Hunting

Nowadays, here in Oregon, hunting is considered to be a sport, and by extension, hunters are called sportsmen (or sportswomen). It wasn’t always that way. Before the arrival of the British fur trappers, the real native Oregonians hunted for food and for hides to make clothing. The hunters of today may still eat what they kill, but their lives don’t depend on their hunting success, as was true for the native people a couple of hundred years ago. 

Human hunters have always served as top predators. They tend to eliminate the natural top predators in an area and take over that role. That’s why there are very few mountain lions or grizzly bears in areas where there are a significant number of humans.  As long as the amount of hunting has been consistent with the rate of replacement of the prey species, the ecology of an area has remained in balance. Whenever overhunting has severely depleted prey species, the balance has been lost.

The passenger pigeon went extinct a century ago due to massive overhunting, far beyond anything justifiable in the name of food. The American bison almost went the same way before an effort was made to save the few that were left and allow them to reproduce in peace. 

Today, Nature’s balance is once again threatened. This time it’s not hunting that is to blame. Hunters have learned to work with Nature rather than fight it. Organizations of hunters and fishermen have formed coalitions with Nature conservation groups in an effort to preserve the wild places for future generations.  The threat to Nature today is humanity’s inexorable encroachment upon wild places. 

* Logging roads fragment forest habitat and provide a ready route for invasive non-native species of plants and animals to enter and squeeze out native plants and animals. 

* Farming right up to the banks of rivers and streams pollutes and warms the water, making it unsuitable for salmon and other valuable fish. 

* Agricultural fertilizer runoff pollutes rivers, causing algae blooms that rob the water of the oxygen that fish need to survive. 

* Industrial discharge into rivers puts all manner of noxious chemicals into the water, which accumulates in the fish and ends up on our dinner plates. 

What should hunters do? If they would like to preserve hunting and fishing as an option both for themselves and for future generations, they should become activists in the fight to preserve the natural environment, both here in Oregon and around the world.  

* This means supporting legislation that preserves critical habitat for all the animals and plants that are native to Oregon. 

* It means conducting their own personal lives in such a way that they do not contribute to habitat degradation. 

* It means helping to make sure that hunting laws are obeyed. Just this past week a bighorn sheep here in Oregon was shot out of season. The person who found the carcass blew the whistle on the perpetrator. This is the kind of citizen involvement we need to make sure that laws are obeyed and our precious natural resources are protected. There aren’t enough Fish and Wildlife officers to enforce the laws by themselves. 

We may not need wild animals for food any more, but we need them nonetheless. We don’t live in isolation. We are a part of a vast network of life. We must preserve the strength of that network by saving as many parts of it as we can. Our own lives may well depend on how well we preserve the rest of the network. 

If you are a hunter or a fisherman, do one thing today to help preserve the wild heritage that has been handed down to you. Even if you are not a hunter or fisherman, take action anyway. 

* Make a contribution to an organization, such as The Nature Conservancy, that is dedicated to the protection of our natural treasures.

* Write to your Congresspeople and state legislators to express you support for the protection of old growth forests and clean, pollution-free rivers and streams.

* Join some friends in removing human-generated trash from a natural area.You’ll feel a lot better for having done so.