‘Beginning Of The End’ For Hunting And Fishing

Fund for Animals, a national animal protection group, celebrated National Hunting and Fishing Day on Saturday, September 27, as the ‘beginning of the end’ of killing animals for sport.
Comments on article "‘Beginning Of The End’ For Hunting And Fishing"
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E. D. McFadden This article makes me wonder how many (if any) of the people in animal protection groups have backgrounds in environmental science, biology or ecology. They don't seem to be able to grasp the concept of overpopulation. If the ecological system is complete, then a hands off "just look and enjoy" approach makes perfect sense. However, in most parts of the country, the system is incomplete. What's missing? Predators. With nothing to keep them in check, the populations of prey species can skyrocket out of control, with disastrous results. I enjoy the fact that, in some national parks, wolves have been successfully reintroduced. But wolves, like most other large predators, need many square miles of land to roam, and will take the easiest prey available. Reintorducing them into a 700 acre forest that is surrounded by urban sprall is just not an option. In such areas, hunting is the only way to control some prey populations.
I am both an avid wildlife watcher and hunter. I work at a private, nonprofit nature center that manages roughly two square miles of wooded hills and riparian forest. We are surrounded by suburbs on three sides and cropland on the fourth. The deer population in the area is totally out of control. In the last 50 years, the browsing action of the deer population has eradicated about 30 species of native plants from our nature preserve. With them has gone any animals that may have used them as their primary food source. After nearly 10 years of managed deer hunts, we are starting to see some regeneration of the understory. Tree seedlings are actually growing into saplings, instead of being killed by overbrowsing. Flowers that haven't been seen for decades are starting to reappear.

With wild predators gone, it is up to humans to be the predators. Some may disagree with me, but i sincerely believe that it is our duty to control prey populations in order to ensure the ecological health and biodiversity of the remaining natural areas that we have left.		 8/26/2006
jeremy lizzotte hunting will never die,people love moose meat and deer meat way to much 9/18/2005
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