Gentlemen,
As hunters and fishermen, we face many obstacles that threaten our heritage. Those obstacles that come at us from the outside I can face head on, with fortitude and purpose, knowing my enemy has an agenda and a plan to execute it. What I perceive as an equal if not greater threat is the dissention and dissonance within our own family that is driving a wedge of division deep and hard. That's a tough threat to combat, but it must be done before the division is so great that we will be chewed up and spat out by the outsiders.
When I first came on to this site and others to introduce the United Wildlife Cooperative, I knew we would be facing distrust in our motives. That's perfectly understandable given the dissatisfaction permeating the hunting and fishing realm for both Conservation Organizations and State Wildlife Agencies. So many of us had simply given up, not having a say so in the direction our heritage was going. Our hope in founding the UWC was to help organize these blue-collar hunters and fishermen, giving them an outlet to voice their concerns and have those concerns forwarded to those who are at the forefront of steering our heritage. Not an easy undertaking to say the least, but we founding members resolved NOT to follow the norm in Conservation Organizations, and formed a cooperative. It was HOPE that was based in that decision, not greed, not envy, not collusion. We vowed NOT to use our wildlife as a means of funding our efforts, no conservation tags, no convention tags; we would find other ways to accomplish that, as many organizations are currently doing. It was HOPE that somehow we might find a way to work with other organizations to make great strides in unity within both our industry and in the direction our heritage needed to go. We all knew it would take a loud and consolidated voice of hunters and fishermen to accomplish that, and it is happening.
I know there are some who don't care for the direction the UWC is heading, and that's all fine and good. Voicing opinions and concerns is much, much better than complacency and inaction. The UWC will continue to listen to those who want to be heard and forward those concerns where they need to go, and the sun will still rise tomorrow. But lets all do what we can to stop driving the wedge of dissention. There is room for all of us, trophy hunters, blue collar hunters, deer hunters, elk hunters, fly fishermen, bait fishermen, youth hunters, women hunters, old hunters, bird hunters, et al. If we don't, I fear the consequences just may be our demise.
Perry Hanks
www.unitedwildlifecooperative.org
