Boone & Crockett

[MHMT]

I’m sure plenty of you know this, but I thought I’d share it anyway.

Until recently I didn’t realize how much influence the Boone and Crockett Club, and it’s members had to do with conservation in North America. Theodore Roosevelt and Aldo Leopold are two of the guys who I have learned plenty about as conservationists, both were B&C members. I have heard B&C mentioned only a little bit in the four years of taking fish & wildlife classes, but until the presentation I just heard from Fred King, did I really learn how much they did for wildlife conservation.

B&C Club and members were the driving force behind the North American Model of conservation and were responsible for helping to bring back many species from the verge of extinction. They were key in helping to develop the National Forest System, Yellowstone National Park, the passing of the Lacey Act, along with plenty of other conservation programs.

I definitely appreciate what they have done and what many are doing now to conserve our wildlife. I hope that I too, can jump in the ring and help protect what we have. I owe a big thanks to many of you on this site that are doing this now, especially after last years legislative session.

Fred went on to explain how the records are not just a big book of dead animals for bragging over, but a success story in conservation, showing that the right habitat and management has allowed for these trophies to be taken.

While I still like looking at big trophies and trying to kill the biggest critters each year, it is good to take a step back and look at what it took to make that possible.

Fred made sure to emphasize this part of his intro into the B&C measurer’s manual.

If trophy owners, Measures, and others who read and use this manual forget about the habitat needs of all wildlife, then the scoring systems that has been developed for measuring trophies becomes nothing more than a black and white accumulation of meaningless numbers.
There is more to a trophy animal than just the size of the antlers, horns, or body. To a hunter, a large part of the quality of any trophy does not necessarily show up in the final mathematical score. This unmeasured quality of the hunting season in the habitat and space that produced the animal.

 

[Ben Lamb]

B&C is one of the more powerful players in Congress when it comes to our issues. They don't crow about it and they don't feel the need to be big dicks swinging, but they get stuff done.

They were instrumental in getting wolves delisted.

From WIkipedia:

Key members of the club have included Theodore Roosevelt, George Bird Grinnell, Madison Grant, Charles Alexander Sheldon, William Tecumseh Sherman, Gifford Pinchot, Frederick Russell Burnham, E.D. Riekens, Jr., Charles Deering and Aldo Leopold.[2] Today the club is known largely for maintaining a (scoring) and data collection system and by which native North American big game animals may be objectively measured and tracked as a gauge of successful wildlife policies and management.

That's some fine company to keep. B&C is a great group.

 

[Hawkeye]

B&C is a fine group. I've had the pleasure of being around the organization quite a bit as my uncle was the president from 2003-2005. Ben Lamb is right on the money, they get stuff done

 

[Big Fin]

A great group. Been a lifetime associate for quite a few years and happy to see the work they do.

 

[6speed]

They get my dues every year.