Weapon, shot, pun!
The months of September and October have already gone, and together with them, the migration to the south that every year makes a lot of birds, through the skies of our village, and as the doves, turtledoves, and the rest are moving away, the shots that have shaken our mountains and valleys are decreasing little by little. However, the hunting season has not yet ended, as it will last until at least February, when local administrations refuse to authorize a spring session known as “counterweight”.
Reading what I’ve read so far, the reader can think of whether I’m trying to start another section of the sterile polemic “no hunting, yes hunting,” or of maintaining the endless rivalry around the counterweight of “ecologists” and “hunters.” It is not my intention. I don't want to bore anyone so much!
On the contrary, I believe that anti-clerical attitudes have been progressively marginalized among environmental groups, maintaining a conservationist approach and trying to combine the exploitation of natural resources offered by the territory with the protection of the natural values of the environment, the conviction that a properly managed hunting action can be an adequate and interesting solution. In this time of retreat of agriculture and livestock, hunting can be a useful resource to obtain economic benefits in various regions, and the practice of certain areas in the management of hunting would require maintaining a good state of conservation, also allowing to improve the natural quality of the environment.
However, for these approaches to be viable, the word “management” is undoubtedly the key. Or what is the same, considering hunting as an interesting resource does not mean in any case that you have to hunt more, nor that hunters can play the way they want, or the opposite. You have to predict what you can hunt and what not, where and when, how much and how, how many males, how many females, how many young, what species can be introduced and what not, how to carry out the introductions...
And on these issues the time has come to unite environmental groups and hunters. Because the results of good management would benefit everyone. More management, more hunting in the coming years, and more territories as a reserve, offering ways for hunting and improving their natural values. An ecologist machine has already begun to respond to this challenge to the Hunter Associations.
Are they willing to reduce hunting pressure for several years, conforming to strict scientific plans, on the road to further hunting in the future? Are they willing to drive, lead and execute concrete plans based on objective data? I don't. Unfortunately, among the hunters they are still like “if I don’t throw yours they are going to throw!” and “when it’s bombon and it’s not there!”, something that there will be no management or future for hunting or nature.
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