Hunters Protecting Wildlife

In 1937 a group of hunters started the Wildlife Restoration Program. They started the Wildlife Restoration Program because animal population was getting dangerously low. The White Tail Deer population was 500,000 now there is over 18,000,000. The turkey population was down to 100,000 now there is over 43,000,000. Rock Mountian Elk population has grown from 41,000 to over 800,000.

Hunters also contribute millions of dollors towards wildlife preservation. 11% of the purchase price of firearms, ammunition, and archary equipment go to the federal government. The government than gives the money to natural resource agenceys for fish and wildlife conservation. As a result hunters have contributed over a billon dollers each year to wildlife conservation since 1937.

Hunters and fisherman have also contributed over $185,000,000 per year to forest and wild life conservation through the purchace of hunting and trapping licences and tags.

Various licences, fees, tags, and hunting equipment fund more than 90% of fish and wildlife agencies.

FAIR CHASE STATEMENT FAIR CHASE, as defined by the Boone and Crockett Club, is the ethical, sportsmanlike, and lawful pursuit and taking of any free-ranging wild, native North American big game animal in a manner that does not give the hunter an improper advantage over such animals.

HUNTER ETHICS Fundamental to all hunting is the concept of conservation of natural resources. Hunting in today's world involves the regulated harvest of individual animals in a manner that conserves, protects, and perpetuates the hunted population. The hunter engages in a one-to-one relationship with the quarry and his or her hunting should be guided by a hierarchy of ethics related to hunting, which includes the following tenets:

1. Obey all applicable laws and regulations.
2. Respect the customs of the locale where the hunting occurs.
3. Exercise a personal code of behavior that reflects favorably on your abilities and sensibilities as a hunter.
4. Attain and maintain the skills necessary to make the kill as certain and quick as possible.
5. Behave in a way that will bring no dishonor to either the hunter, the hunted, or the environment.
6. Recognize that these tenets are intended to enhance the hunter's experience of the relationship between predator and prey, which is one of the most fundamental relationships of humans and their environment.
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