Hunting And Conservation Are A Good Thing.
You may recall that last month Rudy Giuliani’s business buddy, a.k.a. Donald Trump, threatened to cut off federal aid to California because the state wasn’t doing an effective job on fighting wildfires. Now the fact that the Federal Government owns half the forest land in California whereas state forest lands represent 3% and thus the problem is one for the Feds to resolve as opposed to being the responsibility of Governor Newsom’s administration is only yet further proof (as if we need more proof) that the 45th President of the United States is the most misinformed Chief Executive of all time. Be that as it may, this exchange brought back to mind a brief chapter of American conservation history which deserves to be recalled.
In 1933,
Franklin Roosevelt established the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which was
an effort to combat the high rate of unemployment during the Depression while,
at the same time, use government resources to expand and protect natural
resources, particularly forest lands. When it comes to conservation we usually
think of the other Roosevelt, Teddy, because he was an active conservationist
his entire life and created five major national parks as President from 1901 to
1909.
Today
the National Park System covers 85 million acres and everyone has either
visited or would like to visit parks like Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Mesa
Verde, Yosemite, Zion, the list goes on and on. I have been in every national
park and my own favorite is Joshua Tree outside of Palm Springs because it is
mostly desert which means the solitude is immense. A close runner-up to Joshua
Tree is Capitol Reef in Utah, another amazingly undisturbed place.
What is
often overlooked when we talk about federal government efforts to preserve our
natural space is that in fact it was Franklin Roosevelt’s CCC that enlarged
the National Wildlife Refuge system which now covers more than 150 million
acres, including 566 national wildlife refuges in all 50 states. In
my state, Massachusetts, there are 11 refuges and I often wander in and around
the Oxbow Refuge, which is 1,667 acres of totally unspoiled, natural swamp with
nesting places for various migratory birds.
During the years when the CCC was engaged in wildlife conservation,
one of their chief tasks was to fight fires that threatened wildlife sites.
As open
space becomes an ever-increasing precious resource, the fact that virtually
everyone living in the United States can gain access to these unspoiled places by
driving a short distance from their homes, means that the ability to appreciate
the wildness of nature remains an experience we all can share. What group among us is dependent upon this
environment to help them enjoy the outdoors? Hunters, whose purchase of hunting
licenses, firearms and ammunition have contributed more than $14 billion to the upkeep
and extension of these natural zones.
Much of
the current debate about the place of guns in American
culture ignores how the use of small arms for hunting and sport is a vital element
in preserving the space needed by wild to flourish and grow. This may sound
like something of a paradox, insofar as we usually consider hunting to be a threat
to wild animal life. But in fact, hunters understand and support the Boone
& Crockett idea of a ‘fair chase’ is really all about helping to maintain the vital balance
between all living things – humans and animals sharing the Earth’s natural
space.
For me, the
importance of hunting for strengthening conservation is a much more fundamental
argument for gun ownership than anything having to do with armed, self-defense
or 2nd-Amendment ‘rights.’ Which is why I got involved with Conservation
Centers for Species Survival (C2S2), a remarkable organization whose scientific
research is moving our understanding
of how to protect wild species to an
entirely new level.
I am
going to be writing more columns about C2S2 but in the meantime I invite you to
look at their website (https://conservationcenters.org/)
and subscribe to their Facebook
page. I guarantee you’ll like what you see.
