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BILL
CUNNINGHAM
Captain - Staff Writer
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CAPTAIN'S LOG
March - April 2011
As outdoors men we had
ought to be concerned with the future of our abiding interests.
Let me give an example. I have a man-cave in a large area above
the garage. There is an expansive window in the south end that
provides a magnificent view of the San Juan mountains and of a
pasture of over 300 acres. Behind a screen of willow and juniper
trees there is, in the spring, a lovely lake that flourishes every
year. It is fed by the run-off of melted snow that rushes down a
grand arroyo and tumbles into the impounded waters with a roar
heard all over the valley. But the lake is flawed. The soil and
rock of its bottom was left there by long-ago glaciers. As a
result the lake leaks water and within a month of the end of
run-ff, is dry, hence its name: Dry Lake.
Every day through the
last half of winter fifty to seventy five elk can be seen in the
pasture, grazing and socializing. They come from the arroyo that
feeds the lake and at the end of the day return there. Come the
first spring warm-up they leave for higher country (the pasture is
only at 6300 feet elevation). I have watched over the years as the
herd has produced fewer elk overall, and fewer large bulls. Even
the larger cows, the spikes, and the two pointers have had smaller
representation.
It was a puzzle to me as
to why the elk's numbers of larger animals was decreasing. There
is plenty of food, adequate water, lots of shelter from nasty
weather and intruders. The population of hunters has actually
decreased (more on this in a moment). Predators such as bears and
mountain lions are not as much in evidence as they once were. But.
. . even though the number of guides here has decreased, the ones
remaining have managed to lead their clients to trophy or near
trophy animals. The herd can only take so much of that before the
best genes are gone and the lesser animals are the only ones left
to breed, thus degrading the offspring and upsetting the notions
of nature.
Having figured that out, a recently expressed concern of sporting
goods stores and the state department of wildlife (DOW), begins to
make total sense. The DOW is complaining that there are not enough
out-of-state hunters coming in. Elk tags are left over-more and
more each year. Hunter's dollars are not being spent in Colorado's
communities in the amounts the state has become used to. In this
time of financial crises in the nation, the state is prepared to
spend $300,000.00 on a campaign to attract the historical numbers
of hunters. They have several reasons why the hunters do not come,
three of which seem to me to be the most important: the reduced
numbers of trophy class elk, the cost of travel, and the lack of
younger hunters.
Probably the second issue is specious. If someone wants something
bad enough, the cost of gas isn't going to deter them. The DOW
seems to overlook that they have allowed the hunters to shoot out
most of the trophies. And perhaps the most important, many of the
older hunters have died off or are physically unable to make the
effort and the number of younger hunters to replace them has
become alarmingly few. The reasons for that, the DOW says, is
mostly because youngsters have not been tutored or encouraged to
have an interest in hunting (parental malfeasance) and societal
disapprobation (notice how smoking has become a societal
bug-a-boo. Now transfer that to hunting).
Now we come to how all that relates to us as buckskinners. Take a
look at any national (and often local) rendezvous. Once, the
bright yellow or orange leathers, sometimes with the smooth side
out, was a dead giveaway of a newcomer, the majority of whom were
young. Today it is easy to pick out the younger set because there
are so few of them. The most telling evidence is that they don't
have gray or white hair. One has to wonder why this lifestyle no
longer catches on with young people the way it once did. Is it
because they have not been home-tutored properly, or educated in
the exciting history of the fur trade, or perhaps too inculcated
in the addiction of electronic toys like cell phones, iPads,
Facebook, and interactive games of destruction? The answer is
undoubtedly complex. But what are you doing to get a more even
rendezvous balance between white hair and dark, to restore the
vitality and wide-eyed interest and fun the rendezvous once had?
It can be a difficult thing to get graybeards to volunteer.
Youngsters jump in where experienced oldsters fail to tread. Who,
it should be asked every day by every member, who is going to
carry on when the few white heads are gone? What will be our
legacy?
In problem solving, the collective thought of many brains
outperforms the individual. Letters to the editor can result in
more interest, more useable ideas and solutions. Discussions
wherever buckskinners congregate can reveal more questions and
answers than the absence at camps or of attitudes of indifference.
I leave it to you.
YHS
Bill
Cunningham
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