11-4 SS Idaho Tops

The importance of The Boone and Crockett scoring system hits home. In last week's Idaho Statesman, I read the following from Roger Phillips: Idaho still produces enough trophy big game animals to rank among the top 25 North American states and provinces between 2010 and 2012, according to a new book from the Boone and Crockett Club. A total of 4,921 big-game trophies were accepted into Boone and Crockett Club records between 2010-2012, the club reported. Idaho accounted for 64 of those animals. 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 hundred and 25th 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. When I hear Boone and Crockett I think of the scoring system immediately. How did that come to be? That came to be as an extension of the vision of Pres. Roosevelt to recover these wildlife populations. He felt that if their recovery was going to take place, then there needed to be some sort of data collection, some data set that could be used to track recovery, to show that these types of conservation efforts were working, show that wildlife management was working, and so he and early club members developed this record-keeping system of collecting data on native North American, big game species.