Conservation Corner: July 26, 1999

The Future Of Wildlife
by James L. Cummins

Not too long ago, I had the pleasure of having my parents, my brother and his wife and their two boys, Parker, 9, and Logan, 2, at my home for dinner.

After everyone had left that evening, I began to think about the youth of our nation and the future of the sport we love. I thought about how my brother, now 29, does not hunt or fish, but loves music.

His last outing was when he, my father and I were bream fishing on a borrow pit off of Lake Lee when he was 5. He went to sleep and fell and cut his forehead on the boat seat. My father rushed him to the emergency room. Now, I have to almost hide to carry Parker hunting or let him shoot my .410 that my father gave me when I was 6.

To my father and my grandfather, fish and wildlife conservation has come a long way in the past fifty years. Not only are there deer on our farm in Webster County, but wild turkey too. Quail are now coming back due to our recent management practices. So, what is the future of hunting? As my friend Jim Range, a wildlife biologist by training and the former Chief of Staff for Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee, I would have to "read the tea leaves correctly." Since I have none, nor a crystal ball, I will rely the past and current trends.

The demands on our ecosystem are increasing. Our role as conservationists will be to moderate them if possible, and make the best of them in any event.

One feature that is consistent among most Mississippians has the been the management of fish and wildlife for pleasure, as it is in Great Britain. Conservation, both here and across the Atlantic, is based on the principle that hunting, fishing and wildlife viewing are rights that occur with property. Thus, poaching, and even pollution, infringes on our private property rights.

In the past, hunting has even caused the extinction of some species and the near extinction of many more. But more importantly, hunting increases the value of land and results in habitat conservation. Tourism will also aid in hunting. People have more leisure time than every before. Tourism rarely harms wildlife resources and can often be credited with saving it. Africa is one example.

Will there be hunting a century from now? Probably. But hunting opportunities will likely decrease unless we maintain good private land conservation, restoration and enhancement programs like the Conservation and Wetland Reserve Programs and the Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program and good land acquisition programs through the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Forest Service.

James L. Cummins is Executive Director of the Mississippi Fish and Wildlife Foundation in Stoneville, Mississippi. Known as "Wildlife Mississippi," the Foundation is a non-profit, conservation organization founded to conserve, restore and enhance fish, wildlife and plant resources throughout Mississippi.