Parting Shots
Now
let's touch on a couple of subjects that I feel very
strongly about:
conservation and pollution, as they affect the quality
of life and our
nation's future.
The
most gratifying thing I've seen happen in this country
in recent years
has been the dramatic awakening, especially among
young people, to the
importance of preserving what's left of our natural
resources.
As an early conservationist, I fought for years
against the spoilers of
our open land: the timber thieves, the strip miners,
the poachers, and
most of all, the water polluters.
I'm proud
to see that others are carrying on the fight, and
gaining public support.
My philosophy
concerning the conservation of wildlife is simple:
Leave it alone! Nature
has a way of balancing itself. Take quail, for
instance. The quail has
numerous natural enemies--the fox, the bobcat, and the
weasel, to name
a few. These predators keep the quail population in
check, picking off
the weakest and slowest members of each covey, leaving
the strongest and
healthiest to reproduce. The system of checks and
balances works perfectly
throughout the
great outdoors--until man intrudes. Unlike
Nature's hunters, the human hunter seeks out the cream
of the crop--whether
he's hunting for quail, or for deer, or for rabbits.
Unwittingly, he also
does many other things to create an imbalance
in Nature--by killing off predators, thus
allowing non-predators to overpopulate an area and eat
themselves out of
existence; by ruining ground cover (through careless
timber-cutting, strip
mining, and poor farming); and by polluting the water
supply of vast areas.
The fifty young deer I brought into Wise County in
1932 multiplied to over
3,000 in twenty years. Today, I would estimate that
there are no more than
fifty head of deer in the county. Reason for the
decline.? Partly, pressure
from
hunting (much of it out-of-season), and partly
a reduced food supply. But mostly, it's dogs, dogs,
dogs. People have allowed
their dogs to run the deer right out of the country.
There are hundreds
of dogs running loose in the
mountains of Wise County--some of them strays,
but most of them belonging to hunters who allow them
to run loose for days
at a time. Since there's no law to limit such
practice, there's nothing
the game warden can do to control it. I discovered
long ago that dog control
legislation is something that politicians tend to shy
away from. They don't
want to antagonize dog owners, for fear of losing a
few votes.
In Wise County today, in an area that once abounded
with wildlife of all
kinds, loose dogs and cats have so completely
destroyed the game that the
only activity left in the mountain is dog-chase-dog.
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In
closing, I want to call on my relatives and friends,
as well as any
open-minded strangers who read this, to join the fight
to preserve our
environment .
Each
one of us can contribute, in two important ways:
First, by setting a good
example in our own lives, and in the way we bring up
our children; and
second, by bringing pressure to bear on our lawmakers
to enact and enforce
laws that are aimed at controlling waste, pollution,
and overpopulation.
Don't
just think about it. Write a letter to your
Congressman today, and another
one next week. Get involved.
The life you save may be your child's--or
even your own.
Dave O'Neill
Mountaineer Game Warden
May 25,1898-June 23, 1974
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