrict fires and other activities effective immediately on agency-managed lands in eastern Washington.

The department is taking steps to reduce fire risk in its wildlife areas and access areas several weeks earlier than it did last year. The emergency order now in effect prohibits: Fires or campfires: However, personal camp stoves or lanterns fueled by liquid petroleum, liquid petroleum gas or propane are allowed.

Smoking: Unless in an enclosed vehicle. Welding and the use of chainsaws and other equipment: Operating a torch with an open flame and equipment powered by an internal combustion engine is prohibited. Operating a motor vehicle off developed roads: Except when parking in areas without vegetation within 10 feet of the roadway and parking in developed campgrounds and at trailheads.

Fireworks are prohibited year-round at all 33 Fish and Wildlife wildlife areas and 700-plus water access sites around the state. So is throwing a lit cigarette or any other burning material from a motor vehicle on a state highway.

The restrictions will remain in effect until conditions improve and the risk of wildfires decreases.

Pittman-Robertson Act important to hunters and target shooters

Hunters and target shooters have paid $6.8 billion in excise taxes since the inception of the Pittman-Robertson Act in 1937.

The Pittman-Robertson Act took over a pre-existing 11percent excise tax on firearms and ammunition. Instead of going into the U.S. Treasury as it had done in the past, the money is kept separate and is given to the Secretary of the Interior to distribute to the States.

The Secretary determines how much to give to each state based on a formula that takes into account both the area of the state and its number of licensed hunters.

These states must fulfill certain requirements to use the money apportioned to them. None of the money from their hunting license sales may be used by anyone other than the State's fish and game department. Plans for what to do with the money must be submitted to and approved by the Secretary of the Interior.

Acceptable options include research, surveys, management of wildlife and/or habitat and acquisition or lease of land, among other things.

Once a plan has been approved, the state must pay the full cost and is later reimbursed for up to 75 percent of that cost through P-R funds. The 25 percent of the cost that the state must pay generally comes from its hunting license sales. If, for whatever reason, any of the federal money does not get spent, after two years that money is then reallocated to the Migratory Bird Conservation Act.

In the 1970s, amendments created a 10 percent tax on handguns and their ammunition and accessories as well as an 11 percent tax on archery equipment. It was also mandated that half of the money from each of those new taxes must be used to educate and train hunters through the creation and maintenance of hunter safety classes and shooting/target ranges.