| Game Farms and the North American Conservation Ethic |
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Our formal relationship with this continent's wildlife developed through a series of court decisions defining a public trust held by our institutions. The cultural values, and the populist resolve, however, had to be generated by our conservation leaders. Sixteen years before Theodore Roosevelt was born the American courts began addressing the ownership of water, fish and resources destined to remain in common ownership. When it had to be decided whether fish and wildlife were going to be private property or a public resource the U.S. Supreme Court, citing the American Declaration of Independence as its authority, told us: "…when the people … took possession of the reins of government, and took into their own hands the powers of sovereignty, the prerogatives and regalities which before belonged either to the crown or the parliament, became immediately and rightfully vested in the state." 41 U.S. 367 (1842). The issue of the ownership of wildlife became wonderfully more specific when the U.S. Supreme Court held that the power or control over wildlife held by the states: "… is to be exercised, like all other powers of government, as a trust for the benefit of all people, and not as a prerogative for the advantage of the government, as distinct from the people, or for the benefit of private individuals as distinguished from the public." 161 U.S. 519 (1896). The decisions of judges, however could not rally a continent. Rather, it was the philosophy and the terms of conservation articulated by an exuberant hunter that moved the masses. He was a hunter, who as America's President, introduced a nation to conservation. Canada, could easily have adopted the British wildlife policies, instead they chose a path that paralleled that of the United States, allowing the best minds in both countries to engage in cooperative efforts. On the Canadian side, Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier and conservationist Clifford Sifton were prominent leaders. On the U.S. side, Gifford Pinchot stood out as one of Roosevelt's closest advisors. The tracks of Theodore Roosevelt's passing are not subtle and his words belong in this deliberation. They are words still clear as a mountain morning. When we listen to them, think of these immortal ideas as promises fulfilled. Stack these words, our seminal North American hunting philosophy, up against: pen raised animals, hustlers peddling their slaughter as hunts, pampered commercial clients sneaking home with an antlered head and a lie. Listen to these words and try to reason how farming our wild heritage can be part of our promise to, as TR said, "generations still in the womb of time." References Cited: - Geist, Mahoney and Organ. Op.Cit. |
