Tracey,

After pointing out the ample bag limits for several species of waterfowl,
you stated that, "These numbers could really start to add up!!!!"

That would be so only if several things were to happen. First, you  must
presume that there are hoards of hunters actively pursuing these species.  That,
however, is not so. Secondly, you must presume that most hunters take  their
limit on each of multiple hunting trips. This is the real crux of the  issue.
Only a few hunters are able to take the bag limit in the first day's  hunt, and
things get much more difficult on following days after most wild  waterfowl
(except for the urban, quasi-domestic geese) have been shot at once or  twice.
To determine the hunter take, you can't multiply the number of duck  stamps
times the number of hunters times the allowed bag limits.

Do not presume that every licensed hunter in the field takes his or her bag
limit every time he or she goes out. As a birder searching for rare spring
migrant warblers, do you see a comprehensive list of all the "good" warblers
each time you go out in May? It's worse for hunters. The weather has to just
perfect (which is imperfect). The birds have to be moving in just the right
areas. Remember, unlike birders moving across numerous counties looking for a
rare bird, waterfowl hunters are confined to a boat or blind at a single
location (which they usually enter before sunrise). The desired prey has to come  to
them. With birders, it's the other way around, where the birds are pursued at
 various locations.

Sleep well. North American waterfowl are in no danger from hunters. It was
they, in fact, primarily through Duck Unlimited, who began a successful
wetlands  appreciation and conservation program that has resulted in the termination
of  wetlands drainage and other losses. Before Ducks Unlimited, wetlands were
wastelands of malarial mosquitoes and disease-causing miasmata.

Unlike birders, these hunters put their money where their interests were  and
fully supported and promoted the taxing of guns and ammunition to yield
wetlands and conservation land development. Remember that the next time you
venture to see a rare warbler at Magee Marsh, a giant wetland purchased using
Pittman-Robertson hunting tax funds. Every one of these hunters out in the  blinds
eagerly pays for not only a small game hunting license, but  also duck bird
stamp, along with the special conservation taxes on  their firearms and
ammunition.

It's not 1958 anymore. Back in the earlier parts of the 20th century, every
kid on a farm had a .22 rifle and 12-gauge shotgun, and a lot of protected
birds  were illegally shot. There was a lot of poaching and illegal targeting of
protected species. A few of these poachers took more than the provided bag
limits (when they could find that many birds).

But today, this slimy, illegal taking of wildlife is fast disappearing.
Instead of a 12-gauge, today's illegal "hunter" has his thumbs wrapped around a
computer gaming device. He's electronically shooting digital spacecraft, not
snow geese, even in Ohio's rural areas.

That's the greater concern. We are raising an entire generation of  Americans
who don't even know what a snow goose (or even a house sparrow) is.  These
are the same people who (like a lot of birders, incongruously) fail to  support
taxes on binoculars, bird feed, and other measures that could  significantly
contribute to wildlife conservation in Ohio's third century.

And, you ask, who determines these bag limits. It's a long, complicated
process involving both the Ohio Division of Wildlife and the US Fish &  Wildlife
Service. If you'd like, you can attend the annual Wildlife Hearings and
formally present your bag limit preferences. But to be considered, they should
provide real field numbers and data related to a) the number of game birds  living
that year in the wild, b) the number of hunting licenses and hunters that
will pursue the various species, and c) the life history and field biology of
the hunted species.

These are the data that are used to set bag limit and possession  regulations
each year. Anyone who presumes it's a sordid group of pot-bellied,
cigar-smoking "good old boys" chalking up big numbers in the backroom of a  Columbus
nightspot is as out of touch as those who think bird watchers are just  little
old ladies out in tennis shoes.

Game limits are based on sound field science and data. Since all of this
began back in the first half of the last century, not a single hunted  species in
Ohio has become endangered, let alone extirpated, from hunting  pressures.
Conversely, it has been the deliberate, costly, and self-taxed  efforts of the
hunting community that has preserved and created wetlands.

The birding community would do so well as to prompt conscientious
non-hunters to follow suit. All of us, birders and hunters alike, need to  support --
monetarily -- wildlands preservation efforts. Without those, all of  us might as
well grab the game controller and watch or hunt some digital  warblers or
geese. Habitat is everything. Hunter's kills (except where  insufficient, as with
Ohio's deer herd) are not a biological or conservation  issue. It's the
lands, not the guns or binoculars, (although guns are taxed for  conservation, and
binoculars aren't).

Sincerely,

John A. Blakeman

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