Wildlife and Sport Hunting

Almost everyone in America seems to profess a love of wildlife in one form or another. However, it is very important to understand that just saying that you love wildlife is not enough to ensure the continuation of the various species.
Instead, an understanding of wildlife management and just what it is, is necessary to creating a healthy wildlife population.
Wildlife management is the science of managing the environment for the benefit of all of the kinds of wildlife in a given area. This management includes the management of human activities because everything that people do will affect the environment in one way or another.
Creation of proper habitat is critical to a healthy wildlife population because, without habitat, wildlife cannot survive and it is just as simple as that. Consequently, the wildlife manager of today is concerned constantly with the state of the habitat in a given area for the benefit of the wild population that the manager is trying to sustain or expand.
Like a carpenter building a house with his tools, so also does a wildlife manager have specific tools to build his wildlife population. Regulated sport hunting is one of the managers most important tools. To many people, this sounds like a contradiction, however, in our capitalist society, everything revolves around the dollar. So too, does wildlife management. It takes a lot of money to develop wildlife habitat.
In every state, a hunter is required to purchase hunting permits and wildlife stamps. It is this money that is used to develop critical habitat for wildlife. Almost always, state taxes are not used for direct wildlife management programs. Rather it is the licensed hunter that is the critical tool for habitat and consequently wildlife development.
Additionally, the licensed sport hunter pays a federal excise tax on the hunting equipment that he/she purchases. This money is then funneled back to the various state game departments for additional habitat development.
It is only because of the monies supplied by licensed hunters that America has any wildlife of note. Today, every state has thousands of acres of wildlife management areas that provide home for hundreds of species of wild birds and mammals. These species consist of both game and nongame wildlife. None of these areas would have been possible without the funding supplied by the hunters dollars.
When people profess a love of wildlife, that is a good thing, however, if one really does have a sincere interest in the wild creatures that share our planet with us, one of the best things that one could do to ensure the survival of wildlife is to simply purchase a hunting permit and wildlife stamp in the state where one lives. If people fail to do this over time, wildlife as we know it today will disappear.

Rick Seward is a veteran game warden for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. He has an intense love for the wild creatures that he protects. Rick maintains a website that will showcase many types of engravings that he creates in his of duty time and invites everyone to look at [http://www.woodartist.info] His passion for being a game warden his love of wildlife comes out in every piece that he creates. People may email Rick at the address listed on the website.