Time to give thanks for our great natural resources

by Larry S. Moore

The upcoming Thanksgiving Day and the holiday season is a time that I pause to give thanks each year. Typically this time of year my spare time is spent in the field hunting. Of course the Ohio deer season provides ample time for reflection from my deer stand. Whether or not game is harvested, there is always something to celebrate for my time spent outdoors.

I often listen to the stories of the old-timers, a group that I am fast approaching membership, when they talk about life in the last century. However, looking back, the current years are perhaps the best days when considering wildlife viewing opportunity, natural beauty and cleaner waters. We've certainly come a long way since the early 1900s. There is a lot for which to be thankful as we are truly enjoying some of the best hunting and outdoor recreation opportunities that the last hundred years has had to offer.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) (www.nssf.org) reports the following wildlife numbers comparing the early 1900s to the present day. There were less than 500,000 whitetail deer in the U.S. in 1900. Today, conservation programs have returned the whitetail population to some 32 million. There were only a very few ducks while today populations are estimated at more than 44 million in North America. There were only about 41,000 elk while today populations across 23 states are approximately 1 million. The wild turkey population was under 100,000 while there are more than 7 million wild turkeys today.

It is the sportsmen that have led the way for conservation and the recovery of wildlife across the nation. The NSSF reports the impact sportsmen and women make for wildlife. Sportsmen contribute over $7.5 million every day, adding more than $2.7 billion every year for conservation efforts. Hunting in America is big business, generating 600,000 jobs in the United States. In Ohio, many small businesses and restaurants welcome the influx of hunters. Since the Pittman-Robertson Act was implemented in 1937 sportsmen have paid more than $12.1 billion in excise taxes for conservation and protecting our natural environment.

I can remember when a flock of geese winging their way south in the fall was enough to make the school classroom rush to the windows for a glimpse. It was pretty rare to see a flock of geese over Greene County when I was in grade school. Likely the first deer I saw in Greene County were in the pen at the Greene County Fish and Game Association. The young were turned loose each year as part of stocking efforts! Now many goodbyes are said with a warning to watch out for the deer on the way home.

I am thankful for the opportunities to enjoy all the great outdoors has to offer. We are truly blessed to live in a country with such bountiful resources and the freedoms we have. I give thanks to the good Lord for each trip in the outdoors. I am grateful to have had parents and family that introduced me to the outdoors and educated me about the importance of the natural world.

Giving thanks also includes giving back. I firmly believe we should leave the environment in better shape for our children than we received it from our parents. But just recognizing nature and our environment isn't enough. We have to also protect our freedoms. There are a lot of individuals and organizations that protect our environment but would take our freedoms to enjoy that environment, to use the renewable resources, to hunt and even to have firearms. We need to guard and expand our freedoms just as we have been successful at expanding wildlife populations. It takes commitment and effort.

So while we are celebrating the holiday seasons and giving thanks, I hope also that hunters, shooters and gun owners will also make a commitment to continue our efforts to expand our firearms rights, protect our right to hunt and right of self-defense. Without our freedoms, the quality of life for all will suffer.

Outdoor writer and hunter education instructor Larry S. Moore is a long-time volunteer leader for Buckeye Firearms Association and winner of the 2005 USSA Patriot Award, the 2007 League of Ohio Sportsmen/Ohio Wildlife Federation Hunter Educator of the Year and the 2010 National Wild Turkey Federation/ Women in the Outdoors Hunter Education Instructor of the Year.