March 10, 2006

"...[Djay]

 

   Man it seems like I'm duckin dodgin bullets everyday

   Niggaz hatin on me cause I got, hoes on the tray

   But I gotta stay paid, gotta stay above water

   Couldn't keep up with my hoes, that's when shit got harder

   North Memphis where I'm from, I'm 7th Street bound

   Where niggaz all the time end up lost and never found

   Man these girls think we prove thangs, leave a big head

   They come hopin every night, they don't end up bein dead

   Wait I got a snow bunny, and a black girl too

   You pay the right price and they'll both do you

   That's the way the game goes, gotta keep it strictly pimpin

   Gotta have my hustle tight, makin change off these women,

     yeah..."

 

                        - Partial Lyrics from the Oscar-winning

                          Song for 2006, "It's Hard Out Here For

                          A Pimp", by Terence Howard Feat and

                          Taraji P. Henson

 

 

To All,

     It seems that there is a controversy over a recent diatribe by Everyone's Favorite Fifth-Columnist, Pat Wray:

 

Workin' It:

     It has been said that NRA members have a long memory when it comes to remembering those who have libeled one of the premier civil rights organizations in the country.

 

     So it should surprise no one that NRA staff have discovered that Pat Wray has once again come out from the shadows to pander, to the hunting fraternity-at-large, the kind of extra-conjugal relations that leads to wreck and ruin.

 

     In a Denver Post article from last January, Wray tries to convince readers that successful NRA efforts to defend the Second Amendment comes at the direct expense of hunter's interests.

 

     Wray seems to define those interests as some sort of exclusive alignment with those environmental groups and policies dedicated to the proposition of severely limited public land access, cessation of "extractive activities" (presumably lumbering, ranching, and mining), and (ultimately implied) a total restoration of the "original" condition of the land before the advent European exploration of North America. (Experiences here in California with preservationist efforts highlights efforts by environmentalists to end hunting as we know it. These efforts include programs to remove buffalo and boar from Catalina Island, restrict hunting access to riparian environments across the state, restrict hunting access to large chunks of the Mojave Desert, close desert water holes in the Mojave Desert, and attempt to ban hunting in those areas of the state where such endangered species as condors could be adversely affected by hunting activity.).

 

     Given that Wray's own favorite game bird, the chukar, is a non-native species that would be a likely candidate for eradication under the kind of habitat restoration plans normally proposed by the likes of the Sierra Club, one can only wonder as to what Wray's real motive for pimping for the enemy really is (Other non-native game species that could be considered ripe for removal under standard restoration projects include the ring-necked pheasant, Russian boar, feral pigs, certain kinds of turkey populations, trout in Yosemite and other Sierra locales, and the hungarian partridge in the upper Midwest, among others.).

 

     In defense of his position, Wray downplays the hunting-related achievements of the National Rifle Association over it's 135 year history. In Wray's worldview, the NRA's sole achievement on behalf of hunters is something related to convincing states to permit hunting on Sundays.

 

     But one can legitimately question Wray as to where was he, and where were his confreres, on these and other hunting-related issues in the past.

 

     For example, where was Wray and His Chicken Ranch consorts when the NRA successfully fought the attempted closure of riparian environments in California to hunting? (Said closure was at the instigation of environmental activists here in the Fool's Golden State).

 

    And where was Wray when environmentalists tried to ban birdshot across half the state of California? This poster knows of no evidence that Wray left the Blue State confines of Corvallis to help California Hunters in their time of need. No, that responsibility was left to the NRA and it's California membership.

 

    And where was Wray when Clinton-era road closures, policies, and the cessation of "extractive" lumbering techniques condemned hundreds of square miles of Rocky mountain pine forest to the depredations of bark beetles? (It's pretty hard for spotted-owls to build nests when old-growth pines have fallen to beetles. It sort of forces them to move to KMART signs as a substitute.).

 

    In reality, one suspects that Wray was, at the very least, silently complicit with every one of the above efforts against hunting and land access.

 

    Now, Wray seems to believe that what may be a hypothetically appropriate policy for the Bob Marshall Wilderness or the mountains around Kalispell should also be policy in the rest of the nation. But somehow his claims of game animals doing better in road-less areas does not ring as true when one actually visits other, more developed areas in the United States.

 

    This poster can personally attest to high density populations of quality whitetail deer along the road from Del Rio, Texas to Laredo, Texas (Hundreds of whitetail can be observed in the evenings eating along the highway embankments). Similar attestation can be made for the routes from Cleveland, Ohio to Buffalo, New York.

 

    Likewise this poster can attest to seeing renewed populations of pronghorn antelope along Highway 90 between Livingston and Billings, Montana.

 

    And the same thing can be said for black bear near Mammoth Lakes, California. And Tule elk near Independence, California. And Canadian geese in the medians of highway on- and off-ramps from Naugatuck, Connecticut to Kittery, Maine.

 

    As for trout, one of the better trout fisheries in California is in a prime water reservoir for the City of Los Angeles (Lake Crowley, north of Bishop, California). And one of the best trout fisheries in New Mexico is in the waters below the dam on the San Juan River.

 

    In other words, a large number of wild animals will adapt and even thrive despite development by man (Just ask the farmers of Idaho and Montana about how few deer they have in their alfalfa fields every year. Or, for that matter, ask the landscapers of La Canada-Flintridge, California, when it comes to rose beds.).

 

    Perhaps Wray will quibble with the above data. After all, he is counting in his article on the description "doing better", an artful dodge if there ever was one. But if "doing better" means the kind of "sustainable populations" that means less hunting for the vast majority of hunters nationwide, or the kind of parochial, limited access concepts one sees coming from some in the fly-fishing community, then count this hunter out.

 

     That is because for the kind of sustainable game population that allows for hunting, there must be a balanced and regulated annual surplus of the game species in question. Once one allows for the annual cull through the various state hunting seasons, one needs to arrive at that game population that will not overtax that year's available winter range and thus successfully propagate the species.

 

     When environmentalists are successful in their reintroduction of large land predators (mountain lions, grizzlies, wolves, etc.), then to allow for such extractive activities as big game hunting there must be an even larger annual surplus to allow for the additional pressure.

 

     In turn, that means that hunting opportunity has to be evenly distributed across those hunt areas with sufficient game populations to allow modern hunting.

 

     In this poster's opinion, such even distribution can only be had by careful construction of roads. Otherwise, experience dictates that there will be an inordinate take from areas easier to access. In turn, such high pressure will drive animals out of the easier to access areas, either to private land or to harder to access public land and parks.

 

    In the case of the public land and parks, the impact of such pressure means higher concentrations of game animals on the same available browse, meaning a decrease in the quality of the carrying capacity of the remaining area.

 

     No matter how one "slices it", this means a reduction in hunting opportunities for a large number of hunters nationwide as well as a reduction in the quality and biodiversity of remaining protected habitats.

 

     Now, it is all well and good that some in the professional guiding community sell hunts which add the "wilderness" experience to the customer. For a variety of fees one can ride a horse high into the mountains, eat hunt-camp spaghetti and chili-mac, and otherwise enjoy mountain vistas one usually finds in National Geographic. One would normally not miss such a "perquisite" for all the world.

 

     But the paucity of such hunts in relation to total hunting demand (tag limits as well as costs impact how many of these hunts are available) means that a restriction of hunting to the wilderness experience only means less hunting opportunity for the rest of hunters nationwide.

 

     And those most likely to suffer under this type of economic and cultural exclusion are the young hunters, today's kids who would theoretically be tomorrows hunters-cum-likely voters.

 

     In turn, a reduction in the "crop" of future hunters means, from a pragmatic viewpoint, a lessening of the political clout that it takes to protect hunting rights and interests in future political venues.

 

    When viewed from this standpoint, efforts to restrict hunting access to all but the most hardy hikers and horsemen means an effective attack on the future ability to influence hunting decisions in the political arena. It may well be that only by standing in solidarity with pro- Second Amendment groups like the NRA can hunters enjoy the added fire-support needed to protect their prerogatives in the future. One cannot hunt without firearms, and one cannot maintain such traditions as hunting without the kind of influence that the NRA brings to arena. It would perhaps be better for hunters and firearms rights activists to ignore the siren song of the Wrays of the world. Otherwise, hunters will find themselves hanging in droves separately in statehouses across the land.

 

    

Links at:

http://www.denverpost.com/writersontherange/ci_3355584

http://www.nrahq.org/history.asp

http://www.sierraclub.org/history/timeline.asp

http://www.naturenet.com/alnc/aldo.html

 

Respectfully,