The Glory of Nature
By Page W. H. Brousseau IV
TIMES STAFF WRITER
The sixth of October was opening day of duck season, and for the eleventh time in thirteen years I found myself, that day, participating in one my most cherished yearly rituals. As any hunter will tell you, the object of hunting is not to kill but to immerse oneself in the glory that is nature.
Fish Point Wildlife Area located near Unionville is a prime example of what hunters' monies are capable of doing. Fish Point, along with many other hunting reserves throughout our state, provide the resting ground and food needed for over a million ducks, geese and other migrant birds that travel through Michigan from Canada to the south.
Care and improvement of Michigan's Wildlife Management Areas is done by the Department of Natural Resources along with wildlife and hunting groups. The money to pay for the upkeep and improvement to the management
areas comes from the hunters themselves. Through licenses and management area fees, hunters become the principle investors in our state's Wildlife Management Areas.
The idea that a "true" conservationist never kills is, once again, an ignorant statement by those conservation groups and people that should know better, and if they do not should shut up. Certain game birds would not exist much longer without a proper harvest.
The governments of both the United States and Canada work tediously to insure a proper bag limit of game birds exist.
However, despite a nearly limitless bag limit on snow geese in Canada and the southern states, Canadian biologist near the Hudson Bay believe the local snow geese have a mere five years before the available breeding and nesting grounds are exceeded.
A large population of waterfowl in an area can lead to disease and cause
the death of nearly that entire population. Swimming beaches and fishing waters close every year because of contamination caused by a massive population of geese and ducks. There is to say farms and farm animals cause their share of pollution. While cities, especially along the Flint River, have the capacity to build sewage treatment facilities that overfill after five minutes of continuous rain, and then pour into local rivers and lakes.
These problems, however, can be contained with increased government standards, greater power to fine responsible parties and new technology.
Even endangered animals in some places are hunted in order to ensure the survival of the species.
Some game preserves in Africa, where the animals are protected from poachers by an army of armed troops, have limited hunts on elephants and rhinos in order to provide the proper increase of the populations.
Here in Michigan, deer collisions with automobiles roughly average 60,000 a year. Not all the deer die, nor are all the autos destroyed, however, the economic cost is great and many wounded deer perish. Deer consume tens of thousands of dollars worth of crops per year.
In areas where urban sprawl and explosions in animal populations have pushed deer and other "wild" animals into front yards and swimming pools, the proper tool for removing these animals, hunting, is almost frowned upon.
Instead groups have tried sterilization and relocation tactics with limited success. These methods are often extremely expensive and difficult to conduct.
Allowing licensed bow hunters to remove deer and other game seems a lot more humane than allowing the animal to starve for lack of food in trashcans. Some environmentalist would rather kill a species in order to save it.
The image of hunting, like most non-liberal causes, is painted with a biased brush in the media. From Elmer Fudd to movies like "Powder", "The Bear" and "Fly Away Home" hunters
are seen as fat, ignorant, bloodthirsty poachers who posses as little regard for nature as they do for gun safety (not "gun safety" as in gun bans but in handling firearms in a proper manner).
It is a safe bet that those who write the scripts and send their money to PETA have spent about as much time in nature in their lives as most hunters do in a month. You would be hard pressed to find gang bangers and violent social rubbish in the woods on opening day of deer season.
There are two 'gun cultures" in America, the responsible gun owners and the criminals.
Liberals can only see both as one, and see Charlton Heston as a bigger threat to society then the filth that use violence to prove their manhood and carry guns illegally, not to hunt with but intimidate, rob, and kill.
I revel that my gun culture will ensure gun safety, protect habitat and wildlife, and ensure there will still be hunting and shooting sports to pass on to the next generation hunters to allow them to experience the glory of nature.
© The Michigan Times 2001
