OPINION/COMMENTARY

THE FUTURE OF HUNTING

Thirty-five years ago there was a national eruption of environmental and animal rights radicalism. Wilderness, Endangered Species, Marine Mammal Protection, Environmental Protection and Animal Welfare laws were combined with revamped Migratory Bird Treaties and United Nations Conventions to grow the Federal government and diminish State and local government jurisdictions and authorities. Federal land acquisition grew steadily while management of and access to natural resources on Federal lands steadily diminished. Federal and State “partnering” in the form of grants, cooperation, and tax breaks with organizations like The Nature Conservancy, The Wilderness Society, and The Sierra Club moved us toward Federal agencies that control Billions of dollars and Millions of acres while pressing for new Federal authorities over Invasive Species, Native Ecosystems, and Federal control of domestic animals. All of these things have made hunting, fishing, and trapping more difficult. Indeed, they are used on occasion to eliminate hunting for certain species or by certain methods. Restricted access to Federal lands and other lands owned or eased by government and environmental organizations combined with Federal requirements and restrictions concerning fish and wildlife management on private lands for game species have made hunting, fishing, and trapping more expensive and inaccessible for the populace. Simultaneously, in the past twenty years, Federal and State fish and wildlife bureaucrats have spent Millions of excise tax dollars annually to conduct a National Hunting and Fishing Survey. National Census data is collected, interpreted, and massaged by a permanent staff of Federal bureaucrats and a contingent of permanent and temporary contractors. The title of the Survey is however, misleading. Hunting and fishing have, from the get-go, been secondary purposes of the Survey. The real motivation was and remains to identify and define all the non-hunters and non-fishermen in the nation that have an interest in fish and wildlife....

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