Joined
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Don't know if this has been posted yet, but I'm impressed with it.
I cut and copied it so I hope it works!
Hunter Green
>
> The People Behind a Conservation Success Story
>
>
>
> By Steve Sanetti
>
> Monday, September 15, 2008; Page A19
>
>
>
> Today's green movement uses certain buzzwords -- organic,
> locavore, renewable -- to the wry amusement of 15 million to 20 million
> of us who've actually lived the eco-friendly lifestyle that these words
> describe.
>
> We are hunters.
>
> As a subset of America, we're admittedly somewhat smaller than
> we used to be. Our numbers have been steadily pressed beneath a culture
> growing ever faster, more complex and distant from its rural ancestry.
> Now, like growing vegetables, gathering fresh eggs and raising farm
> animals for the table, the proclivity and skill to harvest Earth's
> bounty of wild game -- and to pass on this tradition to those longing
> for simpler ways of life -- reside in only a relative few of us.
>
> The meats that hunters and their families consume are grown
> unfettered by hormones, processed feeds or fences. Low in fat and
> cholesterol, high in protein, wild game is organic defined. The American
> Heart Association
> <http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/American+Heart+Associat
> ion?tid=informline> and American Cancer Society
> <http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/American+Cancer+Society
> ?tid=informline> recommend venison, rabbit, pheasant and duck over many
> commercially produced, packaged and distributed alternatives.
>
> Data gathered by my organization show that 84 percent of us hunt
> exclusively in our home states. Only 5 percent never hunt locally.
> Compared with consumers of U.S. supermarket food, which routinely
> travels as much as 2,500 miles from source to table, we are model
> locavores.
>
> But "renewable" is perhaps where hunters shine greenest.
>
> Today, every state has thriving game populations in habitats
> that sustain hunted as well as non-hunted species. It's a richness of
> life that many Americans enjoy regardless of their environmental
> persuasion. Yet most also take it for granted, unaware of the mechanisms
> that sustain this public resource. They see more wildlife every year but
> are oblivious to why that's so.
>
> Begun well over a century ago, the success of modern
> conservation can only be fully understood against the backdrop of
> historical slaughter for markets that took 40 million buffalo to the
> brink of extinction and 5 billion passenger pigeons beyond it. It was
> hunters who led a revolution of new values, new science and new
> approaches for responsible use of these resources. Seasons, game limits
> and wildlife conservation funds all came from hunters, and we are
> immensely proud of that effort. Because of us, white-tailed deer,
> pronghorn antelope, elk, wild turkeys, wood ducks and hundreds of other
> cherished life forms transitioned from vanishing to flourishing.
>
> Even in today's renaissance of eco-consciousness, we remain the
> most stalwart supporters of wild things. Hunters and sport-shooters now
> pay for more than 80 percent of all conservation and habitat programs in
> America. Through licenses, tags, permits, fees and special excise taxes
> on firearms, ammunition, bows and arrows, we've paid -- and state fish
> and game agencies have successfully plied -- more than $5.3 billion
> since 1939. And we pushed for this tax on ourselves. No conservation
> system has accomplished more.
>
> As the cost of conservation rises, we're upping our outlays even
> as we remain a relatively small percentage of the population. In fact,
> our data show that the price of hunting licenses is outpacing the rate
> of inflation by more than 30 percent. Each year America's hunters
> contribute more for wildlife.
>
> Taxing hunters to fund the health of public wildlife is a proud
> part of our heritage. In tomorrow's world, however, this financing may
> be merely the second-best byproduct of what we do. As civilization
> struggles to balance modern lifestyles with organic, local, renewable
> resources, hunters are indeed among the deepest wells of expertise on
> the planet.
>
> Our very identity clings steadfastly to stewardship of land,
> clean water and air, intimate knowledge of natural communities, and
> careful interaction with the good earth -- because that's how we've
> ensured abundant wildlife and good hunting for more than 100 years.
>
> For us, the amusing irony is that American society, which has
> looked down its nose at hunters more sternly with each passing
> generation, is discovering that camouflage has been a primary shade of
> green all along.
>
> Steve Sanetti is president and chief executive of the National
> Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association based in Connecticut.
> Previously he was an executive and general counsel for the firearms
> manufacturer Sturm, Ruger and Co.
I cut and copied it so I hope it works!
Hunter Green
>
> The People Behind a Conservation Success Story
>
>
>
> By Steve Sanetti
>
> Monday, September 15, 2008; Page A19
>
>
>
> Today's green movement uses certain buzzwords -- organic,
> locavore, renewable -- to the wry amusement of 15 million to 20 million
> of us who've actually lived the eco-friendly lifestyle that these words
> describe.
>
> We are hunters.
>
> As a subset of America, we're admittedly somewhat smaller than
> we used to be. Our numbers have been steadily pressed beneath a culture
> growing ever faster, more complex and distant from its rural ancestry.
> Now, like growing vegetables, gathering fresh eggs and raising farm
> animals for the table, the proclivity and skill to harvest Earth's
> bounty of wild game -- and to pass on this tradition to those longing
> for simpler ways of life -- reside in only a relative few of us.
>
> The meats that hunters and their families consume are grown
> unfettered by hormones, processed feeds or fences. Low in fat and
> cholesterol, high in protein, wild game is organic defined. The American
> Heart Association
> <http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/American+Heart+Associat
> ion?tid=informline> and American Cancer Society
> <http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/American+Cancer+Society
> ?tid=informline> recommend venison, rabbit, pheasant and duck over many
> commercially produced, packaged and distributed alternatives.
>
> Data gathered by my organization show that 84 percent of us hunt
> exclusively in our home states. Only 5 percent never hunt locally.
> Compared with consumers of U.S. supermarket food, which routinely
> travels as much as 2,500 miles from source to table, we are model
> locavores.
>
> But "renewable" is perhaps where hunters shine greenest.
>
> Today, every state has thriving game populations in habitats
> that sustain hunted as well as non-hunted species. It's a richness of
> life that many Americans enjoy regardless of their environmental
> persuasion. Yet most also take it for granted, unaware of the mechanisms
> that sustain this public resource. They see more wildlife every year but
> are oblivious to why that's so.
>
> Begun well over a century ago, the success of modern
> conservation can only be fully understood against the backdrop of
> historical slaughter for markets that took 40 million buffalo to the
> brink of extinction and 5 billion passenger pigeons beyond it. It was
> hunters who led a revolution of new values, new science and new
> approaches for responsible use of these resources. Seasons, game limits
> and wildlife conservation funds all came from hunters, and we are
> immensely proud of that effort. Because of us, white-tailed deer,
> pronghorn antelope, elk, wild turkeys, wood ducks and hundreds of other
> cherished life forms transitioned from vanishing to flourishing.
>
> Even in today's renaissance of eco-consciousness, we remain the
> most stalwart supporters of wild things. Hunters and sport-shooters now
> pay for more than 80 percent of all conservation and habitat programs in
> America. Through licenses, tags, permits, fees and special excise taxes
> on firearms, ammunition, bows and arrows, we've paid -- and state fish
> and game agencies have successfully plied -- more than $5.3 billion
> since 1939. And we pushed for this tax on ourselves. No conservation
> system has accomplished more.
>
> As the cost of conservation rises, we're upping our outlays even
> as we remain a relatively small percentage of the population. In fact,
> our data show that the price of hunting licenses is outpacing the rate
> of inflation by more than 30 percent. Each year America's hunters
> contribute more for wildlife.
>
> Taxing hunters to fund the health of public wildlife is a proud
> part of our heritage. In tomorrow's world, however, this financing may
> be merely the second-best byproduct of what we do. As civilization
> struggles to balance modern lifestyles with organic, local, renewable
> resources, hunters are indeed among the deepest wells of expertise on
> the planet.
>
> Our very identity clings steadfastly to stewardship of land,
> clean water and air, intimate knowledge of natural communities, and
> careful interaction with the good earth -- because that's how we've
> ensured abundant wildlife and good hunting for more than 100 years.
>
> For us, the amusing irony is that American society, which has
> looked down its nose at hunters more sternly with each passing
> generation, is discovering that camouflage has been a primary shade of
> green all along.
>
> Steve Sanetti is president and chief executive of the National
> Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association based in Connecticut.
> Previously he was an executive and general counsel for the firearms
> manufacturer Sturm, Ruger and Co.
