The hunter, Massachusetts first and best conservationist (Part II)

June 24, 8:09 PMBoston Gun Rights ExaminerRon Bokleman

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In Part I, I laid out some of the basics of our hunting heritage and introduced the North American model. This time we’ll look at the model in detail.

What is the North American model? Geist, Mahoney and Organ identify seven features that make it distinct.

1. Wildlife is a public trust resource. This is a notion that dates back to the Bible, and legal codes of ancient Rome. A wild animal is owned by no one, until it was physically possessed. The concept was solidified in the United States, to the extent that wildlife was held in common ownership by the state for the benefit of all people. This has withstood multiple tests in our judicial system.

2. Markets for trade in wildlife were eliminated. Making it illegal to buy and sell meat and parts of game and nongame species removed a huge threat to sustaining wildlife species. At the same time, however, allowing markets for furbearers have helped manage them as a sustainable resource, in conjunction with restrictive regulations, and advocacy of trappers for land stewardship.

3. Allocation of wildlife by law. States allocate surplus wildlife by law, not by market pressure, land ownership or special privilege. The public gets a say in how wildlife resources are allocated; the process fosters public involvement in managing wildlife.

4. Wildlife can only be killed for a legitimate purpose. The law prohibits killing wildlife for frivolous reasons. The harvest of wild animals must serve a practical purpose.

5. Wildlife species are considered an international resource. Some species, such as migratory birds, move across borders, and one country’s management can easily affect a species in another country.

6. Science is the proper tool for discharge of wildlife policy. This is a key concept for wildlife management. It has its roots in the Prussian Forestry System, an area that is now Germany, according to the authors, but became this country’s basis of wildlife management by the convincing forcefulness of Theodore Roosevelt and Aldo Leopold.

In the United States, the concept of science-based, professional wildlife management really took off with the passage of the 1937 Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Program. In this program, excise taxes on hunting equipment are returned to states for wildlife management, restoration and research, along with hunter education.

7. The democracy of hunting. In the European model, wildlife is generally allocated by land ownership and privilege. In North America, anyone in good standing can participate.

Hunting is the Glue that holds this unique North American model of wildlife conservation together according to Geist and his co-authors.

Wildlife should be a publically owned resource not only as a food source, but also to help foster the American “pioneer spirit,” Geist and his co-authors write. “The ability for all North Americans to be able to cultivate these pioneer skills through sport hunting means that there could be no private ownership outside the public trust.”

Threatening that public trust were the markets for wildlife that were driving some species toward extinction. And the strongest proponents for eliminating market hunting were the organized sportsmen and women and sporting publications, according to the authors. The Boone and Crockett Club and Forest and Stream magazine rallied against market hunting, resulting in many state and federal laws ending the practice.

Without markets, there were game surpluses, which became allocated by law. Those allocations should not jeopardize the sustainability of wildlife for future generations. Sportsmen and women became the biggest advocates of maintaining sustainable numbers of wildlife.

As ranching increased as a way of getting meat to the table, hunting strictly for food became less important. Thus grew hunting’s emphasis on the chase, not the kill.

Would the North American model survive without hunting? One of the biggest threats to North America’s model of wildlife conservation and management are those who would eliminate hunting altogether. Hunter’s provide the vast majority of the funding needed to preserve this wildlife management model, they have helped increase populations to the point that the carry capacity of the land in some areas threatens to be overwhelmed. This is where hunters play a key role in alleviating such conflicts. They help keep wild animals – wild. As fish and wildlife agencies figure out what to do about local overabundances of deer and other species they can look to the public – hunters – as part of the solution.