September 2009 President message
There has been much talk on the role of recreational hunters in the management of introduced and native animals over the past couple of months. As we all know, hunting is a legitimate and legal pastime and many of us enjoy getting away on the weekend to hunt. Our quest to obtain free-range food for our family or to do something practical for the environment causes many of us to spend significant amounts of money and free time to go hunting.
Hunters certainly play a role in pest and wildlife management in this country. All over Australia, park and land managers are expected to reduce the number of certain introduced animals, as well as maintaining the balance of native wildlife in their parks and on their lands. It is common knowledge that park managers normally have pretty tight budgets and certainly do not have an open chequebook available to them. This means that they are unable to find funding for every animal management task that they need to do and they are then required to focus on only those that can give the most bang for their buck.
Park authorities have a variety of options to manage animals such as poison, trapping and shooting. With budget restrictions, many land managers have realised the cost-effectiveness of the volunteer hunter resource in their wildlife management strategies to free-up funds for additional work. Many agencies have for many years been successfully using volunteer hunters for humane and selective hunting in managed control projects.
This is where the role of volunteer hunters in the park system across the county fits in. Hunters can provide a humane and selective method of control that can be incorporated into an integrated management strategy. In some situations, the volunteer hunter’s involvement may be limited and in others, it may be substantial. The same can be said for all the other methods of control; it’s really a matter of horses for courses when determining the best approach for a particular situation. It would be somewhat ignorant to rule out any one method simply on an ideological basis.
Hunters want to hunt and we are very willing to be involved in the management of introduced and native wildlife. We are more than happy to be part of the solution because that is how we see ourselves. This willingness to do something practical for the environment is nothing less than a win-win situation for hunters and those determined to manage wildlife wisely and sustainably and not emotionally or ideologically.
Some groups opposed to the involvement of hunters in wildlife management try to push the line that the hunter is not the solution to Australia’s pest animal problems because hunting is not effective as a standalone measure. Whenever they get the chance on radio or printed media, they keep repeating this tired old line. These groups fail to comprehend that we see ourselves as just one of the tools in the toolbox and that the only ones talking about hunting as a stand-alone measure are these groups. The fact is any measure on its own will probably not provide the total solution to a pest animal problem.
Volunteer hunters helping out in the parks and lands of Australia should be commended in the same way as those volunteers planting trees to benefit habitat. Both groups donate their time to do an important task and if it’s undertaken in a managed strategic way, the results will be greater for all to see. SSAA National has been promoting hunting for the past 50 years and will continue to promote the work of our recreational hunters in being part of the solution to introduced animal control.
Bob Green
SSAA National President
Home > Notice board archive > September 2009 President message