For an organization that has become the conscience of Colorado outdoors, it seems only fitting that the speaker at its annual banquet be the ethical voice of American hunting.
When it comes to defending the historic principles of the chase, Jim Posewitz always has a sharp sword close at hand.
“Our trustees are letting us down. They buy into the commerce of hunting and fishing,” Posewitz said of a conflict that has become the pivotal element in state wildlife management.
As founder of Orion The Hunter’s Institute, Posewitz stands as a ringing voice of reason for the value of public primacy in wildlife affairs. He’ll deliver these and other thoughts at the May 5 banquet of the Colorado Wildlife Federation.
The event is the principal fundraiser for a group that in recent years emerged as the state’s most forceful advocate of hunters’ rights and resource protection. The CWF philosophy of supporting public participation against moneyed interests received an added boost with the recent appointment of its former board chairman, Dennis Buechler, as a member of the Colorado Wildlife Commission.
Through his Helena, Mont.-based institute, begun in 1993, Posewitz speaks and publishes an unerring philosophy of fair chase and environmental stewardship. Born the year after the National Wildlife Federation was formed in 1936, he brings a historic perspective that transcends temporal inflections of political pressure.
“We have an incredible relationship with nature in this country, but we’re in danger of losing the participation that makes this happen,” Posewitz said recently in Golden, where he comes often to visit family.
“The greatest threat to our hunting heritage is loss of interest or our failure to teach the substance of that heritage.”
That peril comes, Posewitz believes, through a trend toward turning the game over to a modern aristocracy, moneyed interests who can pay the most for it through the commercialization of wildlife. In Colorado, this is most evidenced by the allotment of landowner preference licenses sold to the highest bidder in direct competition with public hunters on public land. “In England, much of the game is extinct and every fox hunt is protested because they have turned the game over to the aristocracy. The hate for the aristocracy spills over to the game it values and controls.”
Posewitz, who has written three books on hunting and outdoor ethics, believes that against the backdrop of American democracy, this reaction will be even more profound.
“As Theodore Roosevelt said, ‘The rich who are content to buy what they have not the skill to get by their own exertions, these are the real enemies of game.’ Our trustees are letting us down. They buy into the commerce of hunting and fishing,” Posewitz declared.
The route to reversal, he believes, is by teaching a basic wildlife ethic, not necessarily hunting, at an early age in the public schools. Another is to direct people who graduate from hunter’s education to a local rod and gun club.
“When we lost most of the rod and gun clubs, we lost something dear. The only way to retrieve it is to establish that network, which now is the Wildlife Federation.”
CWF banquet
This fundraiser with keynote speaker Posewitz will be 6 p.m. May 5 at the Wildlife Experience Museum, 10035 S. Peoria St.
State Sen. Lois Tochtrop will be honored as conservationist of the year. Todd Malmsbury of Resource Media will be honored for excellence in communication. Tickets are $50 and may be ordered by phoning 303-987-0400, ext. 1 or by going online at .
