At what point do the "grownups" come to the fore in our State Fish and Wildlife departments and mandate a sane and sustainable deer hunting regime that takes into account not just trophies for our hunters but also the health and long term sustainability of our woodlands? The informed and responsible hunter(i know some) know that the key to long term good hunting is healthy and biologically sound habitat. Maintaining artificially high deer populations(40 or more per square mile) might cause the weekend woodsman to smile because the "pickings are easy".................but the true sportsman knows well what our greatest naturalist,Aldo Leopold, said so eloquently in his classic essay: THINKING LIKE A MOUNTAIN....................................
"WE REACHED THE OLD WOLF IN TIME TO WATCH A FIERCE GREEN FIRE DYING IN HER EYES...I WAS YOUNG THEN, AND FULL OF TRIGGER-ITCH; I THOUGHT THAT BECAUSE FEWER WOLVES MEANT MORE DEER, THAT NO WOLVES WOULD MEAN HUNTERS' PARADISE. BUT AFTER SEEING THAT GREEN FIRE DIE, I SENSED THAT NEITHER THE WOLF NOR THE MOUNTAIN AGREED WITH SUCH A VIEW. SINCE THEN, I HAVE LIVED TO SEE STATE AFTER STATE EXTIRPATE ITS WOLVES. I HAVE WATCHED THE FACE OF MANY A NEWLY WOLF-LESS MOUNTAIN, AND SEEN THE SOUTH FACING SLOPES WRINKLE WITH A MAZE OF NEW DEER TRAILS. I HAVE SEEN EVERY EDIBLE BUSH AND SEEDLING BROWSED, FIRST TO ANAEMIC DESUETUDE, AND THEN TO DEATH."
Sharon Levy's to-the-point and stark pictorials and verbage point to a land without cougars and wolves turned into a near desert monoculture......A land that has had key animal and plant species obliterated because the deer have "literally ingested" the ingredients of health needed for their survival to continue.
We can restore the wolves and cougars(YES, EVEN ALONGSIDE NEWLY ARRIVED EASTERN COYOTES)..................We can mitigate our hunting policies...................We can bring back diversity and yes..................even a hunters paradise!
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