Magazine Articles

The most recent surveys of public attitudes toward regulated hunting in the United States indicate that more than 75 percent of those responding support this activity. Hunters seem to just accept this new information as one more inevitable and self-evident truth. It is this kind of reaction, however, that helps engender the great malaise in the hunting world: the belief that we have no need to reach out to the broad public, can keep representing ourselves to ourselves, and thus be continuously reinforced in the notion that all is well. Yet we know very well that not all is well.

The hunting community often focuses upon its financial contributions towards conservation. However, in the author's view paying a tax established in 1937 on a rifle or ammunition today does not make anyone a conservationist, regardless of whether they hunt or not. So what does make someone a conservationist and how would you know if you met one? If hunters want to be known as conservationists, shouldn't the community be able to articulate what it means by the term?

An 1842 U.S. Supreme Court case resulted in the Public Trust Doctrine. The ruling denied a landowner’s claim to exclude all others from taking oysters from particular mudflats in New Jersey. An 1842 U.S. Supreme Court case resulted in the Public Trust Doctrine. The current status of the Public Trust Doctrine puts public rights, property law, and the very notion of the "commons" at loggerheads with private property rights and the quest for profit derived from wildlife, whether personal, corporate, or even communal.

The philosophy, institutions, policies, and laws that collectively govern wildilfe conservation in North America have become recognized as the North American Model. It has led to the recovery of many wildlife species at a continental scale, generated a diverse economy, and enriched society by sustaining wildlife and habitats. However, what may arguably be the world's best experiment in conservation is not invulnerable. It is at risk and its collapse is possible.

Wildlife conservation in the United States and Canada has evolved over the last century and a half to acquire a form distinct from that of any other nation in the world. It's a conservation approach with iron at its core - sparked by the over-exploitation of wildlife, then crafted by hunters and anglers striving to save the resources their predecessors had nearly destroyed. Now a series of principles collectively known as the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation, it helps sustain not only traditional game species but all wildlife and their habitats across the continent.

The author has a growing concern for the future of wild animals, for the lands and water that sustain them, and for the future of hunting itself and the future of all human experience with wild nature. Due to their personal experiences, hunters are in a unique position to understand and communicate to the broader public the value of wildlife. For without this communication, the willful death of wild things is merely an indulgence.

While hunting in general is a controversial issue, there can be little doubt that much of the harsher criticism is directed toward trophy hunting. Even among hunters who readily pursue animals and harvest them, trophy hunting is sometimes criticized. To the general public, it is often portrayed as a distortion of the original activity, and one that has entered a self-indulgent and frivolous domain.

Fundamentally a creature of the northern climes, moose with their large bodies, long legs, and superb winter coats are highly adaptable to regions of cold temperatures and deep seasonal snows. Unexpectedly warm winter or summer temperatures, if prolonged, can stress moose, while their overall range is significantly limited southward by warm temperatures. Their overall population is estimated at 1 million animals or more. Yet, in various regions of North America, in a geographic pattern hard to explain, moose populations are declining.

In this second part of the author's series on trophy hunting, the author examines several damaging misconceptions about trophy hunting. Almost all hunters collect mementos from their hunts, it simply does not distinguish one form of hunting from another. But what of these elements of trophy hunting so many believe are distinguishing? Are they accurate? Are they true? Can they be used to separate "trophy" from other forms of hunting? Not really, and certainly not significantly.