Pioneers in American Conservation

All too often, the role of sportsmen in American conservation is hidden behind glowing tributes to the likes of Henry David Thoreau and John Muir.  Yet to an appreciable degree it was the practical, “get something done” approach of hunters that gave this country a solid, sustainable conservation ethic.  

Probably the best indication of this is found in a splendid, although often overlooked, book by John F. Reiger, American Sportsmen and the Origins of Conservation.  More recently, Douglas Brinkley’s massive study (well over 900 pages) The Wilderness Warrior:  Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America has highlighted the contributions of the single most influential hunter-conservationist of all.  Certainly Roosevelt’s role is a pivotal one, but he was by no means the first sportsman to offer a clarion call for protecting our natural resources, implementing a staunch hunting ethic, and creating awareness of the conservation role man could play in the natural world.

One of the country’s earliest outdoor writers, William Elliott, attacked market hunting and the unthinking slaughter of game in Carolina Sports by Land & Water, first published in 1846. Journalist George Bird Grinnell used the pages of a popular magazine he edited and owned, Forest and Stream, to preach the gospel of respect for the hunter’s quarry and the natural world in which it lived.  Grinnell’s unceasing efforts came to the attention of Roosevelt, and in 1887 the two of them took the lead in founding the Boone and Crockett Club, a private organization which continues, well over a century after its creation, to be in the forefront of conservation.

Roosevelt carried the concepts and credo of the Boone and Crockett Club with him to the White House. While president, he was active in creating national parks, national forests, advancing the concept of game laws and, through work with Gifford Pinchot, implementing a wide-ranging conservation agenda.  Books such as Paul Russell Cutright’s Theodore Roosevelt the Naturalist and R. L. Wilson’s Theodore Roosevelt:  Hunter-Conservationist recognize, as does the above-mentioned work by Douglas Brinkley, the pivotal role played by our country’s greatest sportsman.

Yet TR had plenty of support from others.  Charles Sheldon, a friend to the president, and internationally renowned hunters such as Frederick C. Selous, constantly stressed the importance of conservation.  Nationally recognized writers such as Nash Buckingham carried the conservation flag, and it was “Mr. Buck,” along with noted cartoonist “Ding” Darling and others, who worked tirelessly to achieve protection for waterfowl in the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.  Although it took almost a generation, it was followed in 1934 by passage of the Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act, a novel concept in which sportsmen took the lead in putting their money alongside their voices to support wildlife conservation.

Three years later, in 1937, the Pittman-Robertson Act was passed with strong hunter support and cooperation from state and federal government, conservation groups and the firearms industry. The act created an excise tax on firearms and ammunition, which is paid by the manufacturer and factored into the cost of the product. These dollars are deposited into the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Account. Funds from the account are available to states in the form of grants to support conservation-related initiatives. Since 1937, more than $6.4 billion have been raised and devoted to everything from wildlife restoration projects and hunter education to shooting range development.  

Perhaps the most persuasive of all conservation voices was that of Aldo Leopold.  A rarity in the academic world—a professor with a strong streak of practicality—Leopold recognized the vital role of wildlife management.  More than that, he practiced it on the 80 acres he purchased in central Wisconsin that were logged, burned over, and overgrazed. He used that tract as a testing ground for this theories and management practices.  The result was a monumental book on closeness to the land and man’s interaction with the natural world, A Sand County Almanac.  Compelling in its arguments and delightful reading as well, it is a book that belongs in every conservationist’s library. More than that, it is a work every hunter should read and re-read.  Leopold is often mentioned as an icon by tree-hugging types with decidedly negative views of sport hunting and wildlife management. However, it should always be remembered that Leopold was an avid sportsman who rightly recognized the crucial role hunters could play in conservation.  Leopold’s example, building and expanding on that of TR, Grinnell, and others, set an example that inspired succeeding generations of both professional wildlife managers and sporting scribes.  

By the time of the Great Depression and Leopold’s heyday (he died all too early, succumbing to a heart attack while fighting a fire on a neighbor’s land) the concept of fair chase; a firm belief in the importance of protecting game through seasons, bag limits, and hunter licensing; and awareness of the hunter’s role as a conservationist were solidly in place.  From these developments, along with the ongoing work of the Boone and Crockett Club, came awareness that hunters could and should make a difference in wildlife management and conservation.  Today’s nonprofit conservation organizations—groups such as Ducks Unlimited, Quality Deer Management Association,  National Wild Turkey Federation, Delta Waterfowl, Pheasants Forever, Quail Unlimited, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Mule Deer Foundation and others—continue to travel along the road pioneered by early conservationists.

With the emergence of conservation organizations there also was a movement within the ranks of sporting scribes. During what might be termed the golden era of American outdoor writing, from the 1930s to the 1970s, authors of that day heralded the importance of conservation.  You see it in the articles and books of grand outdoor writers such as Archibald Rutledge (there’s no finer statement of the hunting ethic than his piece, Why I Taught My Boys to Be Hunters), Corey Ford, Jack O’Connor, Robert Ruark, Gordon MacQuarrie, Nash Buckingham (his story, The Prodigal Years, is a telling self-indictment for overshooting ducks), Charlie Elliott, and others.  

All of us need to be mindful of the legacy pioneers in the field of conservation have left us, never mind whether they did in through example, leadership, the printed word, or in some other fashion.  Those who paved the way gave us something precious.  It is our duty to make it something lasting.