[TN-Bird] Fwd: Hunter dollars are important but.....

From Nathan Klaus in Georgia. Forwarded by Richard Connors, Nashville
 
Hi Richard,
Interesting posts of yours forwarded to the Georgia  listserv.  I read 
with interest a few days ago that someone in TWRA was  claiming that 
hunters are paying for too much of the wildlife management  conservation 
activities by TWRA, I believe it was a TWRA employee quoted as  saying 
so.  I am quite certain that this is not the agency stance but  merely a 
fairly biased and ignorant post by one employee.  I  occasionally hear 
this sort of thing in Georgia too, though rarely from our  own staff.  
The reality is quite different these days.  Undeniably  hunter dollars 
have been very important in the past and continue to be, the  
contribution of hunters toward conservation has been so important to  
wildlife conservation.  HOWEVER, in the distant past and in modern  times 
there have always been huge sums coming from the general public.   Going 
back to the turn of the last century, our national forest lands and  
national parks were not bought by hunters, and hunter dollars have  
contributed only a small part toward the management and upkeep relative  
to national forest or national park budgets.  Around the turn of the  
most recent century the same can be said, Royal Blue WMA and nearly  
every other land purchase in TN and elsewhere were bought using  
nonhunter dollars, though some used small amounts of hunter dollars.   If 
it weren't for groups like the Conservation Fund and The Nature  
Conservancy there would be almost no land purchases happening, and  
ultimately many of these land purchases are paid for using government  
bonds or funds from state general appropriations. 
Given the cultural  differences between hunters and birdwatchers it is 
understandable that there  might be some friction.  As a hunter and bird 
watcher I think that  statements about hunters doing all the work 
conserving habitat, and  implications that birdwatchers are somehow 
'freeloaders' is not only  unfortunate, it is arrogant and ultimately 
quite incorrect.  I'm sure  that higher ups in TWRA value TOS and the 
long history of cooperation  between the groups.  I hope that the person 
who claimed that birders  and other nonconsumptive users need to carry 
their weight has been  corrected. 

If you think this of interest I'd encourage you to post to  the TN listserv.

Thanks,

Nathan

--  
____________________________________
Nathan Klaus
Senior Wildlife  Biologist
GA Department of Natural Resources 
Nongame Conservation  Section
478-
478-




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