Editor’s note: This commentary is by Mike Covey, a life-long resident of Williamstown. He studied wildlife management and volunteers with several of Vermont’s conservation organizations such as the Vermont Trappers Association, Vermont Traditions Coalition and Vermont Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs.
[U]nfortunately for our public dialogue, half truths and misinformation have become standard for the anti-trapping and animal rights crowd in Vermont. This occurs once more in a recent VTDigger commentary and it is too bad for those citizens who don’t know the truth, for the well-being of our wildlife, and ultimately their own cause.
This anti-hunting/trapping narrative gets very little right, but there has been a decline in hunting participation around the nation. This is unfortunate as hunters, trappers and anglers are not only the primary source of funding for conservation of wildlife and their habitats but crucial tools for managing many species.
Not only do these pursuits provide tangible benefits to communities, individuals and the wildlife itself, they provide many Vermont families with healthy, humane, local meat. Unlike many commercially farmed meats one would purchase in the grocery store, the harvest of wild game is local, green and renewable, and provides environmental benefits rather than potentially creating a negative environmental impact.
Many of David Kelley’s statements beg to be corrected.
• His analysis is based only on resident hunting licenses, and he omits combination licenses which allow both hunting and fishing. Although the purchase of combination licenses has declined as well, excluding them entirely is a lawyer’s spin to twist the numbers. Vermont has nearly 50,000 licensed hunters, and that excludes those under 15 who do not need a license, and those over 66 years of age who are eligible for a one-time purchase of all their licenses, which is a significant share of our adult population.
• There is no mention of the disproportionate share that these user groups pay towards conservation in Vermont and around the nation. A focus on license fees ignores excise taxes on firearms, ammunition, trapping supplies, and contributions via wildlife habitat enhancement and conservation. The hunting, trapping and fishing community are most readily summarized as sporting conservationists. These stewards are providing, not limiting the opportunity for others to enjoy birding, wildlife watching, photography, and other such activities.
• This directly relates to the next misrepresentation commonly stated by the anti-hunting/anti-trapping crowd. The concept that hunted and trapped animals are somehow “stolen” from the general public, is patently false. Never in modern times has regulated harvest of wildlife threatened or extirpated a species in North America. The laws and regulations relating to the harvest of wildlife are scientifically based and enacted to ensure the long-term health and proliferation of our wild resources. Sporting conservationists, provide an invaluable resource for biologists and fish and wildlife departments. They do so by embracing their critical role as the keystone contributors to the health of our wildlife and our wild places, and by engaging with wildlife managers in an effort to ensure the well-being of all species into the future.
• Finally, Kelley reviles the Fish and Wildlife Department for noting that those who oppose trapping also oppose hunting. However, his associates in these efforts have sought to curtail or eliminate bear hunting, coyote hunting, moose hunting, opossum hunting, raccoon hunting, fox hunting, all training of hunting dogs, use of hunting dogs to pursue game from rabbits to bear; they have taken shots at waterfowl hunters, bow hunters, adults teaching youth to hunt and trap, and worst of all, the Hunt of a Lifetime organization which provides opportunities to terminally and critically ill youth. This is atop their publicly stated aim to end all trapping. In fact, the only thing I haven’t heard them specifically oppose is hunting of deer and turkey with a firearm. Perhaps that is what he was talking about.
Aldo Leupold wrote in “A Sand County Almanac,” “There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot. These essays are the delights and dilemmas of one who cannot.” Sporting conservationists are those who cannot. Hunting and trapping are more than the simple harvest of an animal, they are an active investment in the future and well-being of our wild places and wildlife. They are a connection to the outdoors which fuels a desire for conservation across a broader scale. Kelley is right about one other thing, it’s time for change in wildlife management, and that change must be for those who enjoy wildlife but don’t contribute much to its preservation to engage in funding and forwarding the health of these resources into the future. Thus far, trappers, anglers and hunters have footed the bill without complaint, and it is certainly time for those who consider themselves “non-consumptive users” to join in and contribute to the expense.
