When was hunting first allowed in the National Wildlife Refuge System?
With the end of the 1940s came a new era, one in which federal wildlife protection lost ground to the drive for increased revenue and public recreational use of National Wildlife Refuges. The Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act was amended in 1949, allowing up to 25% of previously “inviolate sanctuary” Refuges to be designated as “wildlife management areas” upon which public hunting of waterfowl was permitted.
