Interesting perspective and update. I've never read F&S, it isn't exactly my genre--I was definitely more of the Outside and Backpacker person when I read them, though my husband has read his share of niche fishing magazines over the years. The whole summary linking F&S's business ventures to a similarity to Bass Pro and Cabela's was apropos was I was just at BP yesterday. I like going in that store, it's interesting but as a non-hunter I have no idea what the cost of bullets are. And we were behind a couple who bought maybe 3 or 4 boxes of ammo yesterday and spent over $1,000. How is that even affordable to most people, especially if there would be a push to have more people hunting? Which made me wonder a: how much debt people go into for gun culture and b: what the average income is for hunters and gun owners (and the fanatical ones).
If you want to talk about merging of hunting with nature, you should check out the Native Habitat Project Instagram and there's a FB group called Native Habitat managers. The latter often talks about native habitats and property management with regard towards hunting and Kyle at NHP on IG is also a hunter and does skew towards that but with a big conservation minded outward appearance. It's probably the closest we have towards that merging right now.
Boyce, I'm a big fan so I feel the need to weigh in here because I work in conservation here in Louisiana and some of our most outspoken citizen conservationists are hook and bullet outdoorsmen and women. Ducks Unlimited, Vanishing Paradise, CCA to name the very least I could think of spend millions in conservation aimed at wildlife biodiversity every year because they understand better than most what it means if the health of our land is compromised. And sure, not every hunter is thoughtful, but not everyone working in conservation is thoughtful either. I can point you to countless speaking engagements, articles written, TV episodes, public comments written, podcast episodes, etc all undertaken by hunters who care about this land so much that they put in their own time to support conservation all across the delta. I hope you'll reconsider the way you portray the hunting/angler community in the future because I have to say, we're working our butts off to maintain great relationships in this area and we owe a great deal in Louisiana especially to hunters and fishermen who've made it their life's work to speak out in favor of conservation.
Thanks for chiming in, Alex. It sounds like I failed to express myself clearly here. I have ABUNDANT respect of hunters and anglers -- you're right that these are people who have been at the forefront of conservation. I am a beginning angler myself, and, as I note here, I'd like to pick up hunting, too. That's why at the end of this essay I note that I'm HEARTENED by the revival of F&S: I hope more and more people take up hunting and fishing, because that could make a real difference for our landscapes here in the South and across the world.
Perhaps I should have made that clearer before I delved into some of the darker sides of hunting historically. But I don't think we should brush that history under the rug; indeed, I think it's really necessary to reckon with that history. Only 6% of Americans hunt. I'd love for that number to be much higher. But is having Morgan Wallen as a figurehead for F&S likely to increase that? I'm not sure, and that's part of what I'm exploring here.
Interesting perspective and update. I've never read F&S, it isn't exactly my genre--I was definitely more of the Outside and Backpacker person when I read them, though my husband has read his share of niche fishing magazines over the years. The whole summary linking F&S's business ventures to a similarity to Bass Pro and Cabela's was apropos was I was just at BP yesterday. I like going in that store, it's interesting but as a non-hunter I have no idea what the cost of bullets are. And we were behind a couple who bought maybe 3 or 4 boxes of ammo yesterday and spent over $1,000. How is that even affordable to most people, especially if there would be a push to have more people hunting? Which made me wonder a: how much debt people go into for gun culture and b: what the average income is for hunters and gun owners (and the fanatical ones).
If you want to talk about merging of hunting with nature, you should check out the Native Habitat Project Instagram and there's a FB group called Native Habitat managers. The latter often talks about native habitats and property management with regard towards hunting and Kyle at NHP on IG is also a hunter and does skew towards that but with a big conservation minded outward appearance. It's probably the closest we have towards that merging right now.
Boyce, I'm a big fan so I feel the need to weigh in here because I work in conservation here in Louisiana and some of our most outspoken citizen conservationists are hook and bullet outdoorsmen and women. Ducks Unlimited, Vanishing Paradise, CCA to name the very least I could think of spend millions in conservation aimed at wildlife biodiversity every year because they understand better than most what it means if the health of our land is compromised. And sure, not every hunter is thoughtful, but not everyone working in conservation is thoughtful either. I can point you to countless speaking engagements, articles written, TV episodes, public comments written, podcast episodes, etc all undertaken by hunters who care about this land so much that they put in their own time to support conservation all across the delta. I hope you'll reconsider the way you portray the hunting/angler community in the future because I have to say, we're working our butts off to maintain great relationships in this area and we owe a great deal in Louisiana especially to hunters and fishermen who've made it their life's work to speak out in favor of conservation.
Thanks for chiming in, Alex. It sounds like I failed to express myself clearly here. I have ABUNDANT respect of hunters and anglers -- you're right that these are people who have been at the forefront of conservation. I am a beginning angler myself, and, as I note here, I'd like to pick up hunting, too. That's why at the end of this essay I note that I'm HEARTENED by the revival of F&S: I hope more and more people take up hunting and fishing, because that could make a real difference for our landscapes here in the South and across the world.
Perhaps I should have made that clearer before I delved into some of the darker sides of hunting historically. But I don't think we should brush that history under the rug; indeed, I think it's really necessary to reckon with that history. Only 6% of Americans hunt. I'd love for that number to be much higher. But is having Morgan Wallen as a figurehead for F&S likely to increase that? I'm not sure, and that's part of what I'm exploring here.
I appreciate the consideration and I think those edits go a long way, thank you.