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Show Messenger - Enterprise, Thursday, June 24, 1976 Utah Wildlife Division Discusses Question Should We Hunt? (Editors Note: The is to be preserved, conservation efforts will need all the support following article is a summary of an article by the same title they can get, whether these efforts come from bird watchWildlife Federation. Copies of ers, big game hunters, nature the entire article are available photographers or trout fisherby writing to National Wildlife men. The question of whether to Street, Federation, 1412-16t- h N.W., Washington, D. C. hunt is one that each individual must decide for himself. 20036. Material is used with The Hunting and Wildlife philosophies permission. herein concur with those held Management by the Utah Division of Wildlife Experts agree that providing Respurces.) adequate environment is the key to both variety and Because hunting began long abundance of wildlife. The before recorded history, we environment or habitat is a vital have no way of knowing concern to all wildlife managers whether Pleistocene men and an integral part of scientific argued among themselves wildlife management. Wildlife about the propriety of killing management is a science which d and eating prehistoric seeks to maintain the optimum know do that We tigers. numbers and varieties of hunting has been a matter of wildlife that our countrys some controversy as least since range, or habitat, can support, Biblical times. consistent with the best interSince the conservation moveests of man. Its first task is to ment began in this country at provide and protect habitat the turn of the century, hunting areas where animals can find has been a topic on which food, water and cover in which reasonable men differ, but to raise their young. Without seldom differ reasonably. Trahabitat, there can be no ditionally, the antihunters have wildlife. attributed the acts of poachers Wildlife management uses and vandals to hunting and many tools and techniques to branded it immoral. Huntachieve its goals. Animals may ers, on the other hand, have be and transdenounced antihunters who eat planted to new areas, better meat as hypocrites. Between food or cover conditions may be bursts of invective, each side helped by planting or burning. has accused the other of being Management also calls for the emotional. protection of endangered and threatened species. It preA Personal Decision scribes the culling, cropping, or If Americas wildlife heritage published by the National sabre-toothe- live-trapp- thinning out of those species which are abundant or threatened with overpopulation. Thinning out game populations has been accomplished for years by hunting. Why hunting?. Because the federal government, all 50 state governments, all of the nations major conservation organiza- 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 tions 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 wildlife has been exterminated by sport hunting. On the contrary, wildlife management has restored many depleted or threatened species. Laws of Nature Wildlife biologists, who determine when a species is endangered, and who recommend the rules and regulations for hunting the seasons, the 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 breedstock sufficient to replace all losses must survive. Hunting vs. Habitat Good management will produce a maximum sustainable yield (MSY) of wildlife each year. Since barely 100 of the more than 1,700 species of birds and mammals in the United States are hunted, hunting is not the biologists biggest concern. Wildlife scientists clearly see the destruction of wildlife habitat, now proceeding at the alarming rate of about one million acres a year in this country, as the greatest threat to our animal populations. Wildlife conservation and hours, the bag limits, the restrictions on weapons oper- inexorable ate within certain laws of nature. impaired. If there agement tool and even in the Endangered Species Act of 1973 recognized the need for in some regulated taking cases as a means of relieving wildlife population pres- sures. RED WING COME FIND YOUR SIZE AT of Ephraim ; A population over a period of years? Experience has shown no. In 1890 there were an disease Additionally, deer are not the only species that have proliferated under sound, scientific wildlife management. The 050 deer refused 1E1 failed. Large amounts of estrogens and progesterones were injected into test animals and worked, but researchers were not able to ascertain their e effects due to an outbreak of disease. long-rang- Hunters Provide Funds Ironically, under present law, there would be little money for such experiments, for wildlife research, or for habitat acquisition and protection, if it were not for hunters. Since 1937, hunters (who and thus management effort, the battle between will hunters and serve only to diminish potential accomplishments of the conservation movement. By utilizing the directive of the old phrase Strength in Unity, conservationists can make this planet a anti-hunte- better world for man and beast. 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 yiWi'iWAUV' taxes alone have produced hep am Grp fi We Deeply Appreciate Teu Terrific Kespexse Te Tkit GIEAT SALE. 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In the overall conservation launched the conservation movement late in the 19th century) have provided the basic support for all state and federal wildlife programs eilSTOtlER APimumon NietiT t; to eat bait Devices similar to intrauterine rings used by humans for birth control were tried but such as anthrax. M'll,'ll, m (Tfilii GET) to doses containing the chemical. Virulent anthrax can wipe out 90 percent of a deer herd within a matter of days. Reestablishing larger predator population to control game animals is simply substituting predators for man, except that predators kill indiscriminately, arrived. Everyone 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 RAVAP StvX. white-taile- d daily 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 southern 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 deer. Eventually, g both penned and option seems to be most appealing because it sounds to simple. As we have seen, however, it is a boom and bust method. It produces a bumper crop of animals at first. But, as population peaks, the animals especially those that browse and graze exhaust their food supplies. When undernourished if they dont simply die of starvation they are especially vulnerable to parasites (bloodsucking worms that attack stomach walls) and Results of Thinning the that each individual should g The Does that annual thinning of the herd reduce our deer estimated 350,000 ister Alternatives 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. and even suburban gardens would be 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. GCEB R 'Aw(nV' disastrous population highs and raise the lows. It can maintain a more stable population in the interest of both wildlife and humans. highways Protection. Select the one that best meets your needs. Up to Wildlife management has proved that it can reduce increase so sharply in numbers for a while that farmyards, AND INSECT CONTROL FLY turkey census by tenfold. management, some species, such as the deer, would Must Man Interfere? Sudfo, dba Christensens antelope population has increased sevenfold and the wild no wildlife were more than $600 million in fish matching grants to state the over and wildlife agencies have states spent and the years, more than $100 million of this money acquiring 3.5 million acres of land and water for wildlife habitat. In addition, about 42 million Americans shell out about $240 million each year for state hunting and fishing licenses. The question of hunting remains vividly entrenched in many minds. While we believe 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 to each year for 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 1968, were successful; but rangers found it impossible to admin- pronghorn antelope, the alligator, the sea otter, the fur seal and the trumpeter 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 management are synonydeer in the United States. mous terms according to Today there are more than 15 Congress, which long ago million, which is more than recognized hunting as a manwere here when the Pilgrims si SAFETY SHOE management, overpopulation 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 of nature course with the 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 balour ecosystems that the is badly ance of nature would Pa9e 4 Monti, Utah BankAmericard |