Shortage Of Hunters Has Environmentalists Concerned
What an interesting web we weave. For decades now PETA and environmentalists have looked down on hunters and have called them every name you can think of except wanted and needed.
Well that could all change, MSN is reporting that there is a decline in the number of hunters in our nation and the consequences could hurt their causes.
According to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service data hunting license sales have fallen from a peak of about 17 million in the early ’80s to 15 million last year. In fact, according to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife agency their 2016 survey pointed to an even deeper decline of 11.5 million Americans who say they hunt, down more than 2 million licensees from five years earlier.
Samantha Pedder from the Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports, a group that works to increase the diversity of hunters said:
“The downward trends are clear”
So what are PETA and the environmentalist concerned about since they are achieving their stated goals? Well, the decline in hunting licenses means a decline in cash and now that is resulting in some pretty large financial shortfalls in many state wildlife agencies.
I remember reporting on the state of California forcing people to conserve water. That worked so well they saw a precipitous decline in cash coming into their waterworks departments so they had to increase their rates greatly.
The article stated the following:
In Wisconsin, a $4 million to $6 million annual deficit forced the state’s Department of Natural Resources to reduce warden patrols and invasive species control.
Michigan’s legislature had to dig into general-tax coffers to save some of the state’s wildlife projects, while other key programs, such as protecting bees and other pollinating creatures, remain “woefully underfunded,” according to Edward Golder, a spokesman for the state’s natural resources department.
Some states, including Missouri, are redirecting sales tax revenue to conservation.
Here in Pennsylvania — where the game commission gets more than 50 percent of its revenue from licenses, permits and taxes — the agency had to cancel construction projects, delay vehicle purchases and leave dozens of positions vacant, according to a 2016 report, even as it tackled West Nile virus and tried to protect rare creatures such as the wood rat.
So now what are people are calling for, well I told you what happened in California when it came to their water rates. Now a national panel has called for a new funding model to keep at-risk species from needing far costlier emergency measures.
Interesting what happens when people get what they want and have strived for decades to achieve. Apparently they never really look fully at the consequences of their actions, kind of like teenagers if I remember those years of being one and raising them.
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