Members of our community, Smokey?
Let me quote that great Tennesean, Mr. Winters: "We need fewer roads through our NF, not more. I don't go to NF land to see 4-wheelers, oil/gas, mining or any of the other "multi-uses" you seem to favor/champion. In fact, I'm not fond of finding cattle/sheep 5 miles back into the NF either.
First, we might not need more roads just to have roads, but it is the height of folly to destroy existing roads, not merely close them for legitimate reasons, such as damage, seasonal habitat security or even no need. There is a real problem when a fire can't be jumped on because the culvert and fill has been removed and the next line of defense is miles downwind. It's shameful when a large windthrow can't be salvaged, again, because of a destroyed road, and the beetles go nuts and run for miles, killing great forests that will lay to rot and fires.
Second, this 4 wheeler, no petro, no mining. So, how did you get to the trailhead, Mister Perfect? Fly in on your unicorn? No, you killed dinosaurs, rolling on more dinosaurs. And then you walked on even MORE dead dinosaurs. And what did you kill your supper with? Did the steel for your rifle come from the Rifle Fairy or from a hole in the ground?
Third, not fond of cows or sheep? Man, I'd love to see you say that to some rancher and then ask him if you could hunt his or her place. Probably wouldn't go well. Never mind that if that rancher loses the grazing right, he sells to Mister Billionaire, who can afford electric fences, hired guards and hates hunters -- or, even better, hates competition from the riffraff (kinda like in that land exchange fiasco).
Now, I understand you see public land as your "escape" for your special time. And, I've always been respectful of the right of others to use and enjoy public lands in a responsible manner, even if it's different or inconvenient, or bursts my "alone in 1805" fantasy bubble.
And speaking of community, it's ironic that Smoke gripes on the "community" angle. Unless you do the full woo woo, you should be eliminated. In and out by foot or hoof only, don't you dare drive the pickup with your kids in on the weekend. The message to others is, "Do it our way or don't do it at all." If you don't joint the cult, you're to be banned from the temple by the high priests. That's community?
I did my trophy phase, the mountain man stuff, got mine. I'll always support hunting, I love blood and horns in town in front of the bar. But I'm more interested in other things, like making a living the rest of the year besides hunting season. If I have to be a purist, I've got other things I'd rather do with my time, licenses and hardware for other things I'd rather do, another community I'd rather belong to.
Any of you considered that the survival of hunting is a numbers game? What happens when the weekend warrior who can't (or won't) do a guided wilderness hunt, or even a Randy Newberg budget special, stops buying licenses? Finds something else to be interested in? There needs to be a full spectrum of opportunity between easy and hard, between forkhorns and B&C, between wilderness and off-the-porch harvest.
In the short run, I guess the purist cult thinks there will be "more for me, and me only." But down the road, it will come and bite. The enviro foundations that pay to support BHA, TRCP and other "hunter and angler" entities won't be making any grants to preserve hunting once the number of hunters falls below a certain level, meaning a level of political relevance to the larger agenda of environmentalism.
The elites of hunting, the hardest of the core, will find themselves alone once the peasants that don't meet their requirements have left the field for good, left the community.
Or, there aren't enough voting peasants in the field at all -- they never joined the community in the first place. Tell some kid they've got to freeze their cans for two weeks in a tent for five years before they kill a trophy (if you can afford to do that). What happens when they are no longer your dependent, on a limited budget for time AND money? Do they stay in the game, keep a hand in? How do you capture and captivate them? With success! Accessible, realistic chances of success! Success!
If my Dad had only taken me into the Bob Marshall, where we got repeatedly skunked (but had fun anyway), would I be a sportsman in the first place? Probably not. But he did take me road hunting and I got bloody. Was that evil?
How about out for pheasants in the Jimmy on Saturday mornings? We got skunked for real there. And those were on private lands, and yep, the rancher (his sons, actually) still runs cows on the National Forest. Evil!
Community, my foot.
