BeaverJack

I'm glad y'all got everthin' fittin' into nice lil' categories thet you can tell apart an' identify at a glance. By hunters supportin' conservation, I suppose you mean tag fees mainly. The fact remains they complain about those too. They're too high, not fair, etc. And if you bring up anythin' about conservation easements, purchased development rights, fence removal, forest thinning, or anythin' OTHER than tag fees, you'll be labeled a "enviro" and blasted off the board.

Coastie

BJ, I doubt that you will find too many hunters saying those things, perhaps the odd man out situation where an individual has some problem with the local administration, but not as a general rule. Here in Georgia, we have an annual fee of $19.00 for use of our WMAs, Personally, I would pay three or four times that amount without a whimper for what we get for that fee (over a million acres of managed resource) and still feel I had a bargain.

glob3006

I agree with just about everything that has been written above...... But to say that hunters don't like to conserve is a bit OFF. As I to believe that hunters/fishermen, etc., are (in number) the greatest asset in land, water, animal and air conservation. Thru license fees, donations to organizations and by other means........I would not want to think of how bad things would be if this money / time were not there. Just look to the Northeast U. S. I have a friend in Massachusetts that hunts turkey just behind a sub-division,LEGALLY.....But still has people call the police. That brings me to my main point!!!
You know that with all of the time and money that we give to our Dept. of Nat. Res. and to the conservation organizations........We still have to constantly explain WHY we hunt, WHY do we do what we do. I don't believe that the DNR or the groups that we belong to do a good enough job in informing the non-hunting public of just how valuable we are in CONSERVATION and in trying to keep things in balance as best we can and of course preserving the opportunity for new generations to hunt.
These organizations tell us what we shouldn't do.........Mainly through hunting classes, hunting shows and literature. But a person who does not partake in these activities does not here about the good things we do and why we hunt. They just think we go out and KILL !!!
These organizations could certainly do a better job in informing people outside of our circle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

elksniper

seems like most hunters conserve in little ways that don't get recognized by the general public and thats part of the problem most good hunters or good people for that matter will donate feed or money to help out when times are tuff for the animals but it usually goes unnoticed then you have so called conservation orgs. like lets just say rmef that will turn there backs when there is not enuf press for them. I know alot of good people dug deep when the wildfires ravaged wyo, id mt, and the animals were left out to dry rmef was one of the orgs that said no. but you probably know this since it happened in wyo. I think just like politics some orgs that start good get to big and lose sight of whats important. Not that i believe in spoon feeding wild animals all the time but when they lost so much of there habitat and it was a short term problem there was other groups that stepped up and found a way to get around there no money for food policies. Its the hunters money that always starts and finishes every conservation project

BeaverJack

Well, it is pretty hopeless. The subdivisions will win out in the long run. Not too many hold the family farm high enough to kick the bloodsuckers out and forego the $. And if one feller has the means and devotion to keep his land whole, then his heirs will eventually get their greedy paws on it and start choppin'. That's why I favor conservation easements and purchased development rights. An' ol' timer can go to his grave knowin' his legacy of carin' for the land will live on. Makes a lot of sense, and I hope hunters will support these measures whenever they can. Even if you can't hunt on an easement, its still habitat, and your other hunting areas will have more game if there's more habitat. It ain't all just about hunting either.

ironranger

BJ,

You are right to be concerned and I think we all have that hopeless feeling when thinking about the land and what is going on. Everywhere you go you see changes and most of them aren't for the good. Once the land is developed it's gone. I also worry about what is being done to the earth in general. The temps are rising and things have changed alot since I was a youngster. We don't get near the amount of snow or cold that we once received in northern MN. I saw a show on polar bears in Hudson Bay and how the ice isn't staying as long and it's affecting their ability to eat enough before heading for land. They predicted that within 100 years there won't be much polar ice left if the trend continues. I would imagine at some point if we keep F'ing up the earth the areas closer to the equator will rise in temps that are unbearable for man to live in. That will condense the growing population even more and with more people in smaller areas, there will be more problems as a result. It really makes me wonder when I see people having 5 or more children and not giving a 2nd thought to what they are doing to the population. Dont' get me wrong...I love children and think the world of my nieces/nephews but this will come to a head some day and I bet that the government will step in at some point and control it like they do in some foreign countries. We all know that feeling of being disheartened by all of this change as we all care about the land and want things to stay the same. It's just a damn shame that those in power can't figure out a way for that to happen. As said earlier, hunting will eventually fall by the wayside although probably not in our lifetimes...

1eyedfish

Nothing ever stays the same - including the weather - long& short term.Theres been ice ages & tropics all in the same places since time began on earth.
Man is but a speck in time - the earth does no revolve for his benifit of comfort.
Stop mother nature if ya can...and good luck.

BeaverJack

On 9/11, when they grounded commercial air traffic, the average temps on the eastern seaboard dropped by 3 degrees. I've also seen the ice sheet images from space. Its clear that there is a warming trend, and man is impacting it. We'd be morons to deny our own science, the same science that made so many miracles possible to begin with.

gleninAZ

BJ-We do conserve and contribute more than the whole lot of loud mouthed eco terrorists and it helps but like they say nothing stops "progress". PEOPLE are the problem. I grew up in AZ and now the areas oround Phoenix that were bought up by the govt to preserve have new hiking trails and I can't step off those trails. Used to be able to bowhunt where houses and preserves are now. I see yotes and javelina every week walking down the neighborhood looking for a nice fat kitty or small dog and have seen same with cat in mouth. I see all the easterners and others move here for what we have and then start pushing to change it to what they just left behind. Same is happening in your country where fat cats buy up huge spreads then lock them up.

This trend will not change and that's why we as hunters have to keep fighting and working for what habitat is left. Just look at the recent bear hunt back east where protestors carried signs to protect "citizen's animals". They will let the same animals that were pushed out by housing developments starve quietly in the bushes or get run over by cars but will not admit that hunting is a humane and necessary way to control the game population that is losing their habitat. I hope the javelina and yotes keep eatin those new york poodles so the dorks will understand how nature operates in spite of their rhetoric.

BeaverJack

A wiser man than me onct said,

"all growth ain't progress, and vice versa." Seems to me if yer only fighting to keep what's left, and what's left keeps going down, then you really ain't accomplishing nuthin', now are you?