Adversary of the Sporting State

I thought I'd start a new feature at the Political Sportsman, largely because ethical hunters and anglers all over the country are faced with real threats from some of the folks who purport to defend our rights to fish and hunt, all the while working with special interests to erode our opportunities, often right under our noses.

And, rather than stoop to Tea Bagger rhetoric or place a "surveyor's symbol" over the district of the politician who, through his or her actions, is harming our hunting and fishing way of life, I just decided to go with something respectful, yet blatantly clear to both the hunting public these people impact, and to the politicians and agency officials themselves, who by word or deed, diminish the uniquely American pastimes of hunting and fishing on land belonging to every citizen of the state. Hence, the title Adversary of the Sporting State.

Hope? It takes more than invoking TR...

I love the idea of a sportsmen's advocacy group with cojones. Non-profit status works for groups who want to finesse their way around issues and "compromise" with industry and their on-the-dole politicians (you get 90, we'll take 10 and declare victory). It's the groups that have lobbying power that make the most difference--hell, if you can't beat them, become them. Lobbyists, that is.

Unfortunately, the groups out there that claim to represent hunters and anglers almost always let us down. Take the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, for instance. Here's a group that should have the best interest of game and fish habitat at heart, and they ought to speak for sportsmen who depend on intact habitat for opportunity. Yet they run and hide when industry raises up on its haunches and decries the "radical environmentalists" who are getting in the way of progress. You know, those environmentalists that have the stones to actually want to protect habitat, like roadless lands across the West. You'd think RMEF would be all over that--it's a proven fact that the most successful hunting for big bulls takes place in areas that haven't been scarred by roads or ORV trails.

First ... a Righteous Rant

It's appropriate, this being the first post on this blog, that it be something of a rant. A guy's got to let off a little steam, you know? Vent ... spew. Perhaps, after I get this out of my system, we can resort to more civil discourse, more agreeable discussion. More respect.

But respect, at least among those of us who hunt and fish, is an earned commodity. We take care to hone our skills, to learn our crafts. We take pride in becoming the best we can be at the quick, humane kill or the decision, should it be the right one, not to kill. And we take care to pass these endeavors down to our children and our children's children so they, too, might come to respect the wild places we visit today in search of fish and game. We have a deep, intimate relationship with the lands we use to harvest our game and to catch--and sometimes kill--our fish. We understand the impact we have on the environment, and work to minimize it or, if at all possible, leave things better than we found them. We're sportsmen and women--not camo-clad dilettantes who take our sporting heritage lightly.