Teddy Roosevelt founded the Boone & Crockett Club in 1887, an organization proving that hunters make a huge contribution to protecting wildlife. (Photo by Everett Collection/Shutterstock.com)
May 04, 2022
Is hunting protection? That’s an interesting question that requires more than a simple “yes” or “no.” The importance of conservation has changed dramatically over time, especially in America’s 245-year history!
Pioneers of nature conservation
For the first 100 or so years, Americans were pretty busy expanding the country’s borders and developing the economic engine that is the United States today. Attention has been focused on development, not sustainability of natural resources.
I’ve observed that people rarely notice the loss of natural resources until it’s almost too late. But eventually someone gets up, looks around and says, “Hey, where did the buffalo go?”
The increasing leisure time in the Victorian era allowed for a philosophical discussion of wild America. In 1854, Henry David Thoreau had written On Waldon Pond – a book dedicated to his time on a 140-acre pond near Concord.
Massachusetts, which focused the thinking of a growing urban society on the beauties of nature. “I went into the forest because I wanted to live consciously, just to face the essential facts of life and see if I couldn’t learn what it had to teach, and not discover when I died that I had not lived,” Thoreau wrote. Those were heady words for a society shifting from a predominantly rural to a predominantly urban society.
James Fenimore Cooper had previously written The Last of the Mohicans, a novel that for the first time glorified Native American life. Overnight, American perceptions of our continent’s indigenous people changed. For the first time, many saw the natives not as savages but as noble people!
It is safe to say that these two books created what became the “conservation movement” later embellished by John Muir, John James Audubon, Robert Marshall, and others.
After the Civil War, a new group of philosophers emerged in response to the realization that America’s natural resources were steadily dwindling. They became known collectively as “Aesthetic Conservationists”. Their solution to the problem was conservation, saving the few natural sites and animals that were left.
The Boone & Crockett Club was founded in 1887 by Theodore Roosevelt and George Bird Grinnell to actually document the most representative specimens of species that were soon to be extinct!
Teddy Roosevelt has long been recognized as one of the founding fathers of wildlife conservation in the United States, including the National Park System and the park that now bears his namesake. (Photo by: Andrew Bertino/Shutterstock.com)
Roosevelt’s thinking began to change when he assumed the presidency in 1901 after the untimely assassination of William McKinley. Roosevelt had assembled a group of like-minded people like Gifford Pinchot who had a notable impact on Roosevelt’s thinking about conservation.
Many had lost faith in the scandal-ridden Home Office as the savior of wild places and creatures! By 1900, much of the original forest had been cleared to meet the growing demand for building products and farmland. Huge fires had burned throughout the Great Lakes region, destroying the small forests that remained. Roosevelt concluded that simply abolishing national parks was not the solution.
Pinchot formulated a new definition of conservation: “the wise use of the earth and its resources for the lasting good of mankind”. Pinchot believed that in order to conserve natural resources, they had to be managed sustainably. Out of this mindset emerged the “utilitarian conservatives,” who came into direct philosophical conflict with the aesthetic conservatives. The conflict continues to this day!
No one can dispute the fact that the American hunter had a lot to do with saving countless species of animals! The 20th century saw the emergence of the science of wildlife management, often credited to Aldo Leopold.
Hunting for conservation
Hunters are generally practical people who see solutions to problems. As Leopold had predicted, private landowners also partnered with hunters to create sustainable populations of wildlife. Today, 80 percent of wildlife lives on 60 percent of the land—private land.
The newly passed Pittman-Robertson Act (Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act, 1937) and later the Dingle-Johnson Act (Sport Fish Restoration Act, 1950) were the first time the American people requested taxation!
Funds from an 11 percent excise tax on firearms and ammunition (later archery equipment) and a 10 percent tax on fishing gear were used to manage our fish and wildlife resources. To date, approximately $14 billion has been allocated for wildlife restoration and $9 billion for fisheries management.
Every sale of ammunition brings money back to species protection. (Photo by: SvetlanaSF/Shutterstock.com)
These funds came directly from hunters and fishers, while much of the funding for non-consumptive resource management often comes from general taxation. Hunters and fishermen also contribute indirectly through the industry created by hunting game and fish.
According to The International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, “Hunting in America is big business, generating more than $67 billion in economic output and more than a million jobs in the United States.”
Recreational fishing has an additional US$115 billion impact on the country’s economy and creates more than 800,000 jobs. And this industry generates little pollution or damage to the environment!
Aldo Leopold fully appreciated the power that private landowners have in conservation. I have read every word Leopold published throughout his life and I can say with full confidence that he had deep faith in the private landowner as a conservationist.
On many occasions I have said that the white-tailed deer saves rural lands and rural lifestyles. That’s what I mean by this statement: There is a shift in land use from high-yield farming/ranching to private wildlife management that can contribute significantly to conservation.
Wildlife and habitat management programs in the United States not only benefit white-tailed deer, but all wildlife species. (Photo by: Jim Cumming/Shuterstock.com)
The modern canning industry
For years, North American Whitetail and now NAW TV, presented by Wild Tree Nursery, have had a strong focus on meeting the demand for sound deer management information.
An entire industry has developed in the marketing of properties suitable for keeping wildlife. According to the US Fish & Wildlife Service’s National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-associated Recreation (2016), about 1,716,000 Americans own land primarily used for fishing, hunting, and outdoor recreation, totaling 162,019,000 acres.
These owners spend over $2.8 billion annually. In addition, there are an estimated 979,000 individuals who lease 136,833,000 acres for fishing and hunting; and they spend over $2.4 billion each year on these activities. These annual numbers compare favorably to the total $23 billion in taxes collected from PR and DJ since 1937.
Indeed, you see, wildlife not only contributes significantly to the US economy, but also saves millions of acres of undeveloped land in America. It should be interesting to note this fact: not a single species designated as a regulated wild animal or sport fish in the United States has ever gone extinct!
This is often overlooked evidence of the role of hunting and fishing in conservation. And it tempts me to say that the best thing that can happen to an endangered species is to be designated as a wild animal. But I won’t.
So is hunting conservation? I have presented a lot of information on this question. Maybe I was wrong. In fact, there is a simple answer, and that is YES!
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