Dear Readers,
I just returned from Orion's second Think Tank. Thanks to the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation for hosting us and their wonderful staff. Thanks also to the Pope and Young Club for helping to sponsor the event and assist in travel costs. But the real stars are the participants who racked their brains and tapped their experience in tackling some of the thorniest issues we as hunters face. I will be reporting on our results in the coming weeks. Focus areas included articulating the core values we hold as hunters; laying out a series of questions that need to be considered and answered in the affirmative when deciding where and how you will hunt and at the moment before you pull the trigger; how hunting can be a metaphor for living and how it can, when done right, increase one's ethical fitness; how to get the ethics message out to new and veteran hunters in a way that resonates and elevates behavior thus serving to attract responsible people to become lifelong hunters and opens land to hunt.
Stay tuned!
Sooooo bummed that I missed it, but as it turned out, my normally difficult start-up of the school year cranked up to 10x drama this week, so it's a good thing I was here instead.
ReplyDeleteOr, wait, maybe not.
From JR Westman via email:
ReplyDeleteFirst a big, solid thank you to the attendees. As we (the outdoor traditions crowd) move into the future we need to always portray the ethics of our hunting and angling. By doing this we can educate the huge voting block in the middle that we have pure intentions and will always treat those intentions ethically. Educating the masses is very difficult and getting more so, however we must remain diligent in this as we do towards our huning, fishing and conservation. We are the reason we are blessed with fish and wildlife populations we have. Ours isn't Democrat or Republican or Liberal or Conservative, instead ours is what is right for the Public's Wildlife and the ordinary American just as Teddy Roosevelt proclaimed a century ago