Such a weird topic to discuss the first week of October. Everyone (myself included) is getting giddy over a recent cold front that has swept across most of the whitetail nation. You’re seeing scrapes and rubs open up, leaves beginning to change, daylight starting to shorten, etc. So why in the world would you want to read an article about hunting legislation? Boring.
The reason you should keep reading is because all evil needs to triumph is for good people to do nothing.
Ok, that statement might be a tad dramatic, but the point is true. The schedule of when hunting legislation is voted on is not usually set by hunters. Bear with me as I give you an example.
I recently received an email from the National Deer Association (NDA) alerting me to the fact that the state senate in my home state of Pennsylvania will soon be voting on a bill that will drastically modernize the process by which we purchase our doe tags. Currently, we must mail in an application with a check to our local county treasurer in the summer and wait for a few weeks to see if we receive a doe tag for the WMU for which we’ve applied.
Anyone familiar with this or a similar process may experience a feeling of absurdity when completing these steps while also knowing that I can buy a car from my phone and have it shipped to my driveway. Just this past summer I had a conversation with a friend that included the question ‘Do you need any more pink envelopes?’ IYKYK.
This particular subject may seem either benign or irrelevant to most people, but there’s a broader point to all of this, and it goes back to the two main ingredients to the Hunting Equation: Lack of Time and Access to Property.
Let’s start with access to property. It’s no secret that anti-hunter activists both on the left and the right (yes, there are anti-hunting activists on both sides) are trying to consistently remove access to hunting property. That may mean tracts of public land that become off limits to hunting for one reason or another. That may mean passing laws that make it harder to gain permission on private property, or ordinances that remove the ability to hunt areas altogether. While the particular issue I mentioned about doe tags does have a small impact on my ability to access hunting opportunities, hunting legislation across the country can be much more impactful when it comes to accessing hunting opportunities.
Let’s take a half a step further into this idea by allowing me to emphasize the importance of knowing every issue of hunting access across the nation and just the ones that immediately impact you. Why should you care about what happens a thousand miles away? Two reasons.
First, those people who live a thousand miles away who then have their hunting access removed will probably find other areas where they do have hunting access; namely, where you hunt. It might not directly impact your spots, but the invisible hand of economics dictates that a steady demand (hunters) meeting a shortened supply (land) causes scarcity. That’s not even taking into account the lost revenue that is caused by the people who will just quit hunting, giving us less money toward furthering our interests.
Second, what one state does can set a precedent for what other people can argue your state should do as well. Now, you may think your state will never turn into ‘one of those states’, but just ask people from Colorado, Texas and parts of Montana twenty years ago about how likely they thought their states would start to look more politically like California. Better to not have a precedent you disagree with somewhere else that someone can use against what you support in the future.
Now, the other half of the Hunting Equation is time (or lack thereof). Sure, you might care about these things, but who has the time to keep track of all of this legislation and then track down which politicians you actually need to contact to maybe move the needle? All of is sounds exhausting and futile.
This is where technology has become a great tool for supporting good organizations.
The first organization I mentioned is the NDA, which recently merged with QDMA. Among many other fantastic things the NDA does for conservation, tracking legislation and sending a quick message to alert members is an incredible bonus. I am a member of the NDA and I usually will buy a few memberships for close family members or friends as Christmas gifts.
A link to the NDA’s website can be found here: deerassociation.com
Howl for Wildlife is another great organization that continually tracks legislation and alerts members to ways to become involved.
A link to Howl for Wildlife can be found here: https://www.howlforwildlife.org
Both of these organizations make it super simple to inform actual political decision makers of your opinion. I’ve used both of these outlets and it hardly takes any time at all. Think of it this way: with it being the beginning of October, I have to think about my two kids, work ramping up, coaching football, as well as hunting. In order for me to show my support about a piece of hunting legislation, it took me all of thirty seconds to receive an email from the NDA, click a link, fill out a few pieces of info, and click send. That is time well spent in my book.