Contrary to what anti-hunters think hunters like you and I are the true conservationists. We put our money where our mouth is. The anti-hunters as a rule contribute little if anything to the support of wild-life. The Pittman Robertson act which collects taxes on all of our firearms and ammo and distributes those dollars to State DNR s has provided well over 2 BILLION dollars for the support of wild-life. There also comes to mind the anti-hunting experiment involving the Kaibab Range in the early 1900(s) where deer hunting was prohibited and the animals reproduced at a rate that resulted in the deer exceeding the "carrying capacity" of the land. As a result 60,000 deer died a slow lingering death from starvation. Once managed hunting was restored, the number of deer living on the range was reduced to an ecologically sustainable number. Almost 90 years have passed since this experiment in anti -hunting ended. To date the Kaibab Range is home to a healthy deer herd and happy hunters. As a Hunter Education Instructor I explain to students that due to the conservation efforts of Michigan's hunters our deer herd has grown from an estimated 45,000 in 1914 to as high as 2,000,000 in the early 1940(s) and then paired down by hunters following various game management techniques to a sustainable number. Maintaining that number allows Michigan hunters to harvest about 400,000 deer per year without adversely affecting the year over year average of the total deer population. Another hard fact that I share with students is that Mother Nature i.e. hard winters kill more deer via starvation than hunters harvest.
