Hunters Honored for Saving Millions of Birds

Mar 21

How a group of citizens that saved North American wildlife can be not only ignored, but discredited and even vilified for what they’ve done leaves me dumbfounded. Seriously. Blaming American hunters for endangered species is like blaming American farmers for world hunger. One farmer currently grows enough to feed 145 people. One hunter spends enough to grow hundreds, thousands, even millions of ducks, marsh wrens, quail, meadowlarks and dozens of other species of wildlife. Yet the Lt. Governor of California claims a hunter isn’t qualified to serve on the CA Fish & Game Commission. He and at least 40 state congressmen and women in CA want to stack the F&G Commission with anti-hunters. What the hell is the matter with these people? Are they so self-deluded that they are willing to jeopardize the health of North America’s wildlife and wild places by destroying the core group, virtually the only group, that supports it? The venerable Boone & Crockett Club knows better. This is the pioneering conservation organization started by Theodore Roosevelt and other HUNTERS to stop market hunting, establish modern wildlife management programs and SAVE wildlife in North America. It worked. Hunters kicked in political and financial capital in the billions to save and restore species on the brink of extinction. Species like elk, bison, wild turkeys, wood ducks and more. Instead of lambasting hunters out of ignorance, the B&C Club is awarding Ducks Unlimited, a citizen’s conservation organization started by, managed by and funded by hunters, its Theodore Roosevelt Legacy Award, which recognizes and celebrates cooperative partnerships in conservation. According to a recent B&C news release:

In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed two B&C members, Jay “Ding” Darling and Aldo Leopold, to a committee with Thomas Beck to assess the dismal state of migratory birds and to recommend actions. Together they proposed the Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp Act, which soon became law. The act provided that funds from sales of federal duck stamps would be used to acquire land for the National Wildlife Refuge System, established earlier by B&C founder Theodore Roosevelt. In 1935, the eventual founders of DU, through an entity they created in 1930 called More Game Birds in America Foundation, sponsored the International Wild Duck Census, the first comprehensive aerial survey of North America’s most important waterfowl breeding grounds. This survey confirmed the importance of duck habitat conservation in Canada. However, federal duck stamp monies couldn’t be used outside of U.S. borders. So, in 1937, DU was launched for the purpose of raising funds in the U.S. to secure lands in Canada. A second entity, DU Canada, was established to actually deliver that mission. Today, DU is the world’s largest and most effective non-governmental organization for waterfowl and wetlands conservation. Supported by legions of dedicated partners and volunteers, DU has raised over $3.3 billion to conserve more than 12.4 million acres.

Kudos to B&C for recognizing who really saves, restores and protects wildlife. Kudos to DU and its dedicated members who raise the money for this critical work. Kudos to hunters who contribute the billions that make all of this possible. Now, if only we can educate the rest of society to the incredible, almost unbelievable, Herculean effort hunters have undertaken to protect North America’s wildlife, we might prevent its destruction at the hands of ignorant politicians pandering to the hand-wringing, emotional nonsense of anti-hunting organizations that annually spend millions on attack ads and PR stunts that save not one square foot of habitat and support not one wild creature. The contrast is stark. # # #

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