Celebrate a proud tradition on National Hunting and Fishing Day, Sept. 26By Lee Hadley
lhadley@heraldt.com The more I age, the more I’m forced to accept that there is a lot more of what I don’t know than what I do. That being the case, I still manage to occasionally come across a piece of information that makes me wonder how I never picked it up before. The most recent instance of this situation concerns National Hunting and Fishing Day.
It doesn’t surprise me at all that there is a National Hunting and Fishing Day. Almost every sort of minor interest or activity has its own day; it would be a far bigger shock if two of the most popular outdoor sports in the U.S. didn’t have a designated time for recognition.
What I didn’t know, though, that makes National Hunting and Fishing Day just a little more personal for me, is that the legislation that eventually created this day of recognition was introduced in the U.S. Senate during the month and year I was born by a senator from my birth state. That’s the sort of coincidence that usually catches my attention.
NHFD is celebrated on the fourth Saturday of every September, which this year is Sept. 26. Numerous NHFD open house events across the country are both a celebration of hunting and fishing by those who enjoy them and an opportunity to reach out to other members of the community who have not enjoyed outdoor sports. The closest open house of which I am aware is being put on by the Sycamore Valley Gun Club in Freedom on Sept. 27.
A reasonably comprehensive listing of NHFD events around the country can be found at
www.nhfday.org/Page/Events.aspx.
These events also serve to highlight historical and present conservation efforts by hunters, shooters and anglers. Many sportsmen and women take a great deal of pride in their belief that their community comprised some of the earliest conservationists in our nation’s history. People who hunted and fished in the wild were best able to see first-hand the effects of human encroachment and unregulated exploitation of wilderness lands; it stands to reason that they would be among the first to call for protection of natural areas because their lifestyle was most immediately threatened.
Hunters and anglers have made an undeniable contribution to the long-term sustainability and viability of wilderness areas that all of us can enjoy. They’ve done this by lobbying for protected areas such as those that eventually became the basis of our national park system and through ongoing economic contributions in the form of licenses, stamps, tags, permits and taxes on sporting equipment.
Unfortunately, when other elements of society later become aware of environmental issues, they were often more inclined to see hunters as part of the problem rather than as part of the solution. The lack of recognition by some environmentalists of the important role sportsmen had played in conservation efforts up to that point led to friction between the two groups.
That friction has not yet completely dissipated. I’m inclined to think that part of the problem is the purely emotional fear that firearms inspire in some people, but there is also a percentage of hunters not inclined to be too friendly with folks who are content to enjoy nature without taking life. To me, the best aspect of National Hunting and Fishing Day is that it provides an opportunity for people to find some middle ground.
The weekend of Sept. 26-27 is also Indiana’s Youth Deer Hunting Season. I have no idea if this is intentional or coincidental. I do know that it’s time to stop wearing anything white when recreating in any area that allows hunting. Various furbearing and woodland creatures are in season from now until early 2010.
Lee Hadley is an outdoors enthusiast who has lived in Bloomington since 1993.
