Ethic

Conservation is a problem; it is a problem for any laissez-faire concern, public or private, that plans, demands or tries to exploit our natural resources on it own terms. The feast of plenty ended long ago. For the modern sportsman making conservation ethic a problem is a good thing.

In the U.S. the conservationist idea can be traced back to Benjamin Franklin. John Muir is credited with starting the environmentalist ideas that flowered in the founding of Sierra Club in 1892. Theodore Roosevelt and his ally Gifford Pinchot championed conservation on a national scale in the 1930's. In 1937 Ducks Unlimited was incorporated to react to the concerns of sportsmen about the loss of wetlands as habitat for waterfowl. Then, in 1959, Trout Unlimited was founded in Michigan dedicated to conserve, protect and restore North America's cold, freshwater streams and rivers for the benefit of its trout and salmon. All of these early organization and their founders were pioneers of conservation ethic long before the term acquired its modern meaning. These were visionary people of another sort who knew and valued the sanctity of an undisturbed natural order of things. These were just the beginning.

A wild brookie from Michigan's Yellow Dog River. You might sweat, spit and shake for this. Not because they're beautiful (although they are), but because they're wild.

There are times when you'll come to feel like the last leaf, on a long branch, near the top of a very tall tree"

Today it is fashionable to be a conservationist and/or an environmentalist in any of a hundred new organizations. But that doesn't mean it's all fun. It never was. It is still hard, time-consuming, thankless work. There are times when you'll come to feel like the last leaf, on a long branch, near the top of a very tall tree; just one hell of a long way out there. You'll sweat and spit and shake for the cause you have chosen. In the process you will take a stand. You might lose a friend – but you will possibly gain more. But that's never guaranteed. The protectors of the past knew and lived this.

Why? To make conservation ethic a problem. - WES:::