Ah, the
changing seasons. Summer to fall, fishing to hunting, hunting to
Snowmobiling. But wait, there’s another season and while it arrives with
little fanfare, a growing number of fishing, hunting and outdoor folks
recognize the need to prepare for and participate in the "political season".
To me,
the term "political" means any public process intended to determine the
outcome of a hunting or fishing related issue. For example: public meetings
held by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to determine a more
restrictive hunting season for the triple tailed Pikealope would be
"political". Likewise a local gun club that conducts a meeting to discuss
the range preservation bill would be "political". So in other words, no
matter what the process, all sportsmen and women are affected in some way,
by some policy or rule that has come about as the result of public input or
the lack of it.
You see
even while outdoor folks prepare for fall-winter fishing and hunting
seasons, there are countless issues concerning sportsmen and women that
demand attention. Slot limits, access to hunting land, shoreline issues,
predator control, ATV’s, Walleye Stocking and the list goes on and on.
Remember the old saying? "If you want a job done right, do it yourself" This
is true now more than ever and like it or not, someone has to be out there
working to preserve and improve the heritage that many of us have enjoyed
for a lifetime.
Sadly,
the fact is that most folks don’t take time to get involved. It’s no wonder
that the average hunter would rather spend time in the blind than at a
public meeting or that a fisherman would rather be in the boat than pouring
over some Walleye stocking statistics. But without thoughtful input from
citizens, the folks who take the decisions never really know for sure if
they’re moving in the direction that serves the greatest number of their
constituents.
In
Minnesota today, hunting is currently stable but barely holding it’s own.
Fishing is on the decline causing concern among the manufacturing industry,
resort owners and small town businesses. In areas like ours, the
under-pinning of the economy is still tourism and most small towns in the
Northern half of the state could ill afford to be without it. So why
wouldn’t folks want to get more involved?
Some of
the problems we face are brought about by a phenomenon that occurs whenever
hunters and anglers gather. We almost always agree on what the problems are,
but we seem to only ever disagree about what the solutions should be. Maybe
it’s rugged individualism or maybe it’s something else but either way we owe
it to ourselves to make strides toward seeing some of these issues from a
wider point of view and work toward presenting a more unified voice.
Organized sports groups offer some help, but often become stuck in the rut
of single issues and suffer from the effects of over exposure that occurs
when one person (or a small group) pleads a case for so long that public
officials get tired of hearing from them.