According to a front page article in today’s Morning Call, deer hunters in Pennsylvania have been in a steep decline. Hunters are older and dying off. Younger people aren’t that interested in shooting a deer. This is a disturbing trend for at least three reasons.
First, deer are a blight on the environment. They destroy the understory of the forest, and they wreck farmers’ crops, including some of my vegetables. They have no natural predators; hunters (and cars) control their population.
Second, the money from deer licenses funds the Game Commission’s other programs. For example, I participate in the state’s annual bat count every summer. The bat count, and many other conservation programs, are paid for by deer licenses.
Finally, the state holds immense amounts of forest land set aside for hunters. These state game lands are actually better for the environment than state parks, which are overrun by visitors, have camp sites and toilets, and require maintenance. State game lands are generally used by hunters a few months of the year, and few other visitors use them, although they are open to the public. If hunters decline, legislators will start to think about money to be made by selling off those lands. I’m surprised it hasn’t happened already.
My advice: even if you don’t hunt and think it is cruel, buy a hunting license. Just put it in a drawer somewhere.
That is a good idea, like a good environmentalist.
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