Hunters are on the endangered species list. It’s a strange topic to write about at this University. It’s an equally strange topic for a technology columnist to write about, but bear with me. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported 19.1 million hunters in 1975, 12.5 million hunters in 2006 and predicts that the number will dwindle to 9.1 million by 2025.
Hunting is on the decline, and that places our ability to conserve and manage wildlife in peril.
Hunting is integral to conservation and preservation of flora and fauna around the United States.
Locally, hunters keep the nutria population in check because it’s open season all year. The waterways around Eugene are a prime breeding ground for them. Nutria are considered an invasive species and a danger to the local ecology because they damage wetlands habitats by destroying vegetation. They were introduced to the U.S. to harvest for fur trade and have simply gotten out of hand.
There is a fragile, tenuous ecological balance, and because we, as a species, have upset that balance by overtaking large amounts of natural habitat and at times over-culling various species of wildlife, it is imperative that we try to maintain what semblance of that balance remains.
Hunting provides this for us as a society, while providing a source of food and sport for hunters.
Hunters also benefit wildlife monetarily. License money and special stamps fund wildlife management, law enforcement and research programs, as well as wetlands and nesting habitats used by many types of wildlife. Federal taxes on sporting arms and ammunition provide an additional source of funding.
It is a sort of a bureaucratic ecology within itself. Hunters are allowed to take up to a certain amount of a wildlife population during a specific time of the year through licenses and controlled hunts, thereby keeping the numbers of that population stable and the ecology similarly healthy. In return, the hunters fund programs that help wildlife continue to thrive. There is absolutely no downside to it.
So why, then, are hunters a dying breed? It has been suggested that there’s simply less land to hunt on. Though this may be true, others point out that hunting is simply not a learned sport like it was in previous eras. There are fewer parents or family members taking youth out to hunt and showing them the ropes. As a result, generations of people are growing up without learning basic hunting skills like marksmanship, tracking and calling. To change this in Oregon, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife offers hunter training for youth, specifically with pheasant hunts and shotgun clinics. It also offers a variety of hunter training clinics for adults around the state that are geared for beginners, including trapping, bow hunting and shooting. Additionally, it offers advanced classes for those who already know how to hunt but want to improve their skills. The cost is minimal — as low as $10 for adult hunter education and as low as $4.50 for youth.
Hunting is quickly becoming one of my favorite sports. For my first time out hunting, I participated in a bear hunt in Southern Oregon, where I took a friend, who is a professional chef, with me. Our end game was to have delicious bear jerky and steaks a-plenty. The startup cost in terms of gear was low. My friend and I picked up .30-Caliber WWII surplus rifles for around $100 apiece and invested about $13 in ammunition, as well as purchasing our hunting licenses. We packed up the camping gear we already had lying around, hopped into my two-wheel drive light truck, and away we went. Though the hunt was ultimately unsuccessful (we were newbies, after all), we saw, heard or interacted with squirrels, geese, deer and wild cats. The scenery was breathtaking, and on the drive home we both agreed the trip had not been in vain. It was nice to see such a balance in nature and to know that it was still flourishing.
It is terrifying to think that someday that may not be the case. The danger of allowing this hunting decline to continue is grave. There will be significantly less and less funding for the preservation of our ecology. At this rate, to continue preservation, funding may have to start coming from non-hunting taxpayers.
If you’ve ever been curious about hunting, or if you’ve ever wanted to try it, I urge you to learn more about it by taking a class, or asking a friend who hunts to take you along. You’ll be doing Oregon’s ecology a favor.
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