Our nice, long Thanksgiving weekend has now come and gone, and it’s time to make the switch from home-cooked turkey and watching TV back to Ramen noodles and doing homework. However, for many, last weekend meant more than just feasting and watching football. Several UW students joined the thousands of citizens across Wisconsin who participated in the last days of one of our state’s most honored heritages: deer hunting.
While Wisconsin’s regular gun deer season actually opened the previous Saturday, some students were finally able to take time from school to get away from Madison and go hunting over the longer Thanksgiving weekend.
If you have grown up in a state that does not have a strong hunting legacy, this custom is nothing to scoff at. Wisconsin’s hunting and fishing heritage has proven to be so important to its voters that they overwhelmingly passed a referendum to the state Constitution last spring that created a constitutional right to fish, hunt, trap and take game.
Of course, this tradition is nothing new for many of us who have grown up honoring it. Having school and sporting events scheduled around deer hunting season only seemed natural, and it was not uncommon to find numerous towns a little more sparsely-populated in the last days of November as many hunters headed to more rural areas. While most citizens consider the hunting tradition to be part of our identities as Wisconsinites and Midwesterners, some of our colleagues who hail from other regions of the country have not had the privilege of growing up with this same heritage.
Obviously, not all of Wisconsin’s citizens go hunting, and some don’t even care for this sport, but there are still a few things that we all can learn from our hunters:
1. A respect for nature and the outdoors.
Hunting is more than merely sitting in a tree and waiting to shoot at something when it walks by. It involves a more profound understanding and value for nature. In fact, hunters are aware of the absolutely vital role that they play in controlling Wisconsin’s deer population. This role has proven to be especially important this year, with many deer management units reporting deer populations that are more than 20 percent above management goals. Thanks to our state’s hunters, we see fewer deer starving to death or being hit by cars.
In addition to population balance, hunters pay attention to the relationships among many animals and plants. If you want to know something about Wisconsin wildlife, there is a good chance that a hunter will be able to help you.
2. Family activities are important.
Think about it: How many pastimes do you have that you are also able to share with your family? With the many stresses and demands of contemporary life, there aren’t many chances for families to spend quality time together, especially when children grow up or go away for school. Hunting provides such an opportunity. Most hunters first learn their skills and hunting ethics from their parents, grandparents or other family members. There are plenty of times when we feel like we don’t have much in common with our grandparents or even our parents, but hunting is a tradition that can be shared together by many generations. The family aspect of this custom has continued to expand as more daughters, sisters, wives and mothers join in a tradition that has typically been regarded as a father/son activity.
3. No matter where you go in life or what career you may chose, you are never too good to get outside and get a little dirty.
Hunting is a sport that is enjoyed by people of almost any background and any profession. One can find clean-shaven business executives trading in their suits and razors in favor of blaze orange and stubble. We often get so wrapped up in our respective careers that these professions become the main focus in our lives. We adopt social and recreational activities that may stereotypically only reflect who we are professionally. Hunting allows some a chance to escape from their office jobs, enjoy the outdoors and gain a little more perspective in their daily lives.
You may be thinking that my dad must have made me listen to “Fred Bear” one too many times while I was growing up, and, well, you are probably right. All the same, Wisconsin’s strong hunting tradition is one that we should take pride in. Even those who do not share this interest can learn a few things from our state’s hunters.
Nicole Marklein ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in political science.