By CARRIE STAMBAUGH - The Independent
ASHLAND — State Sen. Robin Webb, D-Grayson, is continuing her commitment to protect Kentucky’s wildlife resources and preserve residents’ rights to hunt and fish on those lands.
Webb was recently appointed to serve as secretary on the Executive Council of the National Assembly of Sportsmen’s Caucuses. She was nominated during the assembly’s sixth annual Sportsman-Legislator Summit in McCall, Idaho, in October.
Webb will be serving her third term in the caucus and has been a member of Kentucky’s Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus since its inception in June 2005.
When it was formed, Kentucky’s caucus became the 23rd caucus to come under the NASC umbrella, according to the NASC’s Web site. The site also states that Kentucky has an estimated 670,000 hunters who spend approximately $1.3 billion annually and support 23,000 jobs.
“This is an exciting opportunity to become even more involved with the issues that sportsmen and outdoors lovers are facing today,” Webb said of her appointment.
“I’ve enjoyed sharing my ideas with other states and, in turn, gathering ideas I can bring back to Kentucky, and now I can do even more for the people of this commonwealth in that regard.”
Webb said her father’s passion for the outdoors influenced her from a young age to develop her own passion for protecting it and preserving the rights of Kentuckians to hunt and fish. Robert C. “Doc” Webb was a noted outdoorsman and conservationist in addition to serving as commissioner of Kentucky’s 8th Wildlife District.
“It’s a policy priority for me to protect those rights and stewardships of our national resources,” she said.
Webb said she wants to ensure that “my children grow up with what I did culturally and with those resources.”
Webb said she never uses taxpayer money to travel or attend meetings of the caucus. “It’s something I do and pay for myself,” she said. “I try to maintain and be on the cutting edge of what’s going on nationally.”
The three-day meeting, which was hosted this year in conjunction with the Idaho Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus and Idaho Sportsmen’s Caucus Advisory Council, is the largest gathering of state sportsmen legislators in the U.S.
During the summit, attendees participated in discussions of policy issues that are of concern to hunters and anglers across the nation, as well as ideas on pro-sportsmen legislation and other issues and trends of concern to the outdoor community.
Policy sessions also included state legislative trends and victories, state wildlife management, building a state advisory council, hunting and fishing education, puppy mills, trapping, state partnerships with non-governmental organizations and micro-stamping/bullet sterilization.
CARRIE STAMBAUGH can be reached at cstambaugh@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2653.
