Elk NetworkHunting IS Conservation – Impact On Your Life

Whether you know it or not, hunting has most likely impacted your life in one way or another.Three out of four Americans approve of hunting, partly because hunters are America’s greatest positive force for conservation.Female participation in hunting (3.35 million) is on the rise thanks to a 10% increase from 2008 to 2012.More than 95 percent of our 222,000 members are passionate hunters. More people hunt (19.3 million) each year than play soccer (13.7 million), tennis (13.6 million) or baseball (12.1 million). A wildlife management tool, hunting helps balance wildlife populations with what the land can support, limits crop damage and curtails disease outbreaks.Hunting has major value for highway safety. For every deer hit by a motorist, hunters take six.Hunting supports 680,000 jobs, from game wardens to waitresses, biologists to motel clerks.Hunters provide for conservation—and for their families. Hunting is a healthy way to connect with nature and eat the world’s most organic, lean, free-range meat.As society loses its ties to wildlife and conservation, the bonds with nature formed by hunting are the greatest hope for creating the next generation of true conservationists.The further we separate ourselves from wild places, the quality of life beings to diminish. We need these places to remain wild and free. Without hunting and conservation funded by hunters, these places simply could not exist.Hunting IS Conservation