"I meant my post not to be good or bad, just my views and opinion of where Alabamas deer hunting stands. I have predictions on where deer hunting goes from here, its just my thoughts, it ain't pretty, and the cause will be many factors coming together."
Centralal said this on the Judge's thread, and I wondered what those predictions might be. I would really like to hear what he has to say, and also what everyone else thinks. I'll start out by sharing my own views on the future of hunting in the USA.
I think that hunting, especially deer hunting will become more and more a rich man's sport. The lack of quality land is gonna cause many to give it up, and fewer kids will take an interest. The dcnr will be under pressure from the wealthy to further regulate hunting to produce bigger deer, and they will comply. As the years go on, the dcnr will begin to be made up of people only interested in bird watching, hiking and such, and many of them will even be anti-hunting.
I fear that there will be a point at which hunting loses critical mass and can no longer survive because so few will be involved. CA will be the first state to ban hunting, and all the others will follow, likely one at a time.
But wildlife, especially deer, will still require some sort of management, so there will always be people with government connections able to get a special permit to hunt in some capacity. When FL banned steel traps there were still a few people who were able to get a special permit, and I suspect hunting will be the same.
With no license sales, there won't be many game wardens, so illegal hunting will always exist. A guy hunting on his own land isn't a poacher, but he will still be illegal.
I do not expect any of this to happen very soon. I can only guess as to how long it might take, but I think 100 years from now most of this will have happened.
I certainly hope that I am wrong on every prediction. Somebody convince me that I am.
