Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Help with son's assignment: "How does hunting help 'save the earth?'"

Well Gus does have point--be a good idea if your son distinguishs between sport, subsistance, and market hunting.

The really, really, bottom line: Sport hunting has provided the funding to restore most of the large mammals in the lower 48. And despite the less than stellar conservation ethic on the Campfire, sport hunting groups have often been very successful in the legislature, in the courts, and on the ground at preserving habitat and wildlife.



Casey

I'm right behind you on this,.....

Can't they just be innocent kids for the same time we were,.....

This is a dangerous and chitty evolution,......and that School Board oughta' be brought to task about this.

GTC

Sport Hunting can constitute a humanitarian effort to feed the neglected children of Africa, one Kudu at a a time...

+ 1 billion

Safari Club International has some great info about hunters' contributions to conservation efforts in Africa.

In short, for the past 50 years, guided safari hunting has generated more dedicated conservation funds in Africa than all foreign aid put together.

If it weren't for Hunters, the Kenyan national preserves would not exist. Once it was clear that it was to the advantage of local economies to support conservation, biodiversity, and habitat preservation, leaders embraced the hunting community and the benefits it represented.

Save the earth from what - aliens, a meteor, falling out of orbit, colliding with Mars, MAD? How does anything a human can do "save the earth"? I think I would be totally lost in what passes for education in today's USA. Sorry, my post wasn't worth a damn to you or your son; I just don't get it.

It would seem to me that we lived the "Last Of the best" times,

I really don't remember being "indoctrinated".....and between bouts of normal Kid Mischief, and than Puberty induced Puzzyitus, I remember ENJOYING my school classes.

We were ALLOWED to be kids,......

and were not force fed Ritalin, and other chit.

This needs shook out,.....

GTC

It's good because it gets people out in the environment, in an era where that flat doesn't otherwise happen for many people.

It's also a visceral example of the cycle of life, where food comes from, predator/prey relationships, and so on.

All good things. Anything that connects people to the earth is a good thing IMHO.

I agree 100%...none of the chit kids deal with now was EVER on my 'radar'. I was too busy shooting crows and starlings and building forts and staying out of Mom and Dads' way..else I'd be doin' chores.

I work very hard to ensure my children have the chance at innocence and frivolity....like I enjoyed.

Sorry for going way off.....This is the Crossfire word for your Young Scout.

I'd have to say that just suggesting that the reverence and desire for MORE knowledge about the natural World makes a good Hunter a BETTER "guardian".

I'd suggest as well that the Logger, Farmer, Oil and Water Well Driller are also , by the very nature of their avocation,.....inclined to STUDY the natural World, and have a REAL knowledge base from where to speak thereon.

I'd ask him to comment on, and de-emphasize "Media induced Hype"

GTC

One of the rarely mentioned things about sport hunting, is that it places a value on wildlife beyond food value. Land will always be put to its "highest purpose", and in much of the Rocky Mountains, Africa, Alaska, etc, the highest purpose is as wildlife habitat. Sport hunting increases the value of that land beyond the value of the food and artifacts provided by the game on it.
When Kenya outlawed sport hunting in 1977, they stripped the game of it's highest value, losing the income provided by hunters who paid for game deptarment employees who could prevent the wholesale poaching of elephants.
Capstick writes a lot about how it's hunter's mighty dollar that prevents the wholesale raping of the land by sheep, goat and cattle herds in Africa.
If hunting in the US were outlawed, similar things would happen. The land would be developed/farmed/ranched to death. Photo tourism does not bring in the money that consumptive uses does for the most part.
So in short, sport hunting is preventing putting the last of our wild lands under the plow, into housing developments or strip mined.

Oh yeah, don't forget the affect of hunting revenue on South Africa's economy. I assure you that all those ranches would be plowed under for vineyards or something of that nature if their owners thought they could make more money by doing so.

Mankind is not a species apart from the world. We are not outside nature. We are part of the chain of existence.

Removing man from the predator-prey relationship upsets the original balance of nature and is unnatural.

If you believe that we should re-introduce wolves in order to restore the natural predator-prey balance, then how can you object to keeping man in his natural place as hunter?

Looking good guys, thanks.

As to whether this stuff should be taught in public schools--well, it is, and this is a very conservative, tiny town, agricultural, hunt everywhere sort of place.

The indoctrination is nearly complete in his class of 30 or so kids--I observed the essays posted on the walls at Christmastime about what one change each child wished they could do to help the world at large. They could pick anything and write about it--sort of a 'feel good' Christmas essay.

Over half his class chose to write about global warming and the human-induced destruction of the planet. I did not see a single "fact" mentioned in any of those essays, simply their terrible angst over having contributed to wrecking the planet. It is pathetic!

Pittman/Robertson Act and the Dingell/Jonhson Act. Guaranteed income to the states for wildlife and fisheries. The greenies aint got nuthin like I. We pay the freight fellas. Think what would happen if binos, bird books, shroom picking licesnes and the like would be imposed?

IF those licenses were imposed than the nonhunters would get a say in wildlife management, and there would be no more hunting. It's better that we pay our own way and carry the water of others, so that we get the final say in how wildlife is managed.

I still don't see an answer to the question of how hunting will save earth.

A lot of good stuff on why hunting is a good activity but not on how hunting will save the earth.

BTW: What are we saving the earth from?

I'll check in tomorrow.

Does this mean you feel a river can't be polluted or the air poisoned? Eat Tuna every day and you will grow antlers or at least your new born kid will develope brain damage. Our kids deserve better than that.
Tell him to say that a moose can turn a hillside of willow into protein without plowing,disking,irrigation and fencing.No fertilizer from Saskachewan potash or Monsanto Round up ready genetically modified seed required.If that hillside is less than 1200 miles away (average distance for food from production to kitchen) it will take less fuel to get it into your freezer. If that hillside is beside a clean river you can catch a trout and skip the tuna.
And most importantly hunting is fun and developes good character, especially important for 6 year olds.

Because if no one hunted we would end up with a society of mall going, liberal voting [bleep] that would never procreate because they'd be donning JO and Obama masks whilst corn-holing one another and the world would become a gigantic queer Starbucks 'think tank' discussing all the ways to save animals and the environment over a big frothy mug of liberal flavored Latte Butt Butter Cream whilst never actually doing a damn thing outside back slapping one another over their superior insight.

Hunter's on the other hand will hand out big mugs of Shut the F*ck Up, roll up their sleeves and make [bleep] happen.


Run that one up the flag pole.

Right on Steelhead, couldn't have said it any better. Dad don't let the kid see this bit.

Without hunting -none of us would be here. We got fed up with collecting seeds for the city folk to consume and we started hunting clean cross the ocean over an ice bridge 20,000 years ago and we kept on hunting until we met each other in the middle of the USA. The the pilgrims came and the good indian hunters kept them bible packing whitemen alive until they learned how to hunt, then they could prosper to what you have today.

Ok, to answer the original question I think you need to examine how an ecosystem works. The stability of the Earth is greatly dependent on its various ecosystems. For a particular ecosystem to function, everything in it has to have a certain symbiosis. If not, then one of 2 things happen. Either the ecosystem rejects that thing, and it goes away, or that thing destroys that ecosystem.

Hunting, in it's purest form is nothing more than a predator / prey relationship, which is vital to every ecosystem. Predators hunt prey, which keeps certain species of plant munchers from completely consuming the vegetation. Vegetation we know is what takes care of our air.

I think the real question here is "How does mans involvement in his ecosystem, help or harm it?" We are a special species in that we have the ability to manage the world around us. Ethical hunters are responsible for their part in the predator / prey relationship within their ecosystem. Their ability to do population counts, monitor vegetation growth and availability, and determine the strength of a particular species allows them to be very selective, about which prey they harvest, and how much. This is VERY beneficial to any ecosystem.

Hunters have the ability to pool resources to aid in this. They are very well informed and educated on what a habitat needs to sustain certain species and strive to ensure that those needs are met within that habitat. Hunters often create a sustainable habitat where there was none prior, due to the over population of a species that has consumed or destroyed that habitat.

Mankind's role as a hunter (predator) in his ecosystem has done more to sustain, preserve, and develop the well being of Earth than any other species alive. Sadly, the reverse can be said too, but the facts are that hunters are not the one's harming their environments, rather it's non-hunters that are the destructive element within their ecosystem.

This has been true since the dawn of time. Doesn't matter if you believe in evolution or creation. Hunters take care of his environment either for the sake of survival (evolution) or out of obedience (have dominion over them) or out of God's creative heart placed within us (creation). That is how Hunting helps "Save The Earth"