Counting deer’ not enough

[Lee Borgersen]

  ‘Counting  no longer enough!

 Jan 23, 2016

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It is no longer enough to spend “all our time counting deer,” Jim Martin told Minnesotans at the Department of Natural Resources’ annual Roundtable gathering.

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Martin, a former fisheries chief for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, told DNR stakeholders about a “perfect storm” facing conservation efforts in the 21st century.

Martin is conservation director of the Berkley Conservation Institute, part of the Pure Fishing umbrella of fishing products by Fenwick, Berkley, Stren, Johnson and more.

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In his keynote address, Martin cited four overlapping issues presenting challenges to conservation — diminishing public fish and wildlife agency funding, climate change, development and population growth, and the missing voices of conservationists in the political process.

Rich Staffon, president of the Duluth chapter of the Izaak Walton League and former DNR area wildlife manager at Cloquet, said he thought Martin’s message was “excellent.”

“The business about (fish and wildlife) agencies inheriting additional responsibilities and not having the funds to manage them really rang true,” Staffon said. “That, and the inability to look at the big picture because you’re so busy fighting brush fires.”

In his remarks at the Roundtable, and also in an earlier address at Michigan State University, Martin challenged those who value natural resources to respond to this changing landscape.

Dwindling funds for conservation

Minnesota is somewhat insulated from this trend, Martin said, because of the state’s Clean Water, Land and Legacy fund, which raises close to $300 million a year from sales taxes for fish and wildlife habitat, clean water, parks, trails and the arts.

But federal spending for conservation has dropped from about 2 percent of the national budget to about 1 percent over the past 20 years, Martin said.

With baby boomers dropping from the ranks of hunters and anglers and fewer young people replacing them, fish and wildlife agencies will see a “slow strangulation of resources pouring in,” Martin said.

“The old days, when we could charge the deer hunters and the duck hunters and the fishermen enough money to cover all this, are over …” Martin said in his earlier address at Michigan State.

“We’ll never see those days again.”

There simply won’t be enough hunters and anglers to generate sufficient revenue for public agencies, he said.

“There are people who still think we can work our way out of this with kids’ fishing clinics. Get over it,” Martin said. “Please return to this planet right away. It ain’t gonna happen.”

Americans are going to have to elect people who value conservation, Martin said.

“The question of the day,” he said in his earlier address, “is whether sportsmen are going to look up and notice or just vote the way the NRA says.”

Agencies must find new funding systems that may have to rely at least in part on user fees, he said.

“If we don’t solve this,” Martin said, “we’re going to see the collapse of state fish and wildlife agencies within 25 years.”

Development and population growth

Martin described the rate of development around the country’s urban centers as “a slow cancer of growth.”

“(In the West) we used to have individual towns,” he said. “Now we just have a megalopolis that grows together.”

The country’s population will grow from about 322 million now to about 450 million by 2100, according to United Nations projections. Where does fish and wildlife fit in that picture, Martin asked.

“Who’s planning for that growth?” he said. “Nobody, because it’s such an uncomfortable issue for our politicians.”

Climate change

Martin cited warm-water die-offs of sockeye salmon in the Columbia River and a change in winter precipitation from snow to rain in the Rockies as examples of how climate change is affecting fisheries and water resources in the West. Until last year, never had nearly half the Columbia’s sockeye run died off due to warming water, Martin said. Cities in western states rely on snowmelt, not rain, to replenish reservoirs. Some of those reservoirs are running low.

“Surprises keep popping up,” Martin said. “It’s shocking. “We have the option of looking at what things will be like in 2100. We can get ready for it or not.

“If you don’t want to spend a bunch of time thinking about the analysis of regional climate models, here’s a shortcut — get in your car, drive 400 miles south, look around,” he said in his earlier address. “That’s what’s coming. It’s about 400 miles of latitude of climate change per century, roughly.”

Firewall breakdown

In the early 1900s, Martin said, Teddy Roosevelt and others launched a conservation movement in which trained professionals could provide good information that politicians used to make sound decisions.

“What we have now is a breakdown in that firewall,” Martin said. “We have a trend for government and state and federal officials to shut off the advice. … This trend is unacceptable.”

Hunters and anglers must reach out to other constituencies and make their collective voice heard, he said.

“The last thing we need is hunters and environmentalists squabbling,” Martin said. “We need each other. We need a constituency that includes river rafters and birders and anglers so we don’t back our way into the future. … Spending all our time counting the deer won’t cut it. We have to put aside the little issues and look at the big issues.”

Anyone who cares about conservation must get involved, he said.

“You don’t get the natural resources future you dream about,” Martin said. “You get the natural resources future you fight for.”

[The General]

All anyone needs to read is up to global warming and the rest is  well that's what Doug tells me anyway.


Guess we need a legacy 2 amendment