Re: Some thoughts on giving back (long)

Frederick Fallon (fwfallon@mnsinc.com)
Mon, 9 Feb 1998 11:10:46 -0500 (EST)


	A good point.  Of course, the idea of a special tax paid by 
birders and naturalists, to be used for the support of federal and state 
wildlife areas (NEAs and WMAs) is embodied in the "Teaming with Wildlife" 
initiative, proposing legislation analogous to the Pittman -Robertson Act 
of the '30s, which uses hunting license and duck stamp revenues to 
support refuges - and has given hunters enormous influence on hoe those 
lands are used.
	Note also that duck stamp revenues are accounted as paid 100% by 
hunters, regardless of how many are actually bought by birders as the 
price of admission (e.g.) to Bombay Hook.   

	Fred Fallon
	Bowie MD
	fwfallon@mnsinc.com
On Sun, 8 Feb 1998 Gyrfal@aol.com wrote:

> Got home last week from my first chase in a couple of years, a successful trip
> to see the Nutting's Flycatcher and the Elegant Quail in Arizona.
> 
> After staking out Arnie Moorhouse's home in Douglas for the quail (which
> didn't show that evening), five of us took Arnie to dinner at the local cafe.
> At dinner, Arnie observed that this was the first thing that any birders had
> done for him in the two months that they have been visiting his yard.
> 
> This got me to thinking.  Too often, it seems to me, we birders are willing to
> take, but not give a little something back.  Common courtesy, of course, is
> assumed when we use someone's property.  But maybe we should think of more
> concrete ways of expresing our appreciation.
> 
> Back when I was a hunter, the outdoor magazines urged us to offer some game to
> the farmer on whose land we hunted, fix his fences, bring him something from
> the big city, purchase his produce, or otherwise do something real for him.
> The best of the breed followed this sound advice and had good relations with
> land owners.  
> 
> Could we birders not follow the same advice?  For example, leaving a couple of
> bucks for Arnie's bird food fund.  Often hundreds of us traipse through
> private property when there is an unusual bird present, leaving behind little
> more than our tracks.  It is not that birders are evil.  On the contrary, most
> I have met are wonderful people.  We may just have a blind spot, an oversight
> in our thinking.
> 
> Which brings me to hunting.  I regularly hear birders complain about hunting
> and hunters, resenting, for example, partial closures of Bombay Hook NWR to
> allow for hunting.  Many birders "look down their noses" at hunters and regard
> them as adversaries.  While I have not hunted for years, I find these
> attitudes distressing.  Birders ought to thank their lucky stars that hunters
> had the foresight beginning way back in the thirties for putting land away for
> the future.
> 
> Ding Darling, a hunter and conservationist, was instrumental in taxing
> waterfowl hunters (even during the depression) to finance wildlife refuges.
> The magnificent system in place today is his legacy.  Clearly, not just
> waterfowl and hunters have benefitted from these refuges.  Where would we
> birders be without Chincoteague, Blackwater, and Bombay Hook, to mention just
> the big three in this area?  Hunters money and political clout purchased the
> land that we birders like to call Hugh's Hollow, but is really McKee Besher's
> Wildlife Management Area.
> 
> Ducks Unlimited has poured many millions of dollars into wetlands protection
> and improvement over the last half century, and these projects too have
> benefitted many more species than huntable waterfowl.
> 
> Try to think of an area that we birders use that was purchased and maintained
> with birders' money.  Yes, some of us contribute to the Nature Conservancy and
> benefit from land under its management.  And there are a couple of National
> Audubon preserves.  But think what we could do if we taxed ourselves the way
> hunters have done for decades.  What about a birding license, with all money
> collected to be used for the purchase of critical birding land?  Isn't it time
> we picked up our share of the load?
> 
> Bob Mumford
> Darnestown
>