Aldo Leopold and a distinguished group of wildlife conservationists were asked by the American Game Institute (now Wildlife Management Institute) to draft a policy to guide wildlife conservation. The 1930 American Game Policy laid out a broad vision, acknowledging that existing conservation programs were inadequate to stem the declines in wildlife. It called for a program of restoration implemented by scientifically trained professionals with a stable funding source and declared it was time for wildlife management to “be recognized as a distinct profession and developed accordingly.” Carl Shoemaker was appointed special investigator for the newly created U.S. Senate Special Committee on Conservation of Wildlife Resources.  He would later become the author of the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act.

The Wildlife Restoration (WR) program is authorized by the Wildlife Restoration Act (Pittman-Robertson PR.) The Wildlife Restoration Program (WR) provides grant funds to the states, the District of Columbia and insular areas fish and wildlife agencies for projects to restore, conserve, manage, and enhance wild birds and mammals and their habitat. Through the purchases of firearms, ammunitions, and archery equipment the WR Program is a successful user pay, user benefit program.