Remembering

Remember
The progression of hunting from where we were then to where we are now, has been amazing and I never thought I would see this kind of accomplishment in my lifetime. I remember when Wilcox, Greene, Sumpter, and a few other counties were the only good places to hunt deer because there were so few everywhere else. I remember seeing a deer track in Jefferson County and not believing my own eyes. I just remember thinking how great a world it would be if that actually was a deer track and I could hunt deer in these woods. It really was a deer track but I couldn't grasp it because it just wasn't possible. That particular area was cut-over then, dirt and stumps. A few years ago standing on that same ridge, under the hardwoods, as the third buck of the season made its way into range, I remembered where I was then and where I am now. Everyone had the same thing in mind, conservation. It is how we got to where we are. Good leaders like Charles Kelly, and Charley Grimsley were conservationist. They knew the rank and file hunter because they were of the same accord. They believed to get what we all wanted it was the hunters who had to get us there. Not through regulations but by putting it in the hands of the people. The way it should be knowing Alabama hunters would protect, teach, and enforce if necessary conservation practices. It worked exceedingly well and created the second largest deer herd in the nation and number one by land area alone. I have lived in an era of conservation and I loved it. Sounds like I was using the past tense. That is because I was. Although conservation may still be the stated mission of our leadership, politics and overtones of tyranny have begun to ring in the halls. Public beaches, the beaches you and I use, are being given to the rich for condo's. A hunters knowledge of the land and what is right is now dictated to him and a snare of regulation tight around his neck. Where is the outcry? Where are the people? A few of the old gaurd are fighting, not for the old way but for what is right. Where are their children and students? I remember when a hunter killed a buck because he hunted, used his head, watched the weather and learned from the old buck masters. They hunted big bucks by two's and three's putting plans together and covering ground but today the industry and the products decide how individuals hunt. People angry because someone was within 40 acres of their ladder stand and doe urine, ruining their whole day. Laws enacted because one person don't like our way of hunting. People who know nothing about what we do. Don't kill that buck, I'll be back in a few weeks or next year or something. Rediculas notions. I fear the thought is you can regulate yourself a bigger buck. It is a shame but it is winning the war. I don't know what you call it when you sit in a ladderstand over a corn feeder that turns on at the same time everyday. Some have likened it to hunting but I don't see it. I want to fight against industry ideals and reinstate the little man but there are few troops and they are scattered. I guess we are to busy. Nobody knows their neighbors anymore. Nobody sits and talks. Nobody has time to hunt a big buck the way it should be done, you have to get back to the office. Conservation has turned from a love of the land to money driven, given into the hands of a few to make decisions. A few who don't know us. A few who see us, the hunter, as a cockroach. Unfortunately there has been no objections from the rank and file. It is a recipe for disaster. I take a moment,....pause,....and remember those good old days.