Conclusion

On this page, our group members will share their personal takeaways along with questions that were raised during their investigations.

                                                                                                                          ~JB

Amanda Adams - After thoroughly researching the topic of moose hunting in Vermont, I have come to some conclusions. First, a culture surrounds moose hunting. Even with the small amount of permits issued each year, thousands of people pay to enter the lottery in the hopes of winning. There are people that will come from far and near to check stations to see moose kills of the year. In some busy stations like St. Johnsbury, there is a festive atmosphere with food, music and people. It is a big deal to win a permit and successfully hunt a moose. If a person wins and kills a moose, they cherish the meat that fills their freezer and share it with neighbors and friends. Second, the sales of lottery entries, moose permits, and auctioned moose permits, raise funds that the VT Fish & Wildlife Department desperately need. The auctioned permits alone generate around $20,000 that goes directly to hunter and conservation education. Third, moose hunting is a form of population management. If there are too many moose per square mile, they will over browse and cause habitat degradation. State biologists will use these population densities to decide how many moose permits to issue. The future of hunting moose and just the presence of moose in Vermont are in jeopardy. Climate change is pushing the deer and tick range further north. They now overlap with moose and are causing health problems in moose. The warmer weather is also having a negative impact on their population. Moose may continue to move north and even out of Vermont entirely. If climate change continues, moose may be wiped out of Vermont's landscape again. 

Levi Brown - Throughout my investigation, I continually challenged myself to remain unbiased. When looking at the portrayal of hunting, I learned about the media that typically shows incorrect views and puts hunting a bad light. I looked into video games that make hunting look like a tool used primarily for eradication. The news groups hunting in with gun control, which is a battle that will be fought for years to come. Television can also be detrimental, making it seem like the practice is easy and is most always successful. Lastly, I got into the mind of my uncle and learned a good deal behind the social implications of hunting that affect its ethical implications.

My investigation into this topic will not stop with this blog. This summer, I will be working for the Green Mountain Conservation Camps as a natural resource instructor. I will be teaching teenagers how to portray themselves as ethical hunters and hopefully show them that by becoming role models, they can have a positive effect on the whole practice. I hope that I can teach them a few things, but I know that I will also learn from them.

Julienna Brooks - This project has further cemented my ideals on the power of promoting traditional outdoor activities in order to instill environmental ethics in the next generation. While I do see safety as a major concern when hunting, I also believe that it can be a safe activity. The challenge is ensuring that students have the necessary support base to encourage an ethical and safe approach. One challenge in this that has become apparent to me throughout my research, is the negative portrayal of hunting and of firearm safety through media, specifically television and video games. I see this as being one of the major concerns going forward in hunter education, and a challenge the necessitates consideration in design of youth hunter education curriculum. 
         I have developed throughout this project a deeper sense of meaning of hunting, but also the need for specific programming geared towards promoting ethics and safety. What has alarmed me throughout my research, is the shifting paradigm in which hunting, which generally promotes respect, has become taboo, but the use of violent television shows and videos games have increased. What has been encouraging is the fact that those who continue fostering hunting ethics in young people promote that hunting is about more than the prize. It is about relationships with people, animals, and the natural world. 

Emily Peterson - This project has really helped to change my perspective on hunting.  What I once thought of as a cruel and unnecessary practice now seems altogether more humane and warranted than ever before.  I used be completely against all forms of hunting, but after delving into this project and seeing the work of my fellow group members, I see the merits of hunting as an educational tool, for conservation, and for sustenance.  Nonetheless, I am still completely against trophy and sport hunting.  I really enjoyed getting to speak with and read about people with perspectives different than my own.  After growing up in a suburban area that did not have a strong hunt culture, it has been interesting getting exposed to many aspects of hunting, both through this project and my experiences at UVM.  Though my perspectives have shifted significantly, I'm remain hesitant to take up hunting myself.
     Though this project is coming to a close, I am still interested in learning more about the culture of subsistence hunting, especially here in Vermont.  I came across some references to gathering in my research in addition to hunting for consumption, and I would like to look further into how the practices of subsistence hunting and gathering are related.  It would be especially enriching if we were able to survey the entire student body of UVM to determine who among us are hunters.

Emily Sack - This entire semester taught me how to work in groups. I’ve decided that this semester’s name is “The Semester of the Group Projects!” Working on this blog with five other people in addition to being a part of three other group projects helps teach you important skills, mostly how to organize group meetings. All of my projects were interesting and I learned something different from each one.

Our blog on hunting ethics was the most enlightening and educational of the projects because it allowed me to focus on a subject that I’m very interested in and research practically anything I wanted to write about. My subtopic was Trophy and Canned Hunting and I enjoyed doing all the research because it was actually a topic that I was interested in. I focused more on the effects of trophy and canned hunting in other parts of the world, specifically South Africa, but I also found out that a large number of people from the United States travel to Africa to hunt exotic animals. But when they go on these hunts, they usually have the animal confined within a small area in order to make it easier to kill the animals. During my research I found a lot of evidence that puts some hunters in a very bad light. I would like to learn more about this topic and perhaps in the future have a career that works to create better laws against trophy and canned hunting.

Kristina Westgaard - Throughout the phases of creating and researching for this blog, I have learned an incredible amount more about hunting and the ethics involved. I have gone through many phases in my life, taking a number of stances on the practice of hunting, but now I believe that I have the knowledge and perspectives to make an informed decision. As an elementary and middle schooler, I couldn't fathom the fact that people killed animals on purpose for any reason. I was the girl who pushed and yelled at other kids who stepped on ants on purpose. In high school, my views changed slightly. I was still an advocate for animal rights, but I began to see hunting from the perspective of the ecosystem. I still didn't really see the value in it, as I didn't have the knowledge to help me understand that it is a beneficial practice for both the deer as a population, the ecosystem in which they reside, and the people nearby. When I came to college and began to see hunting from a wildlife biology and management perspective, I figured out the meaning behind the killing. I have family members and friends who hunt, and I am very interested in their perspectives on the practice. I still don't know if I could ever actually pull the trigger while looking at an animal, but this project has helped me to see the different perspectives and benefits of the practice of hunting.