Because that would be a lie.... We do want to use some of those lands that the enviros want to save... we do want to kill some of the animals and we do want to cut down those trees.... But the truth is, the way we want to use it is ~not~ harmful. Use so often means damage that we need to not let the meaning become the same thing. Hunting bears is not damage, logging is not damage. They look at a clear-cut and see damage. I look much closer than they do at clear cuts, I ride through them on my horse, over the years it takes for them to re-grow. The birds and deer and elk and bears THRIVE in the clear cut areas. The variety of young to mature stands is a net gain to the critters that live there. They move back in the day the machines leave. They seek and find grasses, browseables, and berries to eat in those open areas, stuff they need that doesn't grow under the heavy forest. Those clear cuts are terrific habitat, as good for the food they need as the nearly mature stands of trees where they slip in to find cover when we ride through.
Back to the bears, they need to be told of the roaming bears that will take place if there is no hunt. That bears, unlike us, do not tolerate other bears living in the same space. They need to see that the trophy hunters who take the largest animals are taking the aging animals who would begin to take up the same territory without reproducing as well as the younger animals that will move in when the old are gone. Hunting teaches animals to run from our approach. Most animals shot in the woods have been 'missed' at lots of times already. Believe me.... we do not want bear or deer that don't fear us. For their safety they need ot fear our homes, and our roads. Hunting keeps the herds young and sharp and producing... managed properly it means more animals.
The everyday joe needs to be told all that. Most people who go on trail rides with me who cringe at the temporary ugliness of the clear cuts when we ride in get this lecture, and most if not all respect their benefits after I point them out. Don't give up and let them ~make you~ say radical things just because they are. We should be ~right~ not just equally reactive.
IK - this was the next thread I opened my trap on.