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Pay-to-play hunting
Washington Monthly, April, 2006 by Peter Williams, Scott Dirks, Jackie Corr, Wayne Edwards, Bob Kellam, Michael Markarian, Bill Dollinger, Caroline Cherry
I am a progressive who hunts, and there certainly does seem to be a growing sense in the hunting community that progressives represent their interests better than the conservatives. Having been an environmentalist all of my adult life, and an occasional member of the Sierra Club and of similar organizations, I've been upset at the consistent stereotype that hunters are anti-environment.
The hunters I've met spending time on my family's ranch in rural east Texas are certainly socially conservative. And of course they do love their Second Amendment rights. But they have the good sense to know that a vote for Republicans who back oil and mining interests and take anti-environmental stances is a vote against their interests on this issue. They are also receptive to instances that pit the big guy versus the small guy, and the closing of access to land and wildlife by well-to-do private property-owners is just such as issue.
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The hunters truly love the land and its creatures. Most people need a concrete connection to something for it to appeal to their visceral sense of fight and wrong. Protecting land, wildlife, and access to it is that for hunters.
The left needs to flame it so that the big guy is the Republicans and the big money interests they're in bed with. Instead the fight has been able to frame it so that the big guy is the Democrats and big government who are going to tell them what to do with their land.
Peter Williams
Oakland, Calif.
I was very surprised, but thrilled, to see your articles on hunting and fishing access as issues on which progressives should work. I fully agree that we of the "hook-and-bullet" crowd who do not vote Republican--and there are many of us, including all of the many relatives and friends with whom I hunt and fish--need to exert our potential influence to preserve access for the public to land and water. We also need to build bridges between ourselves and those who are not hunters and fishermen, but who also love the outdoors. They are our natural progressive allies (though there will be resistance from those opposed to hunting, including some within Sierra Club and Nature Conservancy).
Scott Dirks
Via email
I am a fifth-generation Montana native, and I neither hunt nor fish. But I am concerned about declining access to public and private land. The issue is not just about hunting but about whether the public will have a place to enjoy backpacking, birdwatching, chasing rainbows, daydreaming, fishing, floating, gawking, hiking, idling, picnics, photography, river wading, rock and gem collecting, you name it.
In Montana, we have the strongest law guaranteeing public access to streams in the United States, and our new governor is one of its biggest boosters. A while back the law was challenged by the Mountain States Legal Foundation--the organization of Joseph Coors, Gale Norton, and James Watt. That challenge concerned an access dispute on Montana's Ruby River. The foundation didn't win that case, but similar challenges to preserve public access will continue.
Jackie Corr
Butte, Mont.
This is a very timely and accurate article. Today only one in ten hunters is under the age of 40. Unless we work to get more young people involved, our entire wildlife conservation model is threatened. But there are organizations working to improve the outlook--for example, the Conservation Buck Society, founded by Broadway star and country music singer Gary Morris. For the past year, Morris has been working to engage the existing hunting community in a program designed to raise awareness of hunting and conservation as of one consciousness.
Wayne Edwards
Nashville, Tenn.
This article is a very good expose of hunting in some areas of the Midwest. I am an avid hunter; I spend around 50 days per year hunting North Dakota and the surrounding states. Here in North Dakota we have a program called PLOTS, which is an acronym for Private Land Open To Sportsmen. We currently have nearly 800,000 acres of PLOTS land in our state that are open to everyone, resident and nonresident alike.
Hunting is good in North Dakota. It has even been referred to as legendary. Part of the reason is due to the wide range of habitat that is in the PLOTS program. Many acres enrolled in the federal conservation reserve program (CRP) are in the program as well. With CRP's future in jeopardy because of expected budget cuts, I worry that PLOTS may very well be in trouble also.
In America, we have been morphing toward a pay to play hunting climate more and more over the last few years, and PLOTS acres have filled the gap to a degree for those of us that chose not to pay-to-play.
Will the "Open Fields" bill make a difference? First it has to pass, and second it needs to pass without the typical add-ons and regulations that historically lard up much of the legislation out of Washington D.C.
Bob Kellam
Fargo, N.D.
Christina Larson plays a mournful violin for "The End of Hunting" while others of us are playing a trumpet call. Hunting may be a traditional activity at some level, but so much of what passes for hunting little resembles the sport of old. While sport hunting continues its natural decline, public officials who want to preserve America's traditions and provide a boost to America's economy should implement programs that encourage bird watching, wildlife photography, and other humane outdoor activities.
