Hunting is conservation

Hunting creates a vested interest in protecting wildlife, and the hunting licenses pay for that protection.

Hunting creates a vested interest in protecting wildlife, and the hunting licenses pay for that protection. In one of those not-shocking unintended consequences: hunters care about the outdoors, and pay a ton for access to forests and the tasty animals they take out. Places that allow hunting have more and better managed forests than those that don't.

ℹ️ Info

~ Aristotle Sabouni
Created: 2019-02-08

Places that allow hunting have a vested (financial) interest in protecting wildlife, and the hunting licenses pay for that protection. In one of those not-shocking unintended consequences: hunters care about the outdoors, and pay a ton for access to forests and the tasty animals they take out. For licensing and through taxes/fees, they end up subsidizing state and national parks (according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service, they pay for most). So places like California (and their intolerance towards guns and hunters), undercuts the public lands (State/National Parks) that their environmental extremists claim to love. Which shows they're either ignorant, or they just love telling other people what to do more than they care about the environment

The same applies to logging. If there's a return on investment, and the trees have a value, then preventing poaching/abuse and healthy forests is incentivized. The same for game animals -- as long as it is legal and valuable, people protect the resource. When you socialize it, or forbid everyone access, then the value plummets. Which is why animal parks in Africa that have big game hunting, do far, far better than the ones that prevent it. (As far as revenue, and the animals being protected and thriving). Far lefties hate that reality, but nature/economics doesn't care about their feelings: the truth is still the truth.

❝ The sale of hunting licenses, tags, and stamps is the primary source of funding for most state wildlife conservation efforts. [though licenses, fees and taxes] individual hunters make a big contribution towards ensuring the future of many species of wildlife and habitat for the future... [and] contributing hundreds of millions of dollars for conservation programs that benefit many wildlife species, both hunted and non- hunted. Each year, nearly $200 million... are distributed to State agencies to support wildlife management programs, the purchase of lands open to hunters, and hunter education and safety classes. Proceeds from the Federal Duck Stamp... have purchased more than five million acres of habitat for the refuge system (2005 statistics only); lands that support waterfowl and many other wildlife species, and are usually open to hunting. Local hunting clubs and national conservation organizations work to protect the future of wildlife by setting aside thousands of acres of habitat and speaking up for conservation in our national and state capitals. ❞
~ The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service ℹ️ What do hunters contribute page^[1]

You either allow people to hunt, and you get paid for it... or people will poach. It's how the world works. Even in police states with far less liberties than we have.

Unintended Consequences[edit source]

Main article: Unintended Consequences

Every action causes a reaction. Some reactions are pleasant surprises, many are negatives, some are counter productive (perverse) and make the problem worse. Since consequences matter more than intentions, we have a social obligation to plan for them (and avoid them).