Natural selectivity is not a wildlife management tool

• In 1878, 17 white-tailed deer were brought in from New York and stocked in Bennington and Rutland counties.

• In 1906, the fish and game department was created with one commissioner.

• In 1909, The first resident hunting license was created at a fee of 50 cents.

• In 1920, six county wardens were added as full-time personnel with a yearly salary.

• In 1937, the Wildlife Restoration Act, an excise tax proposed by sportsmen and sportswomen, passed providing funding to wildlife restoration efforts in the states. The funding source is a federal tax on the manufacture of sporting arms and ammunition.

• In 1941, beavers were again found in all 14 counties.

• In 1955, a bull moose was spotted in Reading and another in Plymouth in 1956. There were estimated to be 10 in the state. How many are there now?

• In 1969-1970, biologist Bill Drake live-trapped 31 wild turkeys in southwestern New York and stocked them in Pawlet and Castleton. Again, how many are there now?

• In 1971, the department gained support for deer management after the movie “Winter Bottleneck” showed deer die-off, and the last of Vermont bounties on bobcats and rattlesnakes were repealed

• In 1977, first reintroduction of peregrine falcons in Groton.

• In 1988, ospreys nested on an artificial nesting platform near the mouth of Otter Creek. In 2005, loon, peregrine and osprey were removed from the state threatened and endangered species list.

I could not find any data about the historical numbers of black bears but did find current data that says they are “currently estimated at between 4,600 and 5,700 bears” and that “their numbers are higher today than they have been in 200 years.”

I saw my first bear in Calais while bow hunting in the late 1980s. Since then, they have become more and more common, to the point where they are sometimes considered a nuisance. This recovery is attributable to modern game management practices of a renewable resource. The anti-hunting movement, of which Protect Our Wildlife is a party to, tries to discredit modern game management by trashing the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department and promoting natural selectivity as a management tool. It is not, it is the lack of management, much the same as saying ignorance is bliss. No, ignorance is just ignorance.

Sportsmen and women and the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department have brought this renewable resource to where it is today, since it was all almost wiped out by land clearing for farming in the mid to late 1800s. All this took place before the advent of activist groups that oppose the science of wildlife management.

Yes, we did it without their help, and we still are.

If you are truly interested in wildlife and supporting a whole ecosystem agenda, you can’t do better than investing your money in the people who have brought Vermont from a condition of one big pasture in the late 1800s to the healthy, diverse ecosystem that we enjoy today.

You don’t hunt or fish? You can still put your money where your mouth is. Contribute to the non-game tax check-off, buy a habitat stamp or buy conservation license plates. Protesting those who brought us to where we are today is not a sound investment in the future of the environment. Support sound, proven management practices. Support the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department.

Patrick Finnie lives in Calais.