TIME magazine cover: America's Pest Problem, Why the rules of hunting are about to change

[BowhunterNJ]

Anyone catch the latest TIME magazine?  Any more info on the full article?

Surprised to see what sounds like a PRO HUNTING article from TIME!

 

 

 

 

Partial Excerpt, can't see full article without subscription:

 

 

Faced with an outbreak of lyme disease and rising deer-related car accidents, the city council of Durham, N.C., authorized bow hunting inside city limits in November. Authorities in San Jose, Calif., in the heart of Silicon Valley, voted to allow hunting wild pigs within that city in October. Rock Island, Ill., one of the five Quad Cities on the Mississippi River, recently approved bow hunting in town, provided that it occurs in green spaces — golf courses, parks, cemeteries — or on private land.

 

Across the country, hunting is poised for a comeback, and not just because the folks on Duck Dynasty make it look like so much fun. We have too many wild animals — from swine to swans. Whether you're a Walmart employee in Florida wondering what to do with the alligator at your door, a New Yorker with a hawk nesting on your high-rise or an Ohio golfer scattering a flock of Canada geese, you now live, work and play in closer proximity to untamed fauna than any other generation of Americans in more than a century.

 

Too many deer, wild pigs, raccoons and beavers can be almost as bad for the animals as too few. This is why communities across the country find themselves forced to grapple with a conundrum. The same environmental sensitivity that brought Bambi back from the brink over the last century now makes it painfully controversial to do what experts say must be done: a bunch of these critters need to be killed.

Read more: America's Pest Problem: It's Time to Cull the Herd - TIME

 

http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2158676,00.html

[Lemmy]

By shouldering the role of careful, conservation-minded predators, hunters make the coexistence of humans and wildlife sustainable-David Von Drehle/Time Magazine ...Refreshing read

[Axiom]

The antis   would rather have us pay more taxes so excess wildlife can be spayed or neutered...

[Haskell_Hunter]

Antis need to be spayed and neutered.

[Lemmy]

But whether we hoist the gun or draw the bowstring--or simply acknowledge the facts of nature that require these things to be done--it's time to shake off sentimentality and see responsible hunting through 21st century eyes. The legacy of indiscriminate 19th century slaughter is not a burden for today's hunters to carry. Instead, they are an important part of the ecosystem America has successfully nursed back from the brink. By shouldering the role of careful, conservation-minded predators, hunters make the coexistence of humans and wildlife sustainable.

 

Read more: America's Pest Problem: It's Time to Cull the Herd - TIME http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2158676,00.html#ixzz2mTA68aS5

 

Yep, I agree...

[Haskell_Hunter]

Thanks for posting this with the cover shot.  I grabbed a copy last night in the grocery store checkout after recognizing the cover.

 

Really good article.  Lots of mention about NJ deer and black bear population.  Definitely slanted toward being a very pro-hunting article, but also does a very good job of demonstrating how conservation efforts have brought many species (deer and mountain lion) above the population levels seen when America was discovered by European explorers.  An interesting spin presented in the article is this:  If humans don't manage the wildlife population, apex predators will.  Humans are the ultimate predator, and if we don't do our job, bears, wolves, mountain lions and the rest will be more than happy to step in and do it for us.

 

If you get a chance and see a copy in the newsstand, pick up a copy.  It's a good, quick read.