Back in the first half of the 19th
century, residents of upstate New York lauded the professions of trapping and
hunting because of the threat animals posed to human and livestock safety.
According to Schneider, “the government in Albany considered it in the interest
of all the residents of New York to eliminate the top (nonhuman) predators from
the remaining wilderness” (82). Hunting was a lucrative profession at this
time, because hunters could ask the local government for payment when they
brought in large game, like bears and wolves. In addition to men who claimed
hunting as their profession, the sport was also one of the most common sources
of meat for families living in the Adirondacks.
Regulation of hunting in the Adirondacks did not
begin until 1885; hunters were required to have a license for the first time
(called a “tag”) and there were laws on which game you could hunt and when. The
organization that regulated the laws was the Forest Preserve Advisory Board,
which is now the DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation).
The DEC website has charts of fishing licenses,
hunting licenses, trapping licenses, and big game licenses per year since 2008.
The number of licenses sold to individuals in New York is declining each year.
In the 1800s, not many people considered how we
were impacting the ecosystem with the removal of so many animals. No one felt
guilty for killing animals for their fur or meat. Schneider has a great comment
about hunting on page 83 when he says, “the debate… was more often about
manliness than environmental responsibility or humanitarian concern”. Society
has different morals today than it did in the 1800s. It seems like the morals
shifted between the first and second half of the 1800s themselves, with the
creation of hunting laws. Today hunting seems to go against the conscience of
many Americans, as reflected by the decline in registered hunters.
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| This picture is from the DEC hunting gallery on their website. The woman had just shot her first deer and she was accompanied by her husband (2013). |
Although many people still enjoy the sport of
hunting, its popularity is declining, which is going to impact the populations
of game in the Adirondacks. Hopefully, if hunting declines at this rate, the
ecosystem will balance itself out in the next few decades, but I have a feeling
we humans won’t be able to resist interfering with the population of wild
animals.
Picture source:http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/94761.html
Sources: The Adirondacks by Paul Schneider, The Adirondack Museum website: http://www.adkmuseum.org/about_us/adirondack_journal/?id=269, the DEC website: http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/hunting.html
I agree with your stance on hunting for the most part. Early settlers of the Adirondacks had a hard enough time working an existence from the land, and other tertiary predators would make it hard for them to survive. Because of this hunting there are no more natural predators to animals such as the deer you posted a picture of above. Coyotes have semi filled the niche left by predators such as wolves, but are not large enough to take down a deer. Hence deer populations have exploded in the Adirondack. Hunters at this point are the only mortal threat that the deer have. If they were to stop hunting the herbivore populations in the Adirondacks would continue to rise and threaten the crops of those who still farm in this region. I would also like to clarify that hunters are more of a bandaid than a permanent fix to the problem. If we really want to see the ecosystem back in balance we need to reintroduce tertiary predators.
ReplyDeleteSource :http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/wildlife_pdf/deerforecastr5.pdf
This post along with Emily's post on trapping in the Adirondacks raise an important issue. Human involvement in animal populations has created an ecosystem where humans are required to maintain balance. This post also mentions the decline in hunting licenses sold in recent years which could be an opportunity to reintroduce top predators like wolves to fill the void we are leaving behind. Aaron's post earlier in the week highlighted that reintroduction is possible as shown by the success in Yellowstone but it might be trickier to gain support for them in an area where there are human communities. There should be some balance between all natural (such as just wolves), and allowing hunters to use the park.
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