The letters responding to “The New Conservationists”
were all equally noteworthy (HCN, 7/23/07). Most
were insightful in that we all recognize organizations like
Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife and their henchmen like Don Peay
are anything but conservationists. What is missing from the
analysis, though, is SFW, Peay and his ilk in other Western states,
are not in vogue and political power because of right wing
Republicans and their minions. They exist because of, and are
embraced by, many state wildlife agencies. They provide cover for
SFW and their bidding, as most state wildlife agencies are nothing
more than recreational agencies focusing almost solely on ensuring
the hook-and-bullet clubs have adequate recreational opportunities
to treat wildlife as fish and game. The distrust of biologists and
biology expressed by Peay isn’t directed at state wildlife agencies
– they are recreation managers, calculating sustained yields and
number of hunters. They are trained to ensure there will be plenty
of elk, deer, pronghorn, moose, bighorn sheep and fish, mostly
non-natives of course, to shoot and catch. Cougar, bear, lynx and
now wolves are much harder to “manage” and thus to many state
wildlife agencies are problems. The fewer the better – ecosystems
don’t matter, wildness is meaningless in their minds. In fact, I’ve
always had this feeling that the SFW group is very much afraid of
wildness – literally, they are afraid of the woods.
Dick Carter
High Uintas Preservation
Council
Hyrum, Utah
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline They’re probably afraid of the dark, too.
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