A new presidential executive order has directed federal agencies to promote expansion and enhancement of hunting opportunities on federal lands and the management of game species and their habitat.

But exactly what that may mean for hunters and wildlife in Wyoming is uncertain.

President Bush's order directs the interior and agriculture secretaries to work with the Sporting Conservation Council to develop "a comprehensive recreational hunting and wildlife conservation plan" along with a 10-year agenda for fulfilling the executive order. The council focuses on wildlife conservation issues such as hunting access, education, healthy landscapes and energy development.

The Sporting Conservation Council was created by then-Interior Secretary Gale Norton, just before she resigned last year. Members include representatives of the National Wild Turkey Federation, National Rifle Association, Safari Club, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Ducks Unlimited, Boone and Crockett Club, North American Grouse Partnership, Ruffled Grouse Society, International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and the Congressional Sportsmen Foundation.

The council is chaired by former Boone and Crockett President Robert Model.

"We thank President Bush for his recognition of the value that sportsmen and conservation bring to the table in finding positive solutions to land management," Model said.

Don Peay, founder of Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, which has a Wyoming chapter, said he was excited by the executive order.

"Maybe it'll filter down through the federal bureaucracy and we can get some things done," such as removing federal protection from wolves and grizzly bears and putting those species into the hands of the states.

The executive order prompted criticism from other conservation groups, ranging from mild to sharp.

Mark Winfield, acting executive director of the Wyoming Wildlife Federation, said executive orders like this sound nice, but are not binding on federal agencies.

"I'd like to see meaningful regulations to preserve habitat and our hunting heritage," he said.

Neither the Wyoming Wildlife Federation nor the National Wildlife Federation has direct involvement with the Sporting Conservation Council.

That concerns Jamie Rappaport Clark, vice president of Defenders of Wildlife and former director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under President Clinton.

"The council represents a small slice of the conservation community," she said. Encouraging hunting is fine, but that's a narrow slice of the bigger issues facing conservationists and sportsmen, such as threats to habitat.

"This is political meddling posing as a conservation policy," said Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility Executive Director Jeff Ruch. "This order reads like it was written by a lobbyist" or by Vice President Dick Cheney, he said.

Ruch said that while the order does not overturn any conservation laws, it establishes a preference for hunting at the expense of all other activities in the administration of federal lands.

Although the order explicitly covers national forests, wildlife refuges and rangelands, it also applies to all federal agencies "that have a measurable effect on land management," such as military bases and nuclear weapon reservations. These federal agencies must now "evaluate the effect of [their] actions on trends in hunting participation [and] consider the economic and recreational value of hunting in agency actions."

The order mandates that federal land managers:

* "Manage wildlife and wildlife habitats on public lands in a manner that expands and enhances hunting opportunities, including through the use of hunting in wildlife management."

* Defer to "private property rights and state management authority over wildlife resources."

* Foster "productive populations of game species and appropriate opportunities for the public to hunt those species."

The federal initiative comes as a new U.S. Fish and Wildlife survey shows that hunters have declined by 7 percent in the past five years, to 13 million. In Wyoming, the number of hunters dropped from 69,000 in 1996 to 52,000 in 2006. The number of Wyoming anglers declined from 114,000 to 98,000 during the same period.

"This may amount to no more than meaningless pandering to the 'hook and bullet' vote but, if vigorously implemented, has the potential to change what happens on the ground," Ruch said, noting that most federal lands except national parks already allow hunting.

He noted the potential of conflict, if federal officials must now defer to state officials. For example, West Virginia allows hunting with dogs, but federal wildlife refuges in West Virginia don't allow that. Under Bush's order, hunting with dogs might be allowed in West Virginia wildlife refuges, he said.

Then again, there may be less than meets the eye with this executive order.

Andy Stahl, executive director of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, notes that states have always exercised primacy when it comes to managing wildlife. That's true, Clark said, adding that there is a strong collaborative relationship between state and federal agencies.