Taking Aim at Litterbug Hunters
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Autumn is a particularly wonderful season for wandering in the woods. As the leaves start to change color and then reach their peak with smoldering hues, you find yourself surrounded with some of the most spectacular productions of natural “science.”
Of course, autumn brings the natural surroundings into their dying season, the time of falling into a state of rest after sprouting in spring and ripening in summer. Still, a walk in the woods will reveal that even this “dying” season is full of life and wonder, from the acorns hitting you on the head to the fallen leaves swishing around your feet.
But wandering through the woods in this season can also be dangerous because it is a particularly active hunting season. So if you like orange, you will do well to don an extra bit of it so that an eager hunter does not mistake you for a deer, bear, or some other living thing to shoot for. Better safe than sorry.
Wandering through the woods during hunting season is disconcerting, if not dangerous, for another reason as well. Those same hunters with itchy trigger fingers frequently drop more than just shell casings and, sadly, various woodland creatures.
As you stumble through the swishing blanket of leaves, you may well stumble upon and even trip over any number of bottles, cans, boxes, bags, and other bits of litter that hunters often leave behind. It seems that stalking prey is a pretty energy-intensive activity, requiring ample supplies of beer, soda, and convenience foods, among other hunting accessories, to keep the hunting senses keen. (Another favorite seems to be tobacco dip. A bottle or can filled with the spit-water from this surely toxic concoction will likely leave you thinking you have come upon a dead animal; you will certainly not be inclined to pick the litter up!)
Now, it may seem unfair to target hunters as the offending litterbugs. Other woodland wayfarers may be just as careless with what they carry along; the same goes for campers. So what makes hunters the most likely culprits?
Although I have not conducted a scientific study, I do take note on my diurnal wandering in the woods and notice that litter seems to fall in larger amounts when hunting season kicks in. This is true even on the private property where I live–despite signs forbidding trespassing and hunting. Moreover, these litter bits peek up from the leaves in the thickest parts of the woods, not along trails or good spots for pitching a tent.
Putting aside the morality of hunting, I think it seems entirely reasonable and ethical for hunters to bag their trash along with the woodland creatures they aim to “bag.” Some hunting groups, such as Ducks Unlimited, have become active stewards because they recognize that sustaining healthy habitats is the only reliable way to sustain sufficient numbers of animals therein.
For a hunter to litter without abandon, then, is sort of like pooping in his or her own well. Without responsibility, careless hunters may soon find themselves shooting at the very bottles and cans they have dropped on the forest floor…because all the animals are gone.
For those of us who go into the woods to wander and wonder, the season ahead may be a dangerous one indeed. So we better watch out–for bullets, bottles, beer cans, and those fetid pools of dip-spit!
Related Post:
Hunters and Helpers: The Conservation Efforts of Hunting and Fishing Organizations
Image credit: Clifford Berryman (1902), via Infrogmation at Wikimedia Commons.
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