A brief history of hunting and conservation in the United States,To those not well acquainted with m

A brief history of hunting and conservation in the United States,To those not well acquainted with modern hunting, hunters can seem to be little more than bloodthirsty barbarians who revel in killing.  While many hunters enjoy the thrill of the chase, this is not an entirely accurate description of what hunters and hunting is all about.  Rather, hunting, conservation, and stewardship of wildlife, natural resources, and habitats has been a tradition shared by American hunters for over a century.Probably the greatest scourge to American wildlife in the 1800’s and 1900’s was commercial hunting or market hunting.  Unlike subsistence or recreational hunting today where bag limits and seasons are enforced, and hunters primarily hunt to consume the meat, commercial hunting was the unregulated hunting of animals for profit.  Commercial hunters were extremely reckless, decimating and destroying animal populations without concern for the environment, biodiversity, or the future survival of the species.  Horror abounded as commercial hunters killed buffalo by the thousands, only taking their hides for to sale for profit and leaving the rest of the animal to rot in the sun.  They would kills scores of deer, elk, and moose daily, and massacre whole flocks of waterfowl with punt guns (extremely large shotguns mounted on a rowboats). By the turn of the century many common game species today were on the brink, such as deer, elk, moose, geese, ducks, and wild turkey.  Through most of this post I will use the white-tailed deer as an example.  In 1930 the estimated nationwide white-tailed deer population was only around 300,000. For commercial hunters the depletion of wild game was big business, for recreational and subsistence hunters it was a nightmare.  One such hunter was President Theodore Roosevelt, known as an avid western hunter who made several African safaris’ to collect samples for the Smithsonian Institute.  As a hunter Roosevelt noticed the toll that commercial hunting had taken on wildlife, and sought to curb the destruction and preserve wildlife for future generations,“Defenders of the short-sighted men who in their greed and selfishness will, if permitted, rob our country of half its charm by their reckless extermination of all useful and beautiful wild things sometimes seek to champion them by saying the ‘the game belongs to the people.’ So it does; and not merely to the people now alive, but to the unborn people. The 'greatest good for the greatest number’ applies to the number within the womb of time, compared to which those now alive form but an insignificant fraction. Our duty to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids us restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations. The movement for the conservation of wild life and the larger movement for the conservation of all our natural resources are essentially democratic in spirit, purpose, and method.”Hunters all over the nation also voiced similar concerns, demanding that action be taken to reverse the trend before it was too late and especially to end commercial hunting.  Roosevelt would lead the charge, founding the U.S. Forest Service and establishing 51 Federal Bird Reservations, 4 National Game Preserves, 150 National Forests, and 5 National Parks; altogether preserving 2.5 million acres of land.  Roosevelt pretty much founded the conservation movement and changed the attitude of Americans from exploitation to preservation and wise development of resources. More important than policies of Roosevelt was the enactment of regulation by individual states, especially with the creation of the state game management system.  Instead of free for all unrestricted hunting, each state set up a regulatory agency (game commission) which enforced clear hunting seasons, bag limits, and hunting laws.  The Game Commission’s job would be to scientifically study wildlife, population size, population health, natural habitats and their carrying capacities, and manage the states game heard.  This data then would be used to determine who many licenses and tags should be sold, and what the bag limits should be to maintain a healthy population.  If the game population should drop, they would sell fewer tags or none at all.  If the population should increase, they would sell more tags. Game Wardens would act as police officers, enforcing state wildlife laws.  Those who caught breaking the law would face criminal penalties. Proceeds from the sale of licenses, as well as state excise taxes on weapons and hunting gear would fund these programs.  In 1937 hunters lobbied congress to pass the Pittman-Robertson Act, which charged an 11% tax on firearms and ammunition for the purpose of funding conservation programs.  Today Federal excise taxes on hunting produces around $500-$700 million dollars of annual revenue, with state taxes and game commissions collecting hundred of millions, if not billions more in annual revenue. The same type of system would also be created to regulate fishing as well.To say this system would be a success is an understatement.  Using Pennsylvania whitetail deer as an example; in 1900 the white-tailed deer population was almost gone.  The PA Game Commission started importing deer in 1906.  The first deer season was held in 1923 with a whopping eight deer being taken state wide.  By the 1930’s that number had grown to around 20,000.  Today Pennsylvania annual harvests tend to number from 350,000 –  450,000 annually.  This is incredible! Recall that in 1930 the total estimated whitetail population in the US was around 300,000.  Today estimated US population is around 30 million, and is one of the largest and healthiest herds in the world.The Roosevelt era also inspired non-profit private groups to become involved, the oldest being the Sierra Club founded by John Muir in 1892.  Hunters too would became an integral part of the conservation and environmentalist movement by founding and organizing conservation groups to protect wildlife and land.  While many non-hunters may think that the two are contradictory, they actually work hand in hand much like the state game systems.  Ducks Unlimited was founded in 1937 by a group of concerned hunters with the goal of conserving wetlands while protecting and growing the waterfowl population.  Today Ducks Unlimited has over 600,000 members, raises $180 million annually for conservation programs, and has preserved 12.8 million acres of wetlands.  Scores of similar hunting/conservation groups also exist such as White-tails Unlimited, Quails Unlimited, The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, The National Wild Turkey Federation, US Sportsmen’s Alliance, the Ruffed Grouse Society, Pheasants Forever, and many more, each of which raise tens or hundreds of millions of dollars for conservation programs annually. -- source link

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