Barack Obama's state and U.S. Senate voting records on guns, coupled with Democratic control of Congress, seemed so onerous to many gun owners that his election as president sparked an unprecedented nationwide run on the sale of guns and ammunition.

In the months following the election, the Hornady and Winchester companies ramped up ammo production to meet demand, and National Shooting Sports Foundation spokesman Ted Novin told CNN demand for ammunition was outpacing supply.

"The increase in demand for firearms and ammunition is largely attributable to gun owner concerns regarding the current political climate," said Novin, in 2009. "Many of the lawmakers in power have a long history of supporting legislation that violates the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans. Gun owners recognize this and are reacting accordingly."

Since then, gun owners have seen no major attacks on firearm ownership or increases in ammunition taxes from the Obama administration. Still, many sportsmen remain wary.

Against that backdrop, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack (a former Pittsburgher) and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar recently announced the formation of a new 18-person council that will advise the administration on hunting, shooting and wildlife habitat issues.

"Maintaining and conserving wildlife habitat and water resources that are so important to America's hunting and angling heritage in the face of today's conservation challenges requires a coordinated effort between federal, state and local officials and partners in the private sector," said Secretary Vilsack, in a prepared statement. "The members of Wildlife and Hunting Heritage Conservation Council will play a crucial role in our ongoing efforts to improve the health and management of America's public and private lands."

Among the appointees is Pittsburgh native Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. Schweiger grew up hunting and fishing in Southwest Pennsylvania and worked with the state General Assembly on hunting and conservation issues. During eight years as president and CEO of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, Schweiger worked on regional watershed restoration and community outreach, and advocated for ecological research and land conservation. An outspoken voice for global warming concerns, his book, "Last Chance: Preserving Life on Earth" (Fulcrum, 2009), warns of an impending cataclysm if immediate action isn't taken.

So, what advice might Schweiger offer to an administration whose installation sparked a run on guns and ammo?

Schweiger (laughing): "That's a real interesting backdrop to this conversation because I've seen the same thing and I wonder where they're getting this. In fact, President Obama showed up personally at a gathering of 250 hunting and angling leaders at the Interior Department and gave a wonderful talk. ... He understands that hunting and fishing are part of the American tradition and heritage and something that needs to be continued and advanced."

How do you view the council's role?

Schweiger: "... To find new ways to manage and protect lands for wildlife and the hunting heritage, but also look for ways to promote public access to areas that would be available for hunting, and also look for ways that we can inspire young people to get outdoors and become a part of the nature experience."

Your outdoor experiences as a kid seem to have influenced the rest of your life.

Schweiger: "My father was a member of the Breakneck Beagle Club [in Zelienople], and I learned to shoot his 16-gauge Ithaca Featherweight. We used to hunt pheasants, we used to hunt grouse on the old strip mines where they would hang out in the aspen trees, and it was always a good experience."

For whatever reason, kids today aren't getting that experience -- it's a cultural thing. What can government do about it?

Schweiger: "The average child today is spending seven hours a day looking at a screen, a two-dimensional world, and being entertained or educated by that space. The average young person in America spends about seven minutes or less per day in unstructured outdoor activity, and that's really stunning. I think it's led to health problems in children; I think it's part of the overall health problem we're facing as a nation. Our children aren't as healthy as they were in our generation, because they've not been outdoors.

"A lot of hunting organizations have tried to reach kids when they're 12-13 years old to get them out hunting, and it's too late. The kids have not forged those bonds with nature. That's the larger conversation I think [the Wildlife and Hunting Heritage Conservation Council] is going to have. How do we rekindle that connection to nature and how do we insure that young people have these opportunities that we had? And also, I think it's important to educate the parents to realize that getting your child out in nature -- hiking, walking, canoeing, backpacking, whatever you want to do -- is so vital to making those linkages."

One of the problems contributing to the decline in the number of hunters is property access. What advice would you offer the administration?

Schweiger: "When I worked for the state House-Senate Conservation Committee ... we wrote the law protecting landowners from hunting liability. We're trying to encourage those same laws in a number of other states. There's an interesting problem with the checkerboard on federal lands that are not available for people to hunt on because they've been fenced off by ranchers. We're trying to find ways to improve access to lands that have not been available to the general public and to work with landowners to make it more practical for them to encourage hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation on their property."

What might you tell the administration about the fears of hikers, bikers and other outdoors users that they'll get shot if they go into the woods during hunting seasons?

Schweiger: "When I was a boy, I was very fond of [Pittsburgh Press outdoors editor] Roger Latham, who used to say, 'You're much more likely to get killed on a golf course by lightening than you are from hunting,' and he backed it up with insurance statistics. We create these legends and myths, and we make decisions based on them.

"The other one that's out there is, our kids are in danger somehow if they go out in the woods. There are more sexual predators on the computer than you'll ever find in the woods. I think there's a number of these myths that need to be dispelled."

In Pennsylvania, outdoors users who don't buy hunting or fishing licenses aren't contributing to the costs of wildlife management. Would you recommend a new federal excise tax on non-hunting, non-fishing equipment?

Schweiger: "At the end of the day, it's about taking care of nature, and if you don't have the money to pay for it, it's not going to be there. The vast majority of species in nature are considered non-game, and there's almost no solid management of those resources."

Is that a yes? You'd support the tax?

Schweiger: "Oh, absolutely, and we need to extend this. In fact, the Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson funds [generated by taxes on hunting and fishing equipment] were really driven by the National Wildlife Federation in its earliest days."

And a severance tax on Marcellus Shale extraction?

Schweiger: "Sure. At the end of the day, you can't expect hunters and anglers to carry the load for saving nature. Particularly the industries that do the harm, they need to have a role in recovering the habitats and species that are affected."

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