Our chapter dinner meetings are a great way to get together with people that like to talk about hunting, without having to worry that you are going to offend someone. It is a real breath of fresh air to just be able to have a pleasant talk about hunting. You don’t have to be a world traveler to join SCI. I am primarily a pheasant hunter, but I joined just to get together with other hunters. If you know someone that hunts, but is not a member yet, invite them to one of the dinners. You may be doing them a favor and helping the chapter at the same time.
One way to go hunting is to join us at the Golden Gate Chapter annual chucker shoot at Birds Landing on Saturday, November 5th. There will be plenty of members with bird dogs, so come on out even if you don’t have a bird dog. We separate the people with flushing dogs from those with pointing dogs so everyone gets to hunt in their own style.
Our chapter raises money at our annual Fundraiser so that we can donate the money to conservation, education, and humanitarian purposes. This Fundraiser auctions off about 40 hunts every year. These hunts have been vetted by other Chapter members, so you know that you are getting a reputable outfitter. Our Fundraiser is one event that you don’t want to miss.
One of the benefactors of our fundraising covers both conservation and education. We have made another substantial grant to the University of California specifically to study big game in California. It is gratifying to support a group that really believes in scientific game management. We had a fascinating presentation of some of their research at one of our meetings this year. It showed how ranchers can have a significant and stable source of income by managing their property for hunting. This is especially remarkable at such a left leaning university. This is truly conservation in action.
Most of our donations are going to youth shooting activities. We are sponsoring three high school trap teams in our area. It is fantastic that we have three high school trap teams in our area with this political climate. We are also sponsoring a Boy Scout shooting sport weekend and the Bird’s Landing Clays for Kids sporting clays event. We know that our youth are the future of our sport, so we are doing what we can to support them.
One of the things that makes California great is that people of all different walks of life can live together. Not everyone hunts, but we respect the right of our fellow Californians to do so. Hunting and fishing license fees help protect and provide access to the land that Californians use for hiking and other outdoor activities and help keep animal populations healthy. Trophy hunting (without harvesting the meat) is illegal and violators are subject to heavy fines and criminal charges. Hunting contributes $3 billion to the California economy each year and supports 27,000 jobs. Further restrictions would have dire consequences for small-business owners, the tourism industry and regular taxpayers. Even if you don’t hunt, hunting is important to our public lands, our wildlife and our California way of life.
