Agenda item by John C. Street

It's been so long since I've gone back to the original report that I had to do a Goggle search to find it again. Its full name is “Hunting and Fishing: Bright Stars of the American Economy” and it is available through the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation’s web site (www.sportsmenslink.org) under the sub-heading, "Economic Impact Report." 

If you’ve never spent time reviewing this report, it’s worth looking up and reading. In easy to understand pros and pictures, it describes the economic impact that hunting and fishing have on the national – and individual state’s – economy.  

How big an impact you ask? Well, as I’ve reported numerous times, here in the Keystone State alone, “hunters – nearly all of whom are deer hunters - spend $1.7 billion every year in the conduct of their favorite pastime and, as a direct consequence, support 28,000 jobs and add $214 million tax dollars to the state’s treasury.”     

Yes, it’s that big. And those are 2007 numbers. 

Anyway, I spent some time rereading the report the other day and was just flabbergasted (again) that the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources seems so anxious to throw our hunting (and fishing) "industry" under the bus while they spend hundreds of thousands of our tax dollars to promote “tourism.”  

And the conclusion I reached (again) is there's a whole 'nuther AGENDA behind the way our deer herd is being (mis)managed.  

In a new report that will soon be available on the world wide web, John Eveland – the man who exposed the chicanery behind the PGC’s “kill the deer” campaign – goes to the historical roots of the deer management program and, ironically, those roots go all the way back to the first “Earth Summit" that was held in Rio in 1992. As John correctly notes, this "Summit" was held to promote "sustainable forestry and biodiversity."  

Nowadays, of course, the objectives that came out of the Rio Summit are known by a different, more inclusive name; "Sustainable Development" or, as it appears in the documents of the United Nations, AGENDA 21. 

As I reported in my first article on the deer mismanagement boondoggle ("You ain't gonna' gitcherdeer ..." CLARION NEWS, March 12, 2009)), a short handful of years after the Summit was held, Audubon revealed its complicity with this new AGENDA. As I wrote at the time: 

“Unbeknownst to most people, though, at the very same time the PGC was kicking-off their deer management program, the National Audubon Society was awarded a $3.5 million grant from the Pew Foundation to establish the ‘Heritage Forest Campaign.’   

“Interestingly, as a little research revealed (see www.unwatch.com), the ‘Heritage Forest Campaign’ is one small component of the much larger ‘Agenda 21,’ the operating manual of the United Nations’ campaign to achieve a ‘New World Order.’  This just might explain why the National Audubon Society … and their enablers at the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources are prominent players in this debacle.     

“Suffice to say, the deer management program was not created in a vacuum.  And it most certainly was not created to nurture the economic force that spends $1.7 billion dollars every year, sustains 28,000 jobs and contributes $214 million in state taxes.” 

Pennsylvanians, especially this state's deer hunters, deserve to know that AGENDA 21 - and, by complicity, the National Audubon Society - explicitly identifies "sport hunting" (and "sport fishing") as being "unsustainable activities" that must be phased out.  

Arguably, this phasing-out process has already begun. To quote the words of DCNR's Deputy Director of Policy, Mike Krempasky, "If you look at the outdoor recreational activities... hunting is not one of them".  

In a very short period of time, the role of Audubon and their enablers in the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation will be part of the public record. And what this public record will reveal is what I’ve opined in the past; “the deer management program was not created in a vacuum. And it most certainly was not created to nurture the economic force that spends $1.7 dollars every year, sustains 28,000 jobs and contributes $214 million in state taxes.” 

For a whole host of social and economic reasons, the number of people who hunt and fish here in Pennsylvania is substantially lower today than it was as recently as twenty years ago. Collectively, though, these blood sports still represent one of the top five businesses in the state. 

Obviously, however, there are people working on an AGENDA to oversee the demise of these pastimes.  

Here’s hoping our new Governor sees “Hunting and Fishing” for what they are; “Bright Stars” of the Pennsylvania economy.