I read an online religious news service article saying hunting was a form of conservation fulfilling God’s instructions to Adam and Eve to take dominion over the earth. That is an interesting perspective.
For many years The Commercial Record printed a column of local historical events of 25, 50, 75 and 100 years ago. One item from 1895 said no whitetail deer had been seen in Allegan County for 10 years and might be extinct here.
I shooed a herd of five out of our lawn the other morning, interrupting their breakfast of my garden greens. I have yet to drive out to Ox-Bow Art School without seeing a dozen or more deer lurking roadside, dashing across the road or grazing in nearby meadows. Often I see flocks of turkeys darting across roads too.
Fifty years ago, from what some of The Olds told me, there were no wild turkeys. These creatures’ actual abundance is a good thing, but too much can be bad too.
The area’s first white settler relied on wild game to supplement their food supply. In addition to deer, they hunted turkeys, rabbits, ducks and caught fish from the rivers and lakes. Passenger pigeons, extinct since 1917, once were abundant too.
The lumbering years destroyed many of these creatures’ habitats. Farms and orchards followed. After President Nixon’s Secretary of Agrigulture advised farmers to plow right up to their fence lines, they did and the habitat for smaller animals was destroyed. Ringneck pheasants were among the first to go.
Deer overpopulation is a big issue now. With their habitat diminished, deer have begun venturing into villages and cities. Having learned these are no-hunting zones, they can graze their way through our flower gardens without fear of being shot.
Deer have allies from humans who want to protect them because they are “cute” or were here first, so we should work around them. Compounding things, many of their natural predators have been driven off or killed.
Without hunting and wildlife management, a surging deer population will invariably lead to some dying of starvation during winters. When crowded together, wasting disease spreads and is a slow death for those infected. Deer crossing roads hit by cars are seriously injured and die slow deaths.
Striking a thoughtful hunting policy may be the best bet. Though I have never been hunter, as a boy my father taught me gun safety and how to shoot to cause as little pain as possible. Those lessons and target practice became skills easily transferable other things we do in life.
Learning how to sight a target, patience, self-control, proper breathing and how to squeeze, not jerk, a trigger have value many ways.
When I lived in northern Alberta, some Woodland Cree friends invited me to join them on their annual moose hunt. I agreed and brought along a large-bore muzzleloader.
But when Sam and Ed spotted a moose and asked if I wanted to take the shot, I told them to do it instead. They were hunting for meat for the winter; I would have shot for just for the bragging rights and that did not seem right.
I learned more good life lessons on that trip. Sam and Ed talked at length about how they had learned from their elders to have respect for being in the wilderness, gun safety, watching out for each other and, most important of all, “Only take what you need.” Hunting was an important part of their spirituality that way.
After they got their moose, I watched them thank the fallen beast for making it possible for people to eat, then treated the carcass with respect as they field dressed it.
By nightfall, their families had joined us in several more canoes. They had been behind us by about an hour. All worked to prepare every part of the animal to be taken home and used in an respectful way.
Later, before the campfire burned out, Ed and Sam reminded everyone that federal and provincial governments did not want First Nations people hunting big game. Reasons were they did not have to buy a license nor invest money in guides and butchers.
The government wanted to give the people a subsidy or allowance to buy their food at a store instead. Ed paused and a hideous image of modern life sunk in: a slab of chemically-enhanced meat on a Styrofoam tray wrapped in plastic.
Then Ed’s brother spoke up, “But we are following the teachings of our ancestors. We pass on the traditions to the young ones here tonight and back at Elizabeth Settlement.” Frankly, I thought the First Nations’ methods were more civilized and advanced.
Conservation of our land, air, water and wildlife are essential for the human race to survive. Doing so encompasses our past, present and future. It is one part wildlife management, one part spirituality.
