Sport-shooters are really America's environmental pioneers

[MountainDon]

Hunters Were Green Before Green Was Cool
By Steve Sanetti
from the Washington Post 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/14/AR2008091401640.html

Today's green movement uses certain buzzwords — organic, locavore, renewable — to the wry amusement of 15 million to 20 million of us who've actually lived the eco-friendly lifestyle that these words describe.

We are hunters.

As a subset of America, we're admittedly somewhat smaller than we used to be. Our numbers have been steadily pressed beneath a culture growing ever faster, more complex and distant from its rural ancestry. Now, like growing vegetables, gathering fresh eggs and raising farm animals for the table, the proclivity and skill to harvest Earth's bounty of wild game — and to pass on this tradition to those longing for simpler ways of life — reside in only a relative few of us.

The meats that hunters and their families consume are grown unfettered by hormones, processed feeds or fences. Low in fat and cholesterol, high in protein, wild game is organic defined. The American Heart Association and American Cancer Society recommend venison, rabbit, pheasant and duck over many commercially produced, packaged and distributed alternatives.

Data gathered by my organization show that 84 percent of us hunt exclusively in our home states. Only 5 percent never hunt locally. Compared with consumers of U.S. supermarket food, which routinely travels as much as 2,500 miles from source to table, we are model locavores.

But "renewable" is perhaps where hunters shine greenest.

Today, every state has thriving game populations in habitats that sustain hunted as well as non-hunted species. It's a richness of life that many Americans enjoy regardless of their environmental persuasion. Yet most also take it for granted, unaware of the mechanisms that sustain this public resource. They see more wildlife every year but are oblivious to why that's so.

Begun well over a century ago, the success of modern conservation can only be fully understood against the backdrop of historical slaughter for markets that took 40 million buffalo to the brink of extinction and 5 billion passenger pigeons beyond it. It was hunters who led a revolution of new values, new science and new approaches for responsible use of these resources. Seasons, game limits and wildlife conservation funds all came from hunters, and we are immensely proud of that effort. Because of us, white-tailed deer, pronghorn antelope, elk, wild turkeys, wood ducks and hundreds of other cherished life forms transitioned from vanishing to flourishing.

Even in today's renaissance of eco-consciousness, we remain the most stalwart supporters of wild things. Hunters and sport-shooters now pay for more than 80 percent of all conservation and habitat programs in America. Through licenses, tags, permits, fees and special excise taxes on firearms, ammunition, bows and arrows, we've paid — and state fish and game agencies have successfully plied — more than $5.3 billion since 1939. And we pushed for this tax on ourselves. No conservation system has accomplished more.

As the cost of conservation rises, we're upping our outlays even as we remain a relatively small percentage of the population. In fact, our data show that the price of hunting licenses is outpacing the rate of inflation by more than 30 percent. Each year America's hunters contribute more for wildlife.

Taxing hunters to fund the health of public wildlife is a proud part of our heritage. In tomorrow's world, however, this financing may be merely the second-best byproduct of what we do. As civilization struggles to balance modern lifestyles with organic, local, renewable resources, hunters are indeed among the deepest wells of expertise on the planet.

Our very identity clings steadfastly to stewardship of land, clean water and air, intimate knowledge of natural communities, and careful interaction with the good earth — because that's how we've ensured abundant wildlife and good hunting for more than 100 years.

For us, the amusing irony is that American society, which has looked down its nose at hunters more sternly with each passing generation, is discovering that camouflage has been a primary shade of green all along.

[peternap]

Good post Don!

[NM_Shooter]

You gun-nut hunter types are the scourge of the earth.  Why can't you just leave the little critters alone so they can sing Disney songs and romp and play in the woods?

Especially all of you about to hunt elk in unit 4, New Mexico.  You should be ashamed of yourselves.  Stay out of the woods, stay on the couch, and live and let live.  I may be wandering around out there with a rifle, but I am only taking inventory.  I'm not hunting.  Really. 

-f-

[MountainDon]

Go Organic. Eat Bambi's Dad

[NM_Shooter]

I saw a bumper sticker yesterday and I started laughing so hard I almost drove off the road.  It said:

"Strip mining prevents forest fires"

-f-

[MountainDon]

       

[MountainDon]

Available here...

http://bumperstickers.cafepress.com/item/strip-mining-prevents-forest-sticker-bumper/209465453

or here


http://www.amazon.com/Strip-mining-prevents-forest-fires/dp/B000ZVWSQS

[John_C]

Go Organic. Eat Bambi's Dad

Control the herd... eat em both  .     

No worries here in GA.  This year's limit is 12...  2 bucks, 10 does.   Yeah, we've got deer.

[glenn kangiser]

Earth First.  We`ll Strip Mine Other Planets Later

I remembered this one - almost, after Frank's post above.

[NM_Shooter]

A few years ago, I drove from ABQ to Austin to pick up a pinball machine.  I left ABQ at 3am, and got there just around 3:30pm.  Loaded up the pinball machine and was back on my way home by 4pm.  I was listening to talk radio on XM, which keeps me awake. 

I made it back to around Sonora when it started getting dark.  The road became thick with deer... I have never seen so many.  They were not what I would call big deer at all, but there were just dozens and dozens.  I was not tired, but decided to grab a hotel and wait till morning for fear of having a deer come through my windshield.

When I pulled off the interstate, I drove around the little town, and as I was driving through there were deer in front yards (eating yards it looked like), deer in the park, and deer behind the motel.  Deer everywhere.  A person with a .22 and a freezer in the garage would not go hungry for venison by any means.  I suspect that the local law enforcement would probably look the other way.

I never thought I would say this, but what Texas needs is more hunters.

-f-

[Squirl]

I absolutely agree with this.  I like the part proud heritage of paying taxes to fund public wildlife.  It gets me very aggravated when I hear other hunters complain about the price of a license.  Most instate licenses cost around $30 to be able to harvest hundreds of pounds of meat.  Sweat deal if you ask me.