Paul McCarney

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I'm a hunter-conservationist and PhD student from Ontario, Canada.

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Long shadows on a sunset ride the other night. To see what the sunset looked like behind me, refer to photo of setting sun a couple posts back. This calmness of this photo was juxtaposed by 5 of us wrestling one of these machines out of a deep hole it was stuck in, digging it out through snow, slush, and mud. You want to see incredible places, you have to put yourself right in the middle of those incredible places. #seaice #skidoo #snowmobiling #sunset #arctic #rideordie #squad Reading about rewilding efforts around the world. Reconnecting isolated patches of wilderness and protected areas through corridors and ensuring that there are interactions between predators and prey are the core ideas of rewilding. The idea is to reinvigorate ecosystems with the processes that keep them healthy and functioning. Healthy ecosystems that function well must always include intact populations of predators, something that is not always so popular among the public. Also, no golf courses. Healthy ecosystems are ones without golf courses. Just in case the pro-predator comment wasn't political enough. #rewilding #conservation #transfrontier #parks #protectedareas #predators #nomoregolfcourses Went out for a great ride today to get after some ptarmigan and got out on the sea ice for the first time this season. As you can see, we also had an amazing sunset. Great day out there. #smallgamehunting #smallgame #hunting #ptarmigan #skidoo #seaice #mountains #arctic Looking forward to getting out on the sea ice soon. It has been an entirely new and amazing world over the last few years getting to experience oceans in both open water and sea ice seasons. You have to learn an environment in a completely new way, even though it is the same place on the map. You also get to see animals like caribou and foxes using the ocean, as they use the sea ice for travel and habitat, which is a completely different perspective on terrestrial wildlife. There are no other environments like it. #arctic #seaice #ocean #caribou #conservation #hunting #labrador #wildlife Beautiful day to be outside for a skidoo ride and some hot chocolate and food by a fire. I've been thinking a lot about the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation lately. As hunters, we sometimes hang a heavy hat on the pride of the accomplishments brought about on this continent in part through actions, policies, and individuals informed by this system. But we must also not forget that this is a way of thinking and doing rooted deeply in context. It is a system designed by humans and so it is also imbued with the beautiful infallibility and subjectivity that define human cultures. We must not forget our achievements, but we must also remember that one of the greatest achievements of the North American Model was its ability to be critical and innovative at a difficult time for wildlife. So to do right by conservation and most importantly the wildlife that depend on our construction of conservation, we should always try to improve. At a time when political polarization is not only easy and trendy, but the main rule of the game, we can have conviction and be critical, be proud and humble, determined and measured. #conservation #northamericanmodel #nam #wildlife #wildlifemanagement #hunterconservationist #hunting #leopold #roosevelt @meateatertv @brodyjhenderson

“Hunting is one of the hardest things even to think about. Such a storm of conflicting emotions!” – Edward Abbey

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