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Show 13 Page Sun Chronicle Thursday, June 24, 1 976 Wildlife Hunting ... Conservationists Make Conclusions Editor's Note: The following is a summary of an article by the same title published by the National Wildlife Federation. Copies of the entire article are available by writing LDS le Church Softball Standings As of June 21, 1976 Hooper Utah Stake Explorers to National Wildlife Federation, 1412 16th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036. Material is used with permission. The philosophies herein concur with those held by the Division.) Because hunting began long before recorded history, we have no way of knowing whether Pleistocene men argued among themselves about the propriety of killing and eating prehistoric sabre-toothetigers. We do know that hunting has been a matter of some controversy at least since Biblical times. Since the conservation movement began in this country at the turn of the century, hunting has been a topic on which reasonable men differ, but d seldom Roy 1st Kanesville 1st Hooper 1st Roy 14th Hooper 4th Hooper 2nd Roy 10th Kanesville 2nd Roy 17th Explorer Schedule for June p.m. - Roy 17th vs. Kanesville 2nd 7 p.m. - Roy 14th vs. Hooper 4th. 8 p.m. - Hooper 2nd vs. Roy 1st 9 p.m. - Roy 10th vs. Hooper 3rd 10 p.m. - Hooper 1st vs. Kanesville 1st. 4-- 0 1.000 0 1.000 4-- 1 .800 4-- 1 .800 2-- 2 .500 3 .250 3 .250 3 .250 0-- 4 .000 26 6 Hooper Utah Stake Seniors . reasonably. Traditionally, the antihunters have attributed the acts of poachers and vandals to hunting and branded it immoral. Hunters, on the other hand, have denounced antihunters who eat meat as hypocrites. Between bursts of invective, each side has accused the other of being emotional. If Americas wildlife heritage is to be preserved, conservation efforts will need all the support they can get, whether these efforts come from bird watchers, big game hunters, nature photographers or trout fishermen. The question of whether to hunt is one that each individual must decide for himself. Hunting and Wildlife Management k adequate environment is the key to both variety and abundance of wildlife. The environment or habitat is a vital concern to all wildlife managers and an integral part of scientific wildlife management. Wildlife management is a science which seeks to maintain the optimum numbers and varieties of wildlife that our countrys range, or habitat, can support, consistent with the best interests of man. Its first task is to provide and protect habitat areas where animals can find food, water and cover in which to raise their young. Witholit habitat, there can be no wildlife. Wildlife management uses many tools and techniques to achieve its and goals. Animals may be transplanted to new areas, better food or cover conditions may be helped by planting or burning. Management also calls for the protection of endangered and threatened species. It prescribes the culling, cropping, or thinning out of those species which are abundant or threatened with overpopulation. .. Thinning out game populations has-beaccomplished for years Jay hun-.- , ting. Why hunting? Because the federal-- . government, all 50 state governments, all of the nations major conservation organizations and reputable wildlife biologists recognize regulated hunting as an efficient means of reducing surplus wildlife populations. The National Wildlife Federation and 15 other national conservation groups recognize hunting, not just because it is good outdoor recreation for hunters, but because it has proved effective in helping to maintain healthy wildlife populations. The U.S. Council on Environmental Quality in its Fifth Annual Report said, Since the development of modern wildlife management in the 1930s, no American w ildlife has been exterminated by sport hunting. On the contrary, wildlife Schedule Seniors June 25 p.m. - Hooper 2nd vs. Kanesville 1st 7 p.m. - Hooper 2st vs. Roy 10th 8 p.m. - Hooper 4th B) vs. Roy 14th 9 p.m. - Hooper 4th (A) vs. Roy 1st 10 p.m. - Roy 17th vs. Kanesville 2nd. Bye Hooper 3rd 6 Roy North differ d Stake Seniors en p.m. - Roy p.m. - Roy 8 p.m. - Roy 9 p.m. - Roy Bye Roy 12th 6 7 Schedule June 24 18th vs. Lakeview 11th vs. Roy 9th 16th (1) vs. Roy 15th 6th vs. Roy 16th (2) Roy North Stake Explorers management Schedule for June Explorers p.m. - Roy 9th (2) vs. Roy 16th (2) 7 p.m. - Lakeview vs. Roy 67th 8 p.m. - Roy 9th (1) vs. Roy 18th 9 p.m. - Roy 16th (1) vs. Roy 11th. Bye Roy 15th 6 Roy 4th 6-- 0 1.000 Roy 7th Roy 2nd Roy 3rd Roy 8th (A) Roy 5th Roy 8th (B) 5-- 1 .833 6 7 8 9 4-- 2 667 3-- 3 .500 2-- 4 .333 5 .167 .167 Schedule for June 24 Seniors - Roy 13th vs. Roy 4th - Roy 2nd vs. Roy 3rd. - Roy 8th (B) vs. Roy 5th - Roy 8th (A) vs. Roy 7th p.m. p.m. p.m. p.m. many Yes, many alternatives to hunting have been proposed. To name a few: (1) do nothing or let nature take its course, (2) let predators do the job, (3) let professional marksmen do the job, and (4) introduce wildlife birth control. The option seems to be most appealing because it sounds so simple. As we have seen, however, it is a "boom and bust" method. It produces a bumper crop of at first. But, as population animals especially those peaks, the animals exhaust their that browse and graze lood supplies. When undernourished -if they don't simply die of starvation -they are especially vulnerable to parasites (bloodsucking worms that attack stomach walls) and disease such as anthrax. Virulent anthrax can wipe out 90 percent of a deer herd within a matter of days. Hunters Provide Funds Ironically, under present law, there would be little money for such experiments, for w ildlife research, or for habitat acquisition and protection, if it were not for hunters. Since 1937, hunters (who launched the conservation movement late in the 19th century) have provided the basic support for all state and federal w ildlife programs through license fees and taxes on their firearms and ammunition. Fishermen have added their support through similar excise taxes on fishing gear since 1950. The federal excise taxes alone have produced more than $(ioo million in matching grants to state fish and wildlife agencies over the years, and the slates have spent more than $loo million ot this money acquiring 3 5 million acres of land and water for wildlife habitat. In addition, alxwt 42 million Americans shell out about $240 million each year lor stale hunting and fishing licenses. The question of hunting remains vividly entrenched in many minds. While we believe that each individual should make a personal decision as to whether to hunt we also believe he or she should be tolerant of those who choose differently. Eastern city dwellers should not determine life styles for western ranch hands, nor souther. farmers for those who live in wooded New England. It is a part of the genius of the American system that majorities do not force their will upon minorities in such matters. We are convinced beyond doubt that to abolish hunting, as proposed by some protectionists, would undermine the whole concept of wildlife management and thus he detrimental to our wildlife. - Reestablishing larger predator population to control game animals is simply substituting predators for man, except that predators kill in- discriminately, preferring a slow, fat calf to a lean, quick deer. There has yet to be found the professional park ranger or game warden who want to work as paid executioners, and the public is apparently not ready to hire gunmen to do for money what hunters do each year lor food and recreation. The fourth alternative, animal birth control, has actually been tried by the National Park Service. Oral contraceptives, tried on penned deer, in but rangers 1968, were successful; found it impossible to administer the deer. daily doses to Eventually, both penned and deer refused to eat bait conthe chemical. taining Devices similar to intrauterine rings used by humans for birth control were tried but failed. Large amounts of g g In the overall conservation effort, the antihunters will serve only to diminish battle between hunters and of the conservation movement. By utilizing the directive of the old phrase "Strength in Unity, conservationists can piake this planet a better world -for man and beast. potential accomplishments estrogens and progesterones were injected into test animals and worked, but researchers were not able to effects due ascertain their to an outbreak of disease. long-rang- e - d trumpeter v j&Q swan, have all made comebacks. In 1907 there were only about 41,000 elk; today there are a million. In about the same period, the 'i, antelope population has increased sevenfold and the wild turkey census by tenfold. Wildlife management has proved that it can reduce disastrous population highs and raise the lows. It can maintain a more stable population in the interest of both wildlife and humans. Alternatives Did You Know... Wildlife Tells! Roy Utah Stake Seniors ' has restored depleted or threatened species. Laws of Nature Wildlife biologists who determine w hen a species is endangered, and who 25 recommend the rules and regulations lor hunting - the seasons, the hours, the bag limits, the restrictions on operate within certain weapons inexorable laws of nature. 1. Barring natural disasters, such as widespread drought, most species produce a surplus, i e., more animals than their range can sustain, every year. 2. If the carrying capacity of the range remains unchanged, a number of animals equal to the yearly surplus must die during each 12 months. There is no biological question of whether surplus animals will die, only how With songbirds, nature takes the entire surplus. With game animals, man takes part of it. But the surplus must die. The task of the biologist, or wildlife manager, is to see that man does not take more than the surplus. If the species is not to be depleted, a breed-stocsufficient to replace all losses must survive. Must Man Interfere? Everyong seems to understand the idea of protecting a dwindling, endangered species. The whooping crane and the Southern bald eagle (both victims of vanishing or polluted habitat) are probably the best known examples in the United States. But some dedicated conservationists have trouble accepting the fact that, without management, overpopulation would be a problem for many forms of wildlife. Why, they ask, must we manage? Why cant we let nature take its course? The answer to that question is that man has been interfering with the course of nature ever since the first Europeans settled on this continent 400 years ago. Through his own reproducing; cutting of woodlands; draining of wetlands; bulldozing of the prairies; and polluting of air, water, and food chains, he has so disrupted wildlife habitat and disturbed our ecosystems that the balance of nature is badly impaired. If there were no wildlife management, some species, such as the deer, W'ould increase so sharply in for a while numbers that farmyards, highways and even suburban gardens would he overrun with hungry animals. Both public and private lands would be overgrazed. (None of the more than 100 species on the official United States endangered list, incidentally, were put there by hunters or wildlife managers.) Results of Thinning ...Does that annual thinning of the herd reduce gpf, dee.r, .pppulobojx. ovgr,, .a period of years? Experience has shown no. In 1890 there were an estimated 350,000 white-tailedeer in the United States. Today there are more than 15 million, which is more than were here when the Pilgrims arrived. Additionally, deer are not the only species that have proliferated under sound, scientific wildlife management. The pronghorn antelope, the alligator, the sea otter, the fur seal and the Roy Utah Stake Explorers that Utah has 726 species of wild animals classified as vertebrates? Did you know that 74 of those 726 species are classified as game animals, leaving 652 animals Did you know classified as nongame animals? And did you know of the 726 species of vertebrates in the state, 430 species are given protected status under either Utah and-o- r Federal law and that 2 are unprotected? Of the 74 game species, 21 are fish, 39 are birds and 14 are mammals. Did you know that? Maybe you didnt know that there are 55 fish, 12 amphibian and 59 reptile species in Utah classified as cold blooded vertebrates. Did you know that the cold blooded vertebrates in Utah include two the bull frog and the tiger protected amphibians and two protected reptiles salamander the desert tortoise and the banded gila monster? Perhaps you already knew that the gila monster is the only known venomous lizard. Did you know that all the birds in Utah are protected by law or that 20 of the 247 mammals in the state are also protected, including the snowshoe rabbit and the lynx? Did you know that the Division of Wildlife Resources has a section that is specifically responsible for all of the nongame animals in Utah? Its true. We thought youd like to know. RICK STONEHOCKER has taken job as base umpire recently. This is Clearfield Senior League action. 27 iBAGHElORiyDECRE TfGEHMQMYIlOB tit found myself with a four-yeno job, panicked. but degree Then got smart and enrolled for a concentrated business course at Stevens Henager. That was the right movel Their short courses, top instructors and active, free nationwide placement service boosted me to where am today. My future in business looks great. How about yours? Call today for complato Information package When ar I Great Basin Goose, by Canada Roy 3rd vs. Roy 8th - Roy 4th vs. Roy 7th - Roy 5th vs. Roy 13th lye Roy 2nd - p.m. p.m. p.m. North Stake Fast Pitch Softball, Seniors Roy 0 Roy 11th Roy 9th Roy 16th Roy 18th June 24, H) June 25, 10 1.000 .500 .500 Lakeview Roy 12th mid-Marc- 1.000 1 Schedule Senior Fast Pitch 11th pm. - Lakeview vs. Roy - Roy 12th vs. Roy 16th pm. By Steve Manes The Great Basin goose, a native of Utah, is the second largest of the Canada goose species. Most of the geese taken by hunters in Utah are raised within the state. Canada geese begin nesting in Weber County as early as This year, due to late snow storms, nesting generally began around the first of April. The nest is usually built on the ground near water. It is a depression in the ground lined with material from the surrounding area, sticks, grasses and soft grey down. The number of eggs varies from 4 to 10 but the usual set consists of 5 or 6. The period of incubation is from 28 to 30 0-- 1 .000 0-- 1 .000 days and is performed by the goose alone. While the gander generally doesnt sit on the eggs, he is always in close attendance, ready to protect the family from any danger. At Waterfowl Bay Ogden Managemtnt area, located west of Hooper, young broods of geese should be observed by May l of this year. In the last few years nesting habitat of the geese has been destroyed along the eastern shore of the Great Salt Lake by the rising lake leve. This has caused many geese to either abandon nesting all together or make an attempt in not as desireable areas where there is an increase in competition from other nesting geese. Another problem facing these early nesting birds is spring runoff. With ground nesting geese and a heavy water runoff nests become flooded and eggs destroyed. Late winter storms, as experienced this year, undoubtedly affect nesting success. Freezing temperatures tend to reduce the number of young which will survive from each brood. On the average, most nesting pairs will make a second effort to renest if something befalls the first clutch of eggs. Second nest is usually built by early May with young being hatched by the first of June. I I 394-779- 1 STEVENS HENAGER COLLEGE means business A Junior College Specializing in Business Careers Since 18S1 Ogden, Utah 2644 Washington Blvd Beginning dates of quarters: Summer July 6 Fall September 27 IS |