Conservation is complex. The current conservation issues we face are layered and interactive. The people affected by conservation issues are complex; they are motivated by a range of values and bring...
Category: Ethics & Culture Tags: Conservation, Elinor Ostrom, science, Social values
We have been here before. We have debated predator issues in North America for more than a century. North American wildlife managers, policy-makers, and hunters spent decades engaged in coordinated efforts...
Category: Ethics & Culture Tags: coyote, Ethics, Killing contests, management, predators
How well do you understand hunters? Consider your best hunting partner. You might spend days on end with this person every year in meandering conversations about life’s important questions. You have...
Category: Ethics & Culture Tags: Communication, Discourse, Featured, Motivations, Perspectives, Psychology, Social cognition, stories
I wrote this piece as a Conservation Contributor with Hunt To Eat. It was originally published on the Hunt To Eat blog. The hunting story I was told has been somewhat incomplete....
Category: Ethics & Culture
Hunting is wonderfully complex. It is a social activity that brings us together with friends and family. Hunting is also deeply embedded in conservation politics. Regulated hunting is an important tool...
Category: Ethics & Culture Tags: Community, Politics, Roosevelt
This is not a repudiation of animal rights. The purpose of this discussion is not to diminish the history of the animal rights movement or demonize its proponents. We sometimes see...
Category: Ethics & Culture Tags: Animal rights, Animal welfare, Featured
As conservationists, communication one of our most important tools. In many ways, the future health of wildlife depends on our ability to tell compelling stories from the heart that moves the...
Category: Ethics & Culture
The environmental author Edward Abbey once said, “Hunting is one of the hardest things even to think about. Such a storm of conflicting emotions!” As we move our way through the...
Category: Ethics & Culture Tags: Communication, Conservation, Discourse, Featured, stories
Conservation involves complicated layers that must be navigated. It involves a diverse set of voices, nuanced motivations, and vastly different ideas about the best types of programs and policies. Inevitably, there...
Category: Ethics & Culture Tags: Black bear, Bounties, Caribou, Ethics, predators, wildlife management, wolves
We often assume that if we convince people to care about wildlife they will support conservation. Of course, people are unlikely to support something they don’t feel personally attached to. Unfortunately,...
Category: Ethics & Culture Tags: anthropomorphism, bambi, Burroughs, David Petersen, Disney, emotion, nature fakers, Roosevelt, science, sentiment, Seton