Declining Numbers of Hunters Hurt Environmental Conservation Efforts

In USA Today we hear conservationalists lament the declining number of hunters

States that rely on tens of millions of dollars in hunting license fees annually to pay for environmental conservation are trying to boost a population they had never thought of protecting: the endangered American hunter.
The number of hunters has slid from a peak of 19.1 million in 1975 to 12.5 million last year, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
With that drop has come worries that states won't be able to pay for the rising costs of conservation efforts and acquisition of open space.
States generated $724 million last year through hunting licenses and fees for wildlife management and conservation; taxes on guns and ammunition added another $267 million, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.
"Sportsmen pay the bills, especially east of the Mississippi," says Rob Sexton, vice president for government affairs at the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance, a hunters advocacy group in Columbus, Ohio. "A vast majority of the public land where people go for walks, wildlife viewing or mountain biking, the vast majority is bought by sportsmen."

Now why would this be? Perhaps because many law-abiding hunters get treated like criminals by law enforcement? When I lived in Florida, I was repeatedly harassed by game wardens of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, and by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. On numerous occasions they tried everything they could to find some reason to issue me a citation, but they never could, because I am a law-abiding hunter.

One day I was hunting at the Corbett Wildlife Management Area in Palm Beach County. I was stopped by a state game warden. He checked my licenses, checked my gun, everything he could possibly check and then left. Ten minutes later he came back and said that the tag on my truck did not match the records at the state bureau of motor vehicles. He demanded to know where I had gotten the tag and I told him at the court house. He began getting insanely angry and was screaming at me, demanding to know where I had gotten the tag. I answered him again. He demanded to see my registration and I gave it to him. Then he told me to sit down on the road next to my truck. I complied and he radioed the state BMV again. The woman he was talking to said she made an error when she entered my tag number. He gave my registration back to me and drove off, never apologizing or expressing any regret for having ruined my hunt.

That dork is supposed to be enforcing the game laws. Why was he worried about my truck tag? I have had hunts on public WMAs where I was checked by wardens three or four times.

One year three of us were hunting at the Lake Harbour Waterfowl Magement Area, just south of Lake Okeechobee. This was during early teal season in September. As we were packing up to leave, we saw a man in waders walking up to us in the marsh. He said he was a warden of the US Fish and Wildlife Service and accused us of shooting a Florida Mottled duck. He claimed that he had the duck stuffed into his waders. (That's an old trick that cops use. Claim they have evidence that doesn't exist in order to provoke a confession). We denied shooting any Mottled ducks. He took our licenses and then checked our guns for plugs and checked every single one of our shells. He then gave our licenses back and let us go. We could tell he was *PISSED* at not being able to give us a citation.

Often the fees and permits required to hunt are ridiculous. In most states, just to hunt ducks or geese you have to have (1) hunting license, (2) Federal waterfowl permit, (3) State waterfowl permit, and (4) HIP permit. You have to pay all those fees in order to pay the salaries of those assholes who spend all their time harassing law-abiding hunters.

There are many people who try to make it impossible to hunt. Hunters and gun owners are constantly being demonized. The above article has a quote from a loser at the Humane Society of the United State:

Some say the focus on hunter retention is not the way to go.
"The number of people who hunt has declined in recent decades, and the number of people who enjoy wildlife in other ways, like wildlife watching or bird-watching, continues to expand," says Michael Markarian, executive vice president of the Humane Society of the United States. "Efforts to reverse these trends are futile."

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) does not run any animal shelters, nor does it have any connection with the local Humane Societies or SPCAs. It is solely a political organization whose goal is to ban hunting and also ban all private possession of firearms. Many of the officers and members of the HSUS have connections with terrorist organizations like PETA and ALF.