If you really want to see nature, you should go outside
Looking out the window to the north I could see snow flying across the horizon and screening the view or pretty much everything other than the cloud of snow. I took a sip of coffee and looked out a window facing east and saw several birds on the feeders.
A new species visited for the first time this winter. Eventually a blue jay chased the small redpoll off the feeder. It was the 14th different species of bird that we have seen at the feeders this winter. A couple of the species normally do not winter in Wisconsin.
Their plumage indicates a small flock of juveniles that most likely missed the migration and suddenly found themselves in real winter. The feeder is most likely their only hope of surviving this winter.
Every time the temperature drops below zero that flock of finches seems to be down a bird or two the next time they come to the feeders, just a casual observation while participating in this outdoor activity of bird watching.
The best part is that it can be enjoyed while sitting next to a woodstove burning at full throttle, unlike cross country skiing or snowshoeing – other examples of non-consumptive outdoor activity.
Rabbit hunting or ice fishing are examples of consumptive outdoor activities. And those terms are more than descriptive categories. They originated a good while back, and even then the first time I heard them the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I’m betting the first time you heard it you had similar thoughts.
Its implication is that hunters and fishers are over taxing the natural world compared to “living as one with nature” non-consumptive users. I have no problem with anything anyone does outside, I’m glad they get out.
Snowshoeing,hiking,canoeing, cross country skiing, sledding, mountain biking, kayaking, skiing and horseback riding are all great things that get people outside. Other than mountain biking I’ve done all and more. I’m sure a lot of you have too. We just went canoeing or snowshoeing and enjoyed the day.
Consumptive verses non-consumptive user is just a way to frame hunters, fishers and trappers in a negative light with a public disconnected with nature. Many of whom will only experience nature in a state park or zoo.
Itattemptstomovethediscussionaway from who funds the spaces and other infrastructure needs of these activities where the hunter and fisher are the providers, to hunters becoming the user, the degrader. But how many of these users don’t use gasoline to get there, how many resources are used to maintain a trail and to groom it for Nordic skiing or snowshoeing? The snowshoeing I’ve done the person leading the group breaks the trail, but I digress. Turns out that “non-consumptive” activities have a greater impact on wild places and wildlife then what ideological warriors admit. I think we all knew that. Research shows a human hiking or skiing on a trail affect rodents up to 40 yards away. The same person affects elk up to 1400 yards. Maybe it’s a change of behavior, maybe it forces them to hide and they don’t make it to their secure bedding area, maybe it flushes them from their hiding spot or food and exposes them to their predators.
If you use fossil fuels to get there (in Wisconsin electric cars are fueled by 40% coal), to cook with, supermarket vegetarianism, park at a trail head or canoe launch, or burn wood in a woodstove you use resources and affect wildlife.
Some of the effects have a positive effect, some don’t. If people get outside and go to wild places they find value and have fun. In order for these places to remain they need to have value to people.
The education has moved from what we, as hunters, provide. It’s changing to educate those that don’t, that we need to work together to ensure proper conservation of the space we all value.
Feeding the birds in the backyard allows many to survive the winter, but every time I fill a feeder I flush them and the sharp shinned hawk sees them. It then becomes a consumptive user and attempts to kill a blue jay. Kind of like when a red squirrel gets under the feeder and I let the dogs out. By the way, the hawk is the 15th species to visit the yard.
When rabbits show up this becomes a consumptive hunting column.
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CHUCK K OLAR LOCAL OUTDOORSMAN
