sportsman give back to land more than they take

[duckman#1]

An article in our local paper by Denny Geurink states some interesting facts.

*Hunters and fisherman have contributed over $20 BILLION for wildlife conservation. This is more than ANY other segment of society!

* Hunters contribute $30 BILLION to the US economy each year, supporting more than 986,000 Jobs

Examples of what hunters dollars have done:

Whitetail deer: In 1900 less than half a million deer remained in the nation. Today there are OVER 19 million!

Canada Geese: in the 1940's there were 1.1 million, today 3.76 million!

Wild Turkey: Early 1900's less than 100,000 exsisted. Today theres over 4.5 million!

Rocky Mountain Elk: In 1907 only about 41,000 remained today in just 10 western states there are 800,000

Pronghorn antelope: 50 years ago the total population in the U.S. was around 12,000. Today over 1 million!



How can anyone honestly think if we get a dove season, we will destroy the population?

[Bob S]

Originally posted by duckman#1
How can anyone honestly think That`s it right there. They don`t think, it is all emotion driven. Tell a non hunter, or even many hunters, that on October 1st you will shoot the first fawn that offers a shot and listen to the response. It`s emotion driven management. Can`t shoot a dove cause it`s cute. Can`t shoot a fawn cause it`s cute. Unfortunately we do too much game management based on emotion and tradition and not enough based on science.

Geez, got up on that soapbox and couldn`t get off.