Good Stewardship

On an evening woods walk with Pipp, I contemplated what good stewardship means to me and what it looks like in my life. I thought back to the NH Natural Resources Stewardship Program offered through the UNH Cooperative Extension and its emphasis on resource management and conservation rather than preservation exclusively.

So many people think of themselves and nature as two separate entities. They view humans as a blemish on the Earth—sometimes understandably, given the situation we are in regarding climate change. However, it’s as if we expect ourselves not to have any impact or make any alterations to our home planet. The reality is that every living thing shapes its environment. As humans, we have both the blessing and the curse of being able to choose how we do so. I would like to make this impact as beneficial as possible and strive to care for and manage resources in a way that keeps them healthy and abundant for the future.

For a long time, I thought of good stewardship and conservation solely in relation to wilderness, landscapes, and wildlife. Along the way, I’ve become involved in many clubs and organizations that put this focus front and center. All of them are volunteer-run, with small budgets and a heavy reliance on fundraising. Their challenges range from attracting young people and new demographics to engaging members and encouraging volunteer involvement. It struck me that our duty as good stewards also extends to these clubs. If we cannot care for these valuable organizations that do so much good work in regard to hunting, angling, trapping, and public land use, where would we be as sportsfolk?

I think many of us are resistant to volunteering because we feel underqualified, undertrained, or underinformed. Most people live very busy modern lives and don’t feel they have the time or bandwidth. The irony is that, speaking from experience as an adult-onset hunter and shooter, almost all of my present-day knowledge and experience came from jumping in headfirst and getting involved with volunteer organizations—from BHA and RGS/AWS to BICA and my local gun range. I learned about grouse and woodcock and their habitats. I learned about good dog work and handling. I later developed an interest in trapping, and joined the NH Trappers’ Association. While I’ve been too busy training Pipp to take it up myself, it’s opened a world of appreciation for trappers and all that they do to gather data on so much of our wildlife here in New England.

I was a vegetarian for four years. In college, I studied the major issues with industrial farming. I support ethical and humane practices for raising animals for food and buy local meat or hunt my own. If you’re a human on this planet and you eat, which is required for survival, then you consume life for your own needs. Even if you don’t eat meat, our food systems have casualties along the way such as ground nesting birds, rodents, snakes, insects and plants life. Good stewardship is how we stay responsible and accountable for our use of esources.

One of my favorite authors is George Bird Evans. There’s a segment in his book “An Affair with Grouse” that describes what it means to love these birds and how someone who loves them can still hunt them. It’s eloquently put and far more articulate than my own words.

“How then can you love a bird and kill it and still feel decent? I think the answer is, to be worthy of your game.”

I agree with this sentiment wholeheartedly, and furthermore believe the modern grouse hunter and bird dog enthusiast has even more work to do to be worthy of their game. What I mean by this is that there are those who would like to see us lose these traditions—training dogs, hunting birds, and keeping these gundog breeds working. I’ve always felt the only logical response is to get involved in conservation groups to ensure these birds are around for a long, long time—not just for our purposes, but for the birds themselves and their right to exist, for the preservation of gundog breeds, and for practices such as trapping and shooting sports.

There are times when I feel my efforts are just a drop in the bucket. This winter, the temperature dropped near 0°F several times, and I needed to keep the kitchen sink dripping. Not wanting to waste the water, I put a container underneath to save it for the dog’s water bowls. I was shocked in the morning to find that what I thought was a large container had completely overflowed.

The reality is that I am just one drop in the bucket. To you, dear reader, please know that each of you is another drop. We don’t get a full bucket with one drop—or even several drops. It takes a village, as they say.

The birds. The dog breeds. The wild places. The clubs and organizations. Let’s work together to leave all of these things better than we found them—and in turn, our involvement will certainly better us for it. That is the meaning of good stewardship.