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Reprint From My Blog in 2007 County Board for Sportsmen
Monday, September 3, 2007
County Board for Sportsmen
I have been thinking about the fact that I love to fish and hunt and how this love of the outdoors could relate to my candidacy for the County Board.
What I have come up with is the point that I will do what ever I can to protect the rights of Sportsmen and Women in this area engage in their love of the outdoors. We live in a special area of the country. With our proximity to two large cities giving our residents the opportunity to earn a good living and at the same time living right next to the Chain O Lakes and very close to Lake Michigan, one of the finest salmon fisheries in the world today. Outdoor sports are a big part of our culture. Organizations like Ducks Unlimited, Pheasants Forever, Wisconsin Waterfowl and many others were started out of the desire of sportsmen and Women to bring back the fowl populations that were so decimated by the 50's and 60's that the sport that so many people loved was almost wiped out. Although these organizations were started so that the hunting could be improved for sportsmen, they have become the Champions of habitat restoration & conservation and are singly responsible for bringing back not only populations of ducks and geese, but countless other species of waterfowl and upland game birds and other birds such as Great Snowy Egrets, Sandhill and Whooping Cranes and Swans. The sight of a flock of Swans flying in formation is a sight that I never experienced until I moved into the Antioch area and the populations of many of these birds are stabilizing and even growing in some areas.
Now I don't intend to give all the credit for the conservation of wildlife to hunters and their organizations, because there are many other fine conservation groups that should be credited with helping these populations, but the point that I want to make is that organizations such as DU have played a big part in bringing these species back from the brink of extinction, and the dollars that are raised from hunting and fishing licenses are a critical part of the conservation and management equation. Because of the dollars spent by sportsmen, many Lake County residents can enjoy wildlife that may not have otherwise been there to enjoy.
A substantial part of the local economy in and around Antioch is dependent on the recreational activities associated with the Chain O Lakes. Dollars from boaters and sportsmen and Women alike support many many businesses here. The Lakes and State parks in this area must be protected for the good of all the residents of the Antioch area for economic, recreational, and aesthetic reasons.
I believe that the heritage of outdoor sports that has been handed down from generation to generation must be protected. If we don't preserve our right to recreation, we will become robots that do nothing but work work work, and that isn't healthy for us as individuals or as a society
Posted by Peter V Grant
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