9-5 SS Boone & Crockett

Fascinating discussion with Keith Balfourd of the Boone and Crockett Club: "The Boone and Crockett Club is the oldest hunter conservation organization in North America. This is our 125th anniversary this year. We were founded by Theodore Roosevelt in 1887. The purpose of Roosevelt founding the club was to put a stop to the exploitation of wildlife in North America. That quickly led to a series of actions over the first 50 years of the club that essentially establish what we know now as the North American model of wildlife conservation. What does putting a stop to the exploitation of wildlife mean? If you can think back to that time, late 1800s, early 1900s, we had already lost some species of wildlife, passenger pigeon, health hen, Merriman's elk, Audubon sheep to extinction. Back in that time, wildlife was viewed as an inexhaustible supply. Market hunting was very much a career for people, most folks know the story of the American bison and how we had burned through millions of these animals down to a few hundred. That same thing was happening to our deer, to our elk, to our sheep, to our antelope. At that time there were no hunting seasons, game laws, bag limits."