So I know this is the page for Ice fishing and all but I spend most of my time on this page. This is an active time of the year on this page and I was wondering if you could give me feed back on my first article. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Conservation Matters
Dylan Wirkus
January 28, 2016
Conservation Matters
Hunting is a very important resource. Without hunting many things may be lost. Not hunting can result in hundreds of thousands of dollars. Not hunting could also result in food loss such as turkeys and chickens. We need all the food we can have for a growing world. Through state licenses and fees, hunters pay $796 million a year for conservation programs.(25 reasons why hunting is conservation. (2013, January 5). Retrieved September 22, 2015, from http://www.rmef.org). Disease, money and job support, and population control are all contributing factors to why hunting is important. Hunting is also important to the ecosystem because it keeps populations steady, controls the risk of diseases being spread, and keeps animals from going extinct. Hunting is the best approach to control these problems but think about it by answering these questions to find an opinion:
1. How do hunters help control the population of predators?
2. Will losing chickens and turkeys to disease affect the world?
3. If hunting quits how many jobs will be lost?
4. Without hunting fees how will land be paid for?
Understanding the needs of hunting can go along way. Every factor of the ecosystem relies on hunting. Overpopulation and extinction can occur from not hunting. Many studies have been put into finding out if hunting helps and studies show, it helps dramatically.
Disease
The disease of Avian influenza has the ability to wipe off thousands of farm turkeys and chickens. Scientists and farmers believe that the disease is being spread by migratory snow geese (Madhani, A. (2015, April 21). Avian flu crisis grows for poultry producers throughout the USA. (Retrieved September 22, 2015, from http://www.usatoday.com/). The infected birds spread the disease through saliva, nasal secretions, and feces. The overpopulation of snow geese has become something that the government is trying to decrease the population with an early spring hunting season for them. This act allows the hunting of snow geese in the spring after the traditional hunting seasons have closed (Bellrose, F. (2013, May 14). Hunting. Retrieved September 22, 2015, from http://www.deltawaterfowl.org/ ). This season includes no limit, electronic calls, unplugged guns, and no possession limit. Without the hunting of snow geese, they will spread disease to all poultry flocks and wipe out a food supply and also make themselves go extinct.
Money and Job Support
Hunting brings much needed money to many states. Opening pheasant season in South Dakota has brought people from all over the world. People flock to South Dakota on the opener every year. Things like gas, shells, licenses, food, and hotel rooms bring hundreds of thousands of dollars to South Dakota. South Dakota is the pheasant capital of the world and has the highest population of pheasants. Without this money South Dakota would need to find another way to attract people to the state. The fees from hunting far exceed those from primitive recreation, bird watching, or photography (Baden, J. (1995, February 01). Hunting plays a key role in habitat conservation. (Retrieved September 22, 2015, from http://www.free-eco.org/). Hunting brings money into many states and helps them pay for many different things including land for animals to live, deprivation costs, and is also put into the community to make it a better place. Hunting also supports 680,000 jobs from game wardens to waitresses, biologists, and motel clerks (25 reasons why hunting is conservation. (2013, January 5). Retrieved September 22, 2015, from http://www.rmef.org). Without hunting many jobs could be lost. If you are against hunting think about this. All of the jobs that could be lost will have some highly educated people in them including some of the most wealthy business people. These wealthy business people will then need to get a job and with there high education they could take your job. Hunting supports to many jobs to be lost. It will shut down many companies and may even have the chance to destroy yours.
Population Control
Population control is very important in hunting. Every species of animals must be at a steady population or the ecosystem can be thrown off. The population needs to be controlled in a couple different ways. Predator control is a very important topic in population control. If a predators population gets to high their prey or food source will get low and all the animals will be fighting each other for food. On the other hand if a predators population gets to low the preys population will grow increasing and put other things in danger. For example, if an area has a low coyote population then the deer that they prey on will explode and there will be deer everywhere. It can get to the point where human lives are endangered by passing cars hitting oncoming deer. Hunters can help control the population. If a deer population is getting to high more licenses will be sent out to take care of more deer. Hunters help keep drivers safe. For every deer hit by a motorist, hunters take six (25 reasons why hunting is conservation. (2013, January 5). Retrieved September 22, 2015, from http://www.rmef.org). Hunting is a cheaper way to control animal populations. Hunters help manage growing numbers of predators such as cougars, bears, coyotes and wolves. Our government spends millions to control predators and varmints when hunters have proven more than willing to pay for that opportunity (25 reasons why hunting is conservation. (2013, January 5). Retrieved September 22, 2015, from http://www.rmef.org).
Keeping animals disease free, keeping money and jobs, and keeping a steady population all make hunting important. Hunting is important to the ecosystem because it controls the spread of diseases which wipes out food. It also helps by keeping a steady predator to prey ratio. Without hunting many things can go wrong including wiping out populations of many species of animals including turkeys and chickens which in case makes us lose a huge food supply. Would a world be able to survive with the loss of these species? Without hunting, these important supplies could go extinct forever.
That said, I think the factual links and citations here make the article a tougher read. Cite them in a different manner, maybe leading readers to the links in a small bibliography section at bottom. Like Grouse mentioned, every article needs a purpose and an audience with which to direct your focus.