Outdoor Organizations

WI ditch chicken

WI ditch chicken

New member
I'm not sure how to word this but here it goes...

I know there are conservation groups out there that are active in there specific areas (Ducks Unlimited Pheasants Forever Whitetails Unlimited Rocky Mountain Elk Fondation etc...) but is there an all encompassing group looking out for the betterment of all hunting?

The back story on this is the fact that I read an articale the other day in a turkey hunting magazine that I couldn't shake. The Writer spoke of a turkey hunt he had been invited on by a friend who happened to be a member of PETA. He was suspicious but went along because she was a friend that he trusted. Basically what happened was nothing unusual. She had a turkey that had a pattern and was very huntable. There was one hitch he had asked permission to hunt the property before and was turned away. When he mentioned this to her she told him it was no problem she knew the owner and would ask herself. She was also turned away being told that they didn't want people back there ''shooting the place up.''
After this episode she explained to him why hunting will disapear.

Quoted straight from the articale:

''You see Greg,'' Karen said as she climbed on her high horse, ''long before any Humane Society or PETA group does away with hunting, it will disappear because of the lack of access to places to hunt''
Then she rode that high horse right over me.
''When the paper company was going to sell Pettit Mountain, the county commissioners held meetings about what should happen to the land. I went to the meetings. Other trail riders went, too. They were trying to get enough people to buy the land to keep it from getting developed. Not one hunter came to any of those meetings. No deer hunters, no 'coon hunters, and no turkey hunters. Not one. That just tells me they are not passionate about their sport.''
At the level of initials and acronyms, Karen and I are on opposite sides of the fence. Fortunately, we have some really good ones - even passonaite ones - on our side: DU, OF, NWTF, and TRCP, to name a few. But on a personal level, although I'd often like to be Karen's adversary, she might be having me over for spaghetti soon.

Lessons from Okefenokee

In the end, a developer bought the mountain. He cleared the land, put in a road, broke it in to parcels and sold exactly one lot - I think to the excavater who did the work. That was several years and one giant real esate collapse ago. Now the mountain is of no use nobody, particularly the wildlife that previously inhabited it.
As Pogo the immortal comic strip spokespossum of Okefenokee Swamp once lamented when finding an open landfill in his native habitat, ''We have met the enemy, and he is us.''
End Quote

I searched for the article on the magazines web site but was unable to find it.
It was written by Greg Lobas and was in the April issue of Turkey and Turkey Huntng.

Can anyone give an example where two groups (DU, PF, RMEF, etc...) worked together to allow access to more hunters? Has anyone had an experience similar to the one given in the articale? Do you think there should be an organization that would work for the greater good of all hunting or fishing sports not just one specific area?

Thank you for your time and help. I'm sorry if I opened a heated can of worms,
Scott
 
I know Pheasants Forever contributes to the Nebraska WIHA program. ALL D.U. owned marshes in the central states are open to public hunting in cooperation with the states game and fish. Several lumber companies work with the Ruffed Grouse society. D.U., Pheasants Forever, North American Grouse Partnership, all lobby congress for preserving native grasslands in the
farm bill.
 
My PF chapter helped (along with DNR/habitat mgr) open up our county lands to limited hunting. I'm working now to open up more opportunities. Just got the go ahead with a youth dove hunt on county land. This will be the first of it's kind.

The article you read is correct in that the anti hunters are very passionate at open meetings. In my experience the room fills up 50%-50%. Half pro hunting half anti hunting. Both are passionate. The only difference I've noticed is the anti hunting crowd can be VERY vile and rude.

Name calling, putting folks down, threatening, etc. Over all, in my experience the pro hunting crowd seems to carry themselves in a more professional manor. I think we need to stay that way and just increase our #'s at such events.
 
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Over twenty years ago I reluctantly lived in Connecticut (sorry if I offend anyone with that.) I was told that the year before I arrived a few hunters approached their State Rep.s and asked to allow Sunday hunting. There seemed to be a lot of support for it so the Rep.s held a hearing. No pro-Sunday hunters showed up so the Rep.s decided not to pursue it.
Now, I'm not a big fan of Sunday hunting, and that would be a different forum topic, but I think it is analogous to Ditch's story. Some people assume others will take care of these situations, some give money to or join activist organizations, and some get personally involved. I believe, for the most part, conservatives don't like to get personally involved for various reasons.
From my experience in other fields I can say all of the previously mentioned pro-hunting & conservation groups need financial support, but they also need feet on the ground. That includes attending meetings, speaking at hearings/meetings on state and local levels, sitting at a booth at your county fair, and/or participating in educational events.
I am as guilty as anyone at not participating, but I think forums like this provide us with an easy and effective way to communicate, and hopefully become more active. I know the posts on the newly started PA forum has gotten me more excited about what PF is doing in our state.
 
oldandnew said:
I know Pheasants Forever contributes to the Nebraska WIHA program. ALL D.U. owned marshes in the central states are open to public hunting in cooperation with the states game and fish. Several lumber companies work with the Ruffed Grouse society. D.U., Pheasants Forever, North American Grouse Partnership, all lobby congress for preserving native grasslands in the
farm bill.
Click to expand...

I suppose I am opening a can of worms here but when you talk about lobbying congress to preserve native grasslands remember that somebody owns those native grasslands. When congress tried to pass the Sodsaver Bill, one of the unintended consequenses was that people started breaking up sod to beat the threat of the loss of net worth when the land is devalued by such legislation. As one who owns and appreciates native grassland, I am encouraged to farm that land that I really did not think I would. While the last attempt failed I assume their will be another. I am put in the position that I better farm it while I still can before some well intentioned group takes that option away from me. I would rather see the money spent on lawyers and lobbying be used as an incentive to keep native sod native.
 
Haymaker, I think the North American Grouse Partnership, Pheasants Forever, and the Ruffed Grouse Society all have a great reputation for working with and through private landowners to maximize land use for wildlife without sacrificing economic gain. You may disagree, but a great many acres of ground have been plowed that should never have been tilled, for the simple reasons that it is to dry,( without expensive, and ecologically runious irrigation), or is highly erodable. Most of this ground tends to be marginally profitable to farm anyway. Nobody here wants to tell you how or what to farm. But you do raise an interesting morale point. Do the needs or desires of one or a few private landowners override the welfare of the entire ecosystem of a continent, and the populations, ( both human and wildlife), that it fosters? This would apply equally to Industry, Mining, Cities, almost all human pursuits. We manage wildlife to preserve the species with little concern for the individual, in human society we frequently and clearly, value the individual or minority to the detriment of society as a whole. See Kings, Queens,despots, politicians, captains of industry, et.al.
 
oldandnew said:
Haymaker, I think the North American Grouse Partnership, Pheasants Forever, and the Ruffed Grouse Society all have a great reputation for working with and through private landowners to maximize land use for wildlife without sacrificing economic gain. You may disagree, but a great many acres of ground have been plowed that should never have been tilled, for the simple reasons that it is to dry,( without expensive, and ecologically runious irrigation), or is highly erodable. Most of this ground tends to be marginally profitable to farm anyway. Nobody here wants to tell you how or what to farm. But you do raise an interesting morale point. Do the needs or desires of one or a few private landowners override the welfare of the entire ecosystem of a continent, and the populations, ( both human and wildlife), that it fosters? This would apply equally to Industry, Mining, Cities, almost all human pursuits. We manage wildlife to preserve the species with little concern for the individual, in human society we frequently and clearly, value the individual or minority to the detriment of society as a whole. See Kings, Queens,despots, politicians, captains of industry, et.al.
Click to expand...

I live in the prairie pothole region of South Dakota. That makes my land special in the eyes of DU and others. I have native grass that would be as productive as the land that is farmed next to it. Yes there is land that has been farmed that should not have been. Back to the Sod Saver bill. Had the senate version passed and been adopted it would have reduced the value of my native grass by probably 50%. Currently that is about $1000 dollars an acre. On the amount of native grass that I have that would be a $650,000 hit on the value of the land. The only reason that land is not being farmed now is because I have protected it. Now DU comes along and wants to punish me because I did not break it up 25 years ago. I know of one operation that broke up 30 quarters of grass when that sodsaver was being pushed. It probably was not all native but look at the loss of habitat that was caused by DU.
 
Haymaker, I just don't get your point. You haven't plowed your acreage though it has been eligible to be plowed for eons. SodBuster proposal was like a myriad of other bad ideas that never had a chance to see passage. The only way to realize the added benefit of tilling your ground is to sell it to someone who intends to plow it! You don't intend to, and I applaud you for it! It takes a rare vision to see the benefit of long term stewardship. I doubt that you want your legacy to be the guy who sold the ranch so it could be tilled up and move to town. I would hope there would be incentives to maintain grasslands, which is what the North American Grouse Partnership, for one, lobbies for. I agree that D.U. can be high handed and elitist, they have done a lot of good, and continue to do so. Not all positions are well thought out by these organizations, especially in league with the government. I believe and hope that any preservation program would be voluntary, and financially exceptable. At least that is what I would support. My main point is that there is a price to be paid by someone, something, or everyone and every living thing for every consumptive action we as the human society take. Oil has a hidden long term cost, energy from coal costs us air quality locally and dead forests on the eastern seaboard, plastics choke our land fills. I was horrified to see the "snow effect" of plastic wad cups where my kids shoot targets, God only knows what the lead count is! I fear for a future where everything is ruined beyond repair, at any cost. I hate being a part of it. We even have crazy housewives running around hoarding incadesent light bulbs because they will be legislated out in a year or two, and they want to continue, I guess to burn all the energy they can, till they bring the grid to it's knees, and kill the last pine tree in Vermont.
 
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