It should be understood that hunters care deeply about wildlife and devote more resources to animals and their habitat than any other user group. They understand that sometimes controversial actions must be taken to conserve wildlife. They focus on the net benefit to wildlife populations and do not let emotion or social ignorance affect their goals. Wildlife and habitat are always first and foremost in a hunter’s world.
Hunters recognize that they can not close highways or restore urban areas to the pristine habitat that they once were; however, they can do things that have an immediate, manageable and positive effect. Predator control is one of these tools and the net benefit to wildlife populations is exponential.
The natural world is a cruel place. A “natural” death for any animal is either slow starvation on a cold winter day or being ripped apart by other animals. Extinctions, extirpations and population swings occur. The presence of our modern world affects and amplifies these hazards to wildlife. Unfortunately, this makes conservation a necessity, the utopian fantasy that nature will “balance itself” is reckless. The loss of our caribou is proof of this. The band played on while they disappeared, and not once did I hear a media reporter or biologist mention how they actually died. Fearful of a public backlash, they repeatedly diverted the discussions to indirect human impacts that can’t be reversed.
I encourage everyone to resist the social media mob mentality to educate yourself. Keep an open mind and gather hard evidence on your own. Hike off the beaten, manicured trails into the backcountry and ask yourself; why is this area not at carrying capacity for wildlife when hunter harvest is next to nil? Why do we have urban deer problems when backcountry habitat is empty? Why is it socially acceptable to kill these last refugees and not the predators that push them from their habitat?
Ironically, vocal opponents of predator management are now calling for science to dictate the path forward? This is one thing I agree with. We must manage with science. By that logic, any reputable biologist can tell you that hunting predators (including grizzly bears!!) is sustainable and in some cases absolutely necessary.
The human condition can inhibit our ability to act logically; it feels good to act on emotion and relieves us of guilt for our urban lifestyles even though it is detrimental to the animals we love. It is fashionable to support socially popular “truths” when distasteful facts are staring us in the face.
I suppose we could be forgiven for ignoring facts in an attempt to be compassionate; the concern, in this case, is that the facts tell us that our wildlife populations are collapsing. Our wildlife deserves better and popular opinion has no place.
Corey Phelps | Creston