The hunter, Massachusetts’ first and best conservationist (Part I)

June 23, 9:04 PMBoston Gun Rights ExaminerRon Bokleman

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Mankind’s hunting heritage is often misunderstood and maligned by many in America today. Anti-hunting groups like the MSPCA and HSUS abound and fill their coffers with large sums of money under false pretenses.

While not unlike much of our natural history, man has in the past abused his god given natural resources from time to time. However, what makes man stand at the top of the evolutionary food chain is his ability to learn from his mistakes and take corrective action and over time has become a better steward of his environment.

The tradition of stewardship started with Daniel Boone and his brother Squire, who lobbied the pre- revolutionary Kentucky legislature for bills to protect wildlife habitat and grazing lands.

It was the hunting community who persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court that wildlife, even when it is on private property, is owned by the public, and should be managed for public purposes. In 1937, hunters lobbied Congress to pass the Pittman-Robinson Act, an 11 percent tax on hunting equipment which, combined with license fees, now provides over $700 million a year for protection of wildlife habitat on public lands.

It was the hunting community who worked with biologist and other scientists to create our very successful North American Wildlife model that continues to serve the public well, whether you chose to hunt or not.

North America’s Wildlife Conservation Model is unlike anything else in the world. It’s a system that keeps wildlife as a public and sustainable resource, scientifically managed by professionals, thanks to hunters and hunting.

Hunting, as some people tend to forget, has been a human activity for a very long time…as long as there have been humans. But something happened to hunting around the late 1800’s and early 1900’s that changed it forever. It became regulated. The relatively new profession of wildlife biology supported by those regulations with science. License fees and excise taxes – paid for by hunters – supported the enforcement and science. Money was also set aside to protect habitat, conduct research and teach hunters to be safe and ethical.

At the time, those visionary moves were essential because of the pathetic status of North America’s wildlife populations. In New Hampshire alone, white tailed deer, moose, black bear, beaver, wild turkey, and many waterfowl species were either few in numbers or gone entirely during the early 1900’s.

Today, throughout the continent, many species are back for the full enjoyment of all, not just hunters.

The North American Wildlife model of wildlife management began with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1842 that declared that fish and wildlife are owned by the states and their people as a public trust. It also got a big boost from Theodore Roosevelt during his presidency, when he began protecting land and conserving wildlife.

To remind us why our way of conserving wildlife is unique and successful, biologist Val Geist (Canada) and two colleagues presented a paper at the North American Wildlife Management and Research Conference in 2001. The other co-authors are Shane P. Mahoney of the Newfoundland and Labrador Wildlife Division, and John F. Organ, with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Hadley, Massachusetts.

“We wrote this for the simple reason that, what is so obvious has been forgotten by many people,” Geist said. “Even our own colleagues had forgotten the history of the wildlife conservation movement here.”

The North America model for wildlife conservation has endured despite widespread changes in society, technology and in the landscape. It has also become a “system of sustainable development of a renewable natural resource that is without parallel in the world,” the authors say.

Canada, could have adopted Great Britain’s model of hunting and wildlife conservation, but instead chose to follow the path being developed by the United States.

Furthermore, the North American model has benefited not only huntable wildlife, according to the authors. Countless species of songbirds and shorebirds were protected, becoming specifically designated as nongame species.

In Part II, we’ll take a look at the details of this very successful model.