I was walking to the post office today to post some of our patches and as it was a pleasantly mild sunny day I decided to take a detour along a part of the foreshore where I’ve been wild-fowling a few times. I haven’t been this year so thought it would be good to take a look and see what is going on.
The walk down was greeted with litter here and there but when I got to the actual foreshore it really hit me just how careless some people are and the damage we are doing to our environment and resources.
the place was covered in waste which mostly concentrated at the high tide mark was really everywhere. Glass bottles, plastic bottles, cans, generic bits of plastic, empty 1 gallon oil containers, silicon tubes, aerosols etc. the list goes on. Whilst I suppose glass is fairly inert and does little damage whilst in one piece. The fact there are chemicals still getting into our rivers is concerning.
There is also evidence of campfires where people set up camp then leave it strewn with their “empties”
I’ve always had concerns about litter and the selfish disregard some people have for their towns and countryside. However it is since becoming more involved with shooting and hunting that I’ve really come to realise how valuable our resources are and we must do all we can to protect them.
I’m sure many people will walk down there and think “this is a sh*tehole” but how many actually think about the deeper consequences? How many will take ownership and try to do something?
Many people will walk down here and see that wildlife still survives OK as evidenced by the Gulls, Ducks and Oyster catchers (with chicks) but as hunters perhaps we think further? I think that are these chemicals/waste products getting into something we may potentially eat? How many animals are being affected by this rubbish?
This brings me on to my main point and something that people like the Scottish Association for Country Sports and the Pace Brothers have covered often and which has made me realise “Hunters are the greatest conservationists” as is seen all across Africa where well managed game reserves and hunts run to best practice have good levels of animals that are endangered elsewhere and closer to home you often see in the BASC magazine where local wild-fowling associations have organised days where their members clean up the estuary or foreshore where they shoot. Hunters protecting their resources because we recognise the value of our them and just how important they are.
It’s easy for people to criticise hunting and hunters but these people aren’t on the front line as it were. They don’t work directly with their resources they don’t really care or rely on them the way hunters might. There are many people who will see hunting as blood lust but I can tell you I don’t believe for one minute they have the same care or drive to protect our earth as most hunters, we all have a connection with nature that many of those opposed to hunting have forgotten. Indeed it seems many would rather see hunting banned and animals go extinct than support the vital work hunters do across the globe. Virtue signalling caused by ignorance and propaganda so therefore it is vital we all share the podcasts and articles from the shooting community to those outside it so they too realise the benefits of hunting and the desire we have to protect our environment.
10 years ago I might have walked down there without giving it any other thought than “it’s a shi*tehole down here” now I think of the greater consequences of how it is affecting our resources, our environment and the wildlife within.
So what am I going to do about it? Well today as I had only a small backpack I took a few trips to a nearby bottle bank and perhaps got rid of 20 or 30 glass bottles, not much but I thought I’m not going to “virtue signal” myself i’m going to try and do something.
In the long term I will need to write to the local councilor for the area and see if we can work something out with us, local residents and the bird charity that has a reserve in the area moving forward, working together and having a clean up of what could be a very beautiful and scenic area.
If you want to have a listen to some of the Pace brothers pod casts please follow the link bellow
https://www.thepacebrothers.com/huntingblog/category/Conservation
