Future in Contemplation
Perhaps it’s the galvanized-metal skies or the cold-damp weather or, maybe, the feeling I get cooped-up in the house with a setter resting at my feet but, I tend to reminisce during these late winter days. Another year has ended and another begins, here in Idaho. I begin to wonder how many more years remain for me to ponder the next.
This Christmas I received a copy of William Tapply’s, “Upland Autumn” and I am saving the last chapter for after the season’s last hunting opportunity. The title of that last chapter? - “Last Hunt”. In my home state, all but pheasants remain open a few more weeks – in neighboring Washington even pheasant hunting remains an option. How much longer will I be able to say, “Remains an option”?
The decades have been good to me and the opportunity to hunt. In the past it was fairly easy to be a bird hunter looking for a few hours of exercise. If the land owner hunted at all it was for deer, not birds, and the very short deer season in Washington state where I spent my youthful years required the hunting community to put all their efforts towards that goal. As soon as the weather turned foul, hunters turned to their recliners and television and left all the fowl hunting to me! Then, things became more complicated.
Many years ago, a group tried - and failed - to create a hunting preserve near my favorite bird hunting haunt. With a youthful smugness I recall how I chortled at the very idea! There were hundreds of thousands of acres with as much game and it was free for the asking, “Why would anyone in their right mind pay to hunt pheasants?!” I’d sarcastically sneer. I didn’t know it then but I was witnessing, perhaps, the beginning of permission-style hunting’s slow demise.
There is plenty of blame to go around and, perhaps, some of it belongs to outdoorsmen as well? We should have seen it coming, this format had been in place for decades throughout the eastern half of the country. Pay-to-hunt was the standard that was as acceptable to them as planted trout was to us. The cities of the west began to bulge with an influx of these people looking to find work and move away from their crowded environment. With them they brought an acceptance of the pay-to-hunt philosophy, why wouldn’t they – that’s all they knew?
This anathema to hunting was no threat to me, I knew plenty of good hunting areas. I rather self-righteously ignored others as they paid for their few hours of outdoor enjoyment! The landowners we knew accepted hunting as a stepping stone to manhood and a young hunter with his dog was as familiar to them as working the land. Then farms became incorporated - huge business - with shares, accountants and attorneys – faceless.
Diversification in crops was good business, it meant that if one crop paid poorly another may make up the difference. Now, hunting became just another form of diversification; a bi-product, if you will, to farming itself. No different than a lumber mill selling the sawdust to a paper mill. Accountants and shareholders liked that and attorneys always feel a certain level of comfort when they can get everyone involved in contractual obligations - besides, people freely toting guns seem to frighten them. But, how is any of this the hunter’s fault?
I was not alone in my reaction to preserve hunting; many of the folks I knew felt the same way – complacency. By then, I had been hunting for years on certain properties. I didn’t even need to knock on the door or call ahead. Meanwhile, the old farmers retired and moved away, leaving the farm for children, neighbors or corporations to maintain. These new entities didn’t know me and I hadn’t bothered to keep in touch with the total operation of farming. Before I knew what was happening, welcoming fields and access roads became locked gates and fence lines displaying angry “No Trespassing” signs.
It was like a punch to the gut! “I had always treated the farm like it was my own, how could they do this to me?!” I lamented. And that was probably part of the problem. The former land-owner recognized my efforts as respect, the new ownership, perhaps, felt I was too familiar; that I carried with me a sense of entitlement? After all, I hadn’t bothered to check in or even introduce myself as a friend.
Lets envision a guy in a recliner with his television. There are fewer birds, fewer places to hunt, he is getting older and his legs and will have begun to leave him. What was a couple weekends of bird hunting has morphed into, maybe, a single day of easy Opening Day birds. The skies are blue and the birds of the year huddle in flat-land cover not far from the nest that reared them. Maybe he has permission or maybe he has paid to hunt this day – it is all the same to him. The walk is less labored and the family dog, if one is even used, points/flushes the naïve young birds like a field champion! It’s all so…so, “easy”.
His children only know this style of hunting; since they have hunted, Dad has hunted in this manner. The computer games they have been interacting with have provided hundreds of make-believe targets for hours of effortless pleasure. The number of pretend dead creatures are tallied on the screen and records are set! That is really all they know of the sport; real – tangible - challenge is not part of it. Without effort, there is no appreciation for true accomplishment.
The television programing paints an unrealistic picture of the blood sports, as sometimes hunting was referred. That was not a negative label applied by the non-hunting community. No, it was used as a literary reference to the visceral feeling of true interaction with the real environment! The marrow of everyday struggle wildlife experienced - as early man-kind must have experienced.
Outdoor television portrays every clump of brush or small woodlot has game pouring out of them! “Just call this number on your screen to book your hunt of a lifetime!” They confidently exclaim like a cheesy ad for a weight-loss product. Outdoor programing has a huge role in the monster that is the pay-to-hunt industry, I totally believe this in my heart. What I saw as entertaining programming to fill the off-season blues, others where seeing as a real hunting experience. For others, in many parts of the country, that was their reality.
State game agencies jumped on board with their own flavor of put and take hunting. Why not? They have been doing it with fish for decades! It is a natural transition to them and, besides, what remains of the outdoor public demands it! Once, they raised birds in an effort to establish and supplement an on-going stock of wild birds; placing them in cover suited for their continued survival. Now there are areas euphemistically referred to as “Wildlife Management Areas” or WMA’s; patches of cover having less to do with “managing wildlife” than a typical backyard! The life that is placed there is far from wild and its management is only a matter of removing it!
To those folks in their recliners, it is all very palatable and to them goes part of the blame. After all, Dad (or Grandpa) should know better, right? They know that these balloons-on-a-string birds are nothing like their wild cousins. Some state game agencies have practically ignored wild birds in favor of pen-reared creatures that are to be exterminated, not managed. Makes one ponder, “Why do they need a degree in wildlife management or biology when someone that raises chickens or cleans pens is just as qualified?”
It appears as though the outdoor community has given up on what is truly wildlife in favor of this commercialized killing. Certainly, some farms and ranches that have turned to pay-to-hunt have bettered their habitat but, as something was gained how much, I wonder, was lost? As the old adage goes, “Pull one tiny thread…”
The nuance of hunting – its very nature – has been lost. Certainly, we fill our freezer with enough game to enjoy for several meals but, that isn’t the entire point of it. I don’t need to hunt to eat, I need to hunt to be full! This is the nature of hunting to me. The subsequent meals of wild game takes me back to its source, to the hunt and relive its experience. You may have heard it before (though, may or may not have understood) but, success is not measured by numbers; the number of points on its head, the number of fish on the stringer or the birds in your vest. I can understand how non-hunters have this distorted view of hunting, it is beyond my senses to understand why some that hunt do as well!
Success is not a matter of numbers, though outdoor television, video games and, to some extent, various forms of shooting preserves may demonstrate to the contrary. One way or another, we all have accepted them as “hunting”...the shame is upon us all.
