With the recent opening of Illinois archery deer season and the upcoming opening of firearm season, deer hunting has been in the talks a lot. A lot of people nowadays feel that it is inhumane and that there is no reason to take up that hobby anymore.
I completely disagree, deer hunting brings about lots of good throughout the state and the whole country. Deer hunting alone added more 20.9 billion dollars to the nation’s GDP. Hunters have to buy stamps, permits, tags, and many other things which gives the state and the country an abundance of money to help with wildlife management and other expenses. This sum of money also helps support more than three-hundred thousand jobs throughout the nation from game wardens to people who work in hunting stores.
It also has many positive wildlife effects. Without deer hunters, the deer population in Illinois would be through the roof. Hunters have one of the most positive impacts on populations. The Department of Natural Resources looks at the population of deer and sets how many tags can be bought to prevent the overkilling of deer while still keeping their growth rates in check. A good example of this is at SIU. For a long time, no hunters could come onto SIU ground or their surrounding woods on their campus. Therefore the population of deer on campus skyrocketed. They even had a situation where a student was killed by a buck while walking through campus. Since this they started letting police officers hunt deer on campus which in turn has limited the deer population.
Not only does it have profound economical and environmental impacts, it also lets kids have bonding time with their friends and family and helps people connect themselves with nature.
When I was little, my grandma would take me deer hunting and it created some of my favorite memories from when I was a kid. I asked one of my friends Luca Dimaggio, who is a senior at Carbondale Community High School how he felt about the upcoming deer season because I knew that he had been and his family hunts. He said “Deer season is almost like a holiday for a lot of people in this state, it’s just peaceful to be out in the woods connecting with nature. It also has a lot of positive impact on wildlife.”
He encapsulated how I feel about this activity perfectly. If you’ve never been before, I highly suggest you get some gear and go give it a try, it helps out your state and puts some tasty food in the freezer.
