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Please, not the dreaded Birders vs. Hunters thread!



On Sat, 30 Oct 1999 Bpworthing@aol.com wrote:
> 
> > OHVF was a slightly scary place to visit today, as there were a number of 
> >  hunters around. Fortunately, all were bow-hunters, who seem to be a 
> >  little more responsible and less reckless and alcohol-prone than many of 
> >  their gun-toting bretheren. Maybe arrows cost more than bullets. One of 
> >  them warned us that next week is muzzle-loading shotgun season, and that 
> >  the real guns are allowed the following week; better bird that area only 
> >  on Sundays for a while... This same hunter said he was at OHVF last year 
> >  when one hunter was shot and killed by another one. We made su
>  Josh : Some of us who used to hunt, and some may still, do not appreciate 
> your anti hunting diatribe. It is hunting money that pays for most of our 
> favorite birding spots, and unless you are one of the very few birders that 
> buys either a duck stamp, or (shudder) a hunting license, you are getting a 
> free ride from the gun and bow crowd. So lighten up on the hunters, and thank 
> God for them, for without them no WMA. or NWR"s.

Does what I wrote really sound like a diatribe? My intent was not to 
vilify hunters in general, for Pete is indeed correct that they were 
spending money to purchase wildlife habitat years ago, back when 
birdwatching was still economically insignificant. I have several birding 
friends in Michigan who were or are hunters, and probably a few here as 
well. Norm Douglas, with whom I was birding this morning, hunts on 
occasion. I included this paragraph among the nine others in my 
"diatribe" merely to warn anyone who might be considering visiting Old 
Hope Valley Farm in the next few weeks that hunters were present there. I 
apologize to anyone who read "many of their... bretheren" as being a 
blanket accusation of all hunters, rather than the characterization of 
the conspicuous minority of hunters who use guns and consume alcohol 
simultaneously. I am not anti-hunting. I wish no birders were, because 
then birders who also hunt would not get so defensive over perceived 
insults.

However, since certain people are not only touchy enough to respond with 
flames to the tiniest perceived slight, but also saw fit to flame me on a 
public listerv rather than privately, perhaps I should point out a few 
facts:

1. I was merely repeating what a **HUNTER** told me himself! These were 
not my words! He was a bow-hunter, maybe they don't like gun-hunters and 
so are prone to slandering them. But at worst I repeated someone else's 
slander, and did not slander anyone myself.

2. It is a *FACT*, not a diatribe, that someone died at Old Hope Valley 
Farm last year. That someone was a hunter, and he was shot by another 
hunter, with a gun. The family of the dead man posted a hearbreaking sign 
on the gate of OHVF warning all visitors to take every precaution when 
visiting the area. The sign is no longer there. My intent in writing the 
above paragraph was no different than that family's in hanging their 
sign: to make sure that any casualties which can be prevented, will be.

3. I *DO* buy duck stamps regularly. I also have purchased Golden Eagle 
passes on occasion, have been a member of the Nature Conservancy, and 
shop at more expensive sources for my birding supplies because those 
sources devote a percentage of their profits to land and wildlife 
conservation. I also pay admission fees at state recreation areas, 
national and state parks, national wildlife refuges (if my duck stamp is 
expired), and many other tracts of land, and often leave money in 
donation boxes at those tracts which do not require admission fees.

4. No responsible birder gets a "free ride from the gun and bow crowd" 
anymore. Those days are past. Birders and other wildlife watchers spent 
$29 billion dollars in direct expenditures, with a "ripple effect" of $84 
billion, in 1996 alone. This includes memberships in and donations to 
groups that purchase land for conservation, and groups that lobby 
governments on behalf of conservation on public lands, as well as 
purchases made from businesses that support conservation, and the 
admission fees described above. The number of birdwatchers in the USA 
increased 155% between 1983 and 1994, faster than any other recreational 
activity. While birders do owe an immeasureable debt to hunters, 
fishermen, and other consumers of wildlife for preserving habitat until 
now, birders now contribute as much money either per capita or overall to 
land conservation as any other group. The era of birding's free ride and 
economic insignificance is over.

I apologize to anyone else out there who perceived my account as an anti- 
hunting diatribe. If anyone really feels the need to flame me further, 
please do so directly to me; do not make the rest of the listserv suffer 
through it.

Thank you kindly,

Josh



Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Zoology

jsr6@acpub.duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/