How The Resource is Benefited By Hunting

By Joseph Leppert

The resource, in general, is benefited in more than one way by hunting. Hunting has helped me gain a better respect for the animals and environment in which they live. Thru this respect I hope that we can help preserve the animals and environment for the future.

One way in which the resource is benefited is thru the purchase of licenses to hunt the animal. This money helps create revenue to help manage and expand programs aimed at guaranteeing a successful future for the animal. Our government has seen the need for these programs and even made acts in Congress to help preserve the resource, some of these acts include the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act of 1980, The Land and

Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965, and The Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act

(Pittman-Robertson Act). The Pittman-Robertson Act excises a tax on all sporting arms and ammunition to support wildlife projects to improve the wildlife habitat.

Some other ways the resource could potentially benefit from hunting is the fact that it helps maintain the general health of the entire population. Hunting helps keep the population from becoming to big for the environment. This is true more so because funded agencies take censuses of the population to see how many tags to issue in a hunting season. They take in all the factors including death rate, birthrate, and total population to figure out how many individuals the environment can sustain, successfully.

Over the past few years these agencies have seen that the buck population was consisting mostly of one year old deer. Thus they put a three, and in some counties a four point antler restriction on all deer. Now the population of bucks consist of two and a half, to three year old deer, this being said now the population is being breed by mature, strong buck, maintaining the health of the population.

Another way these agencies have helped maintain health in the population is by preventing over browsing and starvation as a result. They find densities of animals to find out how many animals can survive on the property and also help prevent the consumption of farmed products. When animals start feeding on farmer’s crops there can be a problem and red tags are issued to protect the farmers property.

Hunting has also taken the place of predators to the animals since many of the natural predators have diminished. Hunting helps limit the weak and old that tend to lag behind and wander off, and as a hunter I know from experience it is much easier to make a clean kill on an animal that is stopping to catch its breath from being weak, than to hit a healthy deer running at top notch speed. Thus the laggards tend to be the ones that are shot first and the strong survive to repopulate the herd, maintaining the overall health and prosperity of the population.

Hunting has benefited the animals thru the years and if conserved can continue to benefit them. I believe that the resource has had an overall better life since we have begun to hunt them for many reasons that most people don't take the time to look at. I hope that thru this essay people will learn how many benefits there are to the environment and animal, by way of hunting. Some people say it is a sport, though for many it is their only provision and for many animals it is the only source of money that is given to help improve their lives. I have realized thru my research how many benefits there are from hunting and will always hunt, if not for me then for the animal.