On Tuesday, Jan. 25, several hundred and perhaps more sportsmen will be in the "Well" of the Legislative Office Building in Albany for the nd Annual Sportsmen & Outdoor Recreation Legislative Awareness Day. The event is the result of Minority Leader Brian Kolb and the Assembly Minority Conference’s idea to allow hunters, fishermen, trappers, snowmobilers, ATV devotees and others to gather at the State Capitol to showcase their products, lobby their legislators and network with like-minded New Yorkers.. Last year’s event attracted about 3,000 participants.
The event has largely replaced the old Sportsmen March on Albany, sponsored by the NYS Conservation Council, which had enjoyed only modest success as a lobbying tool. Historically, the biggest lobbying hurdle facing the state’s sportsmen has been funding and solid organizational structuring. When you talk lobbying in Albany, you’re talking about busing in thousands of well prepared (and often paid) lobbyists that know how to work the attending media for maximum benefit. Unfortunately for sportsmen, these are often the anti hunting and anti gun ownership supporters, many hailing from far downstate and even out of state.
So the real question is: how effective are sportsmen lobbying efforts in gaining any legislators’ attention and support? If past history is any indication, not very. Yes, many elected officials may give lip service to agreeing with sportsmen’s concerns, but come tomorrow, most will probably be forgotten. After all, if you’re a downstate politician, representing thousands of urban-minded voters, you’d best be careful about rubbing shoulders with those plaid-shirted, gun-toting upstate sportsmen.
Given the fiscal state of the State, and especially the NYSDEC, I can only suspect that any complaints about program and personnel cuts that negatively affect fish, wildlife and other conservation themes that are near and dear to sportsmen will be met with a very simple response – show us the money. This was the stock-and-trade answer given two years ago that led to across the board license fee hikes that were designed to keep DEC programs operating. Of course we know how that worked out, and now we’re dead broke again, according to our state bean counters.
The frustration felt by sportsmen is very understandable, given that, as a group, they pour more than $2 billion annually into New York State, but have little or no say about how their money is used. Most never write or contact their elected officials to demand accountability, but rather hope “someone else” is guarding the store on their behalf. So having their day in Albany seems like a wonderful opportunity to make up ground. Obviously, it has proven rather ineffective if the current direction of the DEC is an indication.
Even the upstate politicians that are sympathetic to sportsmen are historically outmanned by the larger contingency of those from downstate, whose interests evolve around far different issues. Even the creation of a mandatory salt water fishing license that matched that needed to fresh water fish was aborted, showing just how much political muscle exists south of Westchester County.
One may only imagine that, given a stronger lobbying machine, politicians might be more receptive to sportsmen’s issues and concerns, but even that may be misled thinking, given the current demographics of our state, where rural political power has been largely replaced by urban power. The primary bargaining agents held in our rural areas these days are supplying food and water to those in urban areas, who seldom question how fresh water comes out of their faucet or where the food at the store comes from, so how can they relate to the rural resident who puts his own food in the freezer via fish and game resources or farming?
It’s this widening gap in understanding one lifestyle versus another that keeps chipping away at sportsmen’s ability to be heard in Albany or to be taken very seriously by politicians that hail from places like Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx or the Hamptons.
The largest anti hunting organizations are prone to referring to sportsmen (hunters, anglers and trappers) as “the dying generation,” and to some extent, they’re right. With each generation, the percentage who become sportsmen gets a bit smaller, and don’t think that politicians don’t know that. So far, sportsmen’s best ally has been agriculture since farmers and ranchers understand the value of managing crop-damaging overabundant wildlife, something sportsmen have readily paid to do. Only when taxpayers are forced to ante up what’s necessary to keep wildlife populations in check will the focus on the importance of sportsmen become clearer. But that might take decades to occur.
Sportsmen that still believe that their right to legally hunt, fish or trap is guaranteed may as well also believe there’s a Tooth Fairy. That could disappear in a heartbeat if or when ownership of guns, bows, traps, fish hooks and hunting dogs become illegal. Certainly there’s a strong heritage case for hunting, fishing and trapping in our state, but that heritage weakens with each new generation.
And despite the seemingly large number of licensed sportsmen and women in the state, their percentage of our overall population doesn’t bode well in the long term for lobbying efforts to try and keep the status quo in programs that were once considered solidly entrenched within the DEC.