This piece was originally penned for Camas Magazine, for their summer issue, themed “Unnatural”

Killing in the name of…Conservation

Conservation is more often than not the practice of conserving wildlife species, ecosystems, habitats and preserving clean waterways. National parks were established for this reason. There are waterfowl protection and management areas. Land stewardship efforts, coral reef rehabilitation projects, save the whales, save the rainforests, protect the bees. Now we find ourselves in the era of de-extinction efforts, for the purpose of land regeneration. There are efforts to de-extinct (Resurrection Biology) species for the sake of regenerating grass and prairie lands- Mammoths, Aurochs and Pyrenean Ibex are currently on the list. Spared no expense. China is currently trying to re-forest five percent of their nation after suffering devastating flooding due to deforestation. Save our Species focuses on reducing biodiversity loss to benefit wild animals such as African Elephants, Lions, Manatees, Penguins and Leopards amongst other endangered species. Land stewards in the western United States are seeing the return of beavers to their waterways, and ecosystem development because of very similar efforts, ecosystem restoration via regenerative agriculture and conservation.

Conservation efforts over the years have helped bring species back from the brink of extinction. They have helped to preserve some of the most beautiful places in the world. However, conservation itself is unnatural as a concept. Its mere existence means that there is a glitch in the system. Something is taking advantage of the long established economies of nature. The infiltration of Western Europeans to the United States pushed wildlife away from the ecosystems they served. The insatiable appetite to rid the land of indigenous peoples, and dismantle their food source reaped consequences that are still being felt today. Going back and looking at the beginning of the concept in northern America, Teddy Roosevelt, after having spent many years hunting, founded the Boone and Crockett Club, a hunting club for men and their rifles. They tossed around the idea of ‘wildlife preservation’, but later this would show to be fruitless. The Dawes Severalty Act broke up tons of Native Reservations, making available thousands of acres that the club eventually turned into hunting refuges. It wasn’t until after the club, and many already established hunting clubs, started to leave disastrous effects on wildlife populations that Teddy Roosevelt acknowledged that their ‘reverence’ of nature and all things wild was destroying it. The North American Bison population had decreased from approximately 30-60 million to near extinction at less than 1000. Later, once elected President, he established the United States Forest Service, established national parks, and wild game refuges with the 1906 American Antiquities Act.

“His exuberant love of the chase was integral to his identity, and he honored it with his wardrobe, ordering a fine buckskin outfit made in the mode of his heroes Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett. This was the suit he posed in, complete with moccasins, rifle and sheath knife, to promote his 1885 book, Hunting Trips of a Ranchman.”

The establishment of conservation efforts in regard to wildlife (huntable game), was made by hunters, so they could keep hunting without feeling like they were exhausting resources, despite exhausting resources. Hunting, since the establishment of agriculture in the United States has been looked upon less than favorably by the majority of the western world society. There are benefits to it, food being the most prominent, population control another. Many wildlife conservation groups are still funded by hunting organizations. Restrictions are placed on hunting activities during the seasons in which animals, mostly four legged, are not legally allowed to be killed for food during mating seasons, or the following seasons while most are with their still-dependent young. Once the adult population has doubled, and the herds need to be culled- the hunt begins. It's a system set up to benefit the huntsman, that also benefits the ecosystems in their current state, conveniently. The wild animals are surviving, not thriving, thanks to human involvement. When a herd of Elk grows too large they become a strain on biodiversity, they attract large predators, and carry disease. Large predators used to be able to cull a herd more naturally, but we’ve also stripped them of their natural habitats as well. Hello conservation, you convenient circle.

Hunting that's commonly ridiculed often makes the rounds in media, and happens to be the work of hunters that do so for the sport of it, not for food, or conservation. This has had effects far beyond the United States. Anti-hunting groups from the western world have put pressure on other countries to limit hunting (or poaching) on their lands. To animal lovers signing petitions from their air-conditioned home offices, via the internet, this feels like a win. However, in many regions of the world that are still home to nomadic tribes of people that live off the land, this is creating huge risks in their livelihood. Take the San people who now live on the edge of the Kalahari game reserve in Botswana. An indigenous tribe (In Botswana the San are not considered an indigenous group, but rather classified as Remote Area Dwellers) that has lived sustainably off the land here for centuries is now prohibited from hunting food there due to an anti-poaching law. The policy is aimed to reduce wildlife poaching and illegal wildlife trade. However there are no endangered species where the bushmen traditionally hunted. Conversely, Debswana, which owns one of the largest diamond mines in the world, the Jwaneng, has opened a hunting reserve in the savanna and welcomes big game hunters who are set up in luxury lodges while hunting animals on the property. Conservation is being used as a means by which the world can profit at the expense of animals and fellow humans. Kalahari hunting rights have been restored in 2019 to “private, citizen and foreign safari hunters”. In Tanzania the Maasai, one of the last semi-nomadic herding tribes on the planet, are facing similar challenges on their traditional hunting lands. The Maasai are being displaced by local government, and the lands are being turned into game reserves. When questioned, the International Union for Conservation of Nature pointed to the ‘benefits’ of well-managed trophy hunting as an effective conservation tool.

The killing of animals to protect our modern way of life is a hard feeling to work through. Is it necessary? Former NFL player Derek Wolfe recently dispatched a large mountain lion near his home in rural Colorado. The two hundred pound mountain lion had been ‘wreaking havoc’ on the local neighborhood, killing pets and was now residing under one local woman's porch. After the successful kill, Derek posted a photo of the victory on his instagram page. It yielded quite a few congratulatory comments, but also, to be expected, a few questions were raised about the need to kill the animal. “Could it have been ‘rehomed’ instead?” one woman questioned, much like adopted dogs that don’t work out. The consensus amongst wildlife control experts note that once a wild animal starts feasting on easy prey like small dogs in residential areas, they usually don’t return to the wild to hunt. The hunting of large predatory animals is for the conservation of human life. If bears or wolves are attacking livestock (a rancher’s livelihood), they should be killed. If mountain lions are residing close to where school children live, they should be killed. Conservation in this instance is for our way of life, not theirs. Not for the sake of nature. When Wolfe went on the Joe Rogan podcast recently he mentioned that a mountain lion in the Boulder area of Colorado had been relocated after scaring local residents. The re-located mountain lion then killed 15 dogs in a thirty-day period.

From raping the oceans of it’s whales for oil, eradicating North America of Bison (and much of our forests), hunting the Passenger Pigeon to extinction, it’s hard to believe that hunting can be successfully used for conservation of wildlife, natural ecosystems and biodiversity. One of the things hunters say brings the most joy in a hunt is this return to their ancestral roots, Roosevelt mentioned this. However, with the displacement of thousands of traditional hunter-gatherer tribes in Africa for game reservations, it would appear that their ancestral roots bring the most joy with modern day amenities.

Minke Carpaccio anyone? In Norway, according to their government, whaling there is legal and sustainable. Quotas for the fishing of whales are set based on scientific data. Only whale species with an abundant population can be hunted. Currently the Minke Whale is caught and harvested for human consumption, a traditional Norwegian food dating back to the 9th century. In 2022 however, they marked their highest record number for whale kills in 6 years, totalling 580. That is a lot of meat. So much in fact they export most of it to Japan. Some of it stays in Norway though, that gets fed to animals being raised for fur.

Hunting is and always has been a way that humans feed themselves. By all means, hunt to feed yourself, to feed your family. Hunting to cull invasive species and feed larger groups of people is the right thing to do. However, the killing of animals under the guise of Conservation, the conservation of anything other than our modern, destructive way of life, is bullshit. We occupy all the corners of the earth and have pushed many species to the point of needing population control. Which in turn benefits our bellies, our safety, pockets and fireplace mantles. Instead of forcing traditional tribes out of their homelands, let's hunt with them, their way. Let's compensate them for their wisdom. We create systems that benefit us in the now and send negative and never-ending ripples into the future. Now we find ourselves relying on science to solve the problems we’ve created. We’ve been shown time and time again that nature will find a way, despite our best efforts. Instead of engineering recovery, perhaps we should step aside and let her do her thing, naturally.