WONDERS OF WILDLIFE: Johnny Morris" mega-museum and aquarium stresses conservation

There is a gallery of fishing photographs with past presidents from Theodore Roosevelt to George W. Bush with a Bass Force One Bass Tracker, the boat that Morris gave to Bush, and Jimmy Carter"s homemade peanut fly for fly fishing. Fishing vessels of writers Zane Grey and Ernest Hemingway hang from the roof.

The museum offers a history of Bass Pro Shops and an exhibit recreating Johnny Morris" first store in the back of his father"s Brown Derby liquor store in Springfield.

Hunters will admire the impressive Boone & Crockett"s Collection of Heads and Horns. This year is the “Year of the Bird” as 2018 is the centennial of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and the museum devotes space to an important piece of conservation legislation.

More than 40 wildlife conservation organizations made contributions to Wonders of Wildlife. Conservation is a message reinforced throughout the museum and aquarium.

Before visitors tour the museum, they are greeted with a video message from Morris where he encourages people to get outdoors and involved in conservation. He speaks of the important role hunters and anglers play.

Many people who do not hunt or fish — and some who do — are not aware that taxes paid on hunting and fishing gear have funded state and wildlife efforts to the tune of tens of billions of dollars since 1937. It may seem incredulous to some that the people who are the greatest consumers of wildlife resources, hunters and anglers, are also its greatest protectors, but it"s true.

The Pittman-Robinson Act"s federal excise taxes on ammo, sporting arms, handguns and archery equipment fund wildlife conservation activities. The Dingell-Johnson Act"s federal excise taxes on fishing gear fund fisheries conservation activities. Together they make up the federal Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program.

For fiscal year 2017 alone, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation received almost $25 million in federal Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration funds. The money is used for a wide array of wildlife management and conservation projects, including building boat ramps, conducting black bear research, monitoring endangered species, buying land for wildlife management areas and more.

Source: https://newsok.com/article/5612968