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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chris D" data-source="post: 1653396" data-attributes="member: 2263">I don't hunt - but live in a very 'hunting oriented' part of the U.S.  There are areas even much more 'hunting oriented'.  It's usually the father and friends and sons - yet, it's more and more common for moms and daughters to join.  A Grandfather in the mix is common too.  Add in vast public lands, (forgive me) management, and laws ------ what you get is tradition and culture.  Also - people who have direct ties (be it hunting) to open spaces have a vested interest in keeping them undeveloped.  Though I love birding and (for that matter) enjoying and studying all flora and fauna - I've nothing against hunting - when done legally.  I know these thoughts might sound quite foreign.Over time I would wager that hunting will diminish in the States as more and more folks leave less populated areas and have more sedentary / urban lives.  I don't envy that day though.  One more observation.  If a birding couple from Europe approached a group of hunters having dinner in a campground - or joined a group of birders - having dinner at a site just down the trail ------- I kinda' think they would come away with a greater experience and feeling from the hunters.  Perhaps what one thinks a more genuine (New World) colonial experience.  I seek this out in primitive parts of the world - this experience.  I know it's still here - in America.  Perhaps less in Europe.  A poor laborer hunting with his son and father on millions of acres of mountains and forest is very Democratic and I hope always a right.  There are also practices and rituals praising and admiring the earlier native cultures.  As a country - we have many faults, bumps, and bruises.  To have a couple from Germany spend a weekend at a deer camp in Michigan - in the fall - would be better than Vegas.</blockquote>

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