The North American Model of Wildlife Conservation

Transcript for Jim Shockey - North American Model

Hi. I’m Jim Shockey, host of Uncharted and Jim Shockey’s Hunting Adventures. Whether you’re a hunter or angler, a hiker or birdwatcher, we all have a love for wildlife. But not many people know that wildlife in this country is managed by a system called the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation.

It was born largely from hunters and anglers who realized our fish and wildlife resources needed to be conserved so that they can be enjoyed by future generations. Two of its tenets are that wildlife is held in the public trust and that science is the basis for wildlife management.

Here in Arizona, the professional biologists and law enforcement officers of the Arizona Game and Fish Department are the experts who manage wildlife. Their efforts help conserve and protect not just those few game species that can be legally hunted and fished but all 800 species in Arizona.

Transcript for AFWA & North America's Wildlife Conservation Legacy

Becky Humphries, Chief Conservation Officer, National Wild Turkey Federation: Well, I have many moments in my childhood.

Speaker: Every moment of our lives is a chance to understand what matters.

Becky Humphries: I had a childhood where I spent a tremendous amount of time in the outdoors.

Speaker: And these are moments that matter.

Carter Smith, Executive Director, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department: I remember when I was a kid, probably eight or nine, and my dad took me on my first deer hunt.

Becky Humphries: We lived up around five different lakes. So, I spent every day during the summer down on the lake fishing.

Speaker: There are moments we’ll always remember.

Carter Smith: And I remember sitting there, and this bobcat came out in this and there, and it was just magical. And I’ve been hooked ever since.

Speaker: There are memories in the making.

Becky Humphries: Being able to hunt my first birds.

Speaker: Stories we’ll share with friends and pass down to our children of family fun, outdoor adventure, and amazing places with abundant wildlife.

Becky Humphries: I have so many of those moments. It’s really what helped shape me as a person.

Speaker: Those moments are made possible by moments like these.

Every day all across North America, state wildlife agencies are leading heroic efforts—to restore endangered species, repair critical habitat, and maintain our nation’s natural abundance of fish and wildlife for generations to come.

Carter Smith: States really are the cornerstone for fish and wildlife conservation across our country, really always have been. They’re the laboratories of innovation. States are the champions of America’s fish and wildlife. We’re the voice, we’re the ambassador, the caretakers, and stewards of this extraordinary assemblage of fish and wildlife and outdoor recreation that we’ve inherited and that we want to pass on to future generations.

Speaker: The leaders of those state agencies and their federal and private partners in conservation must realize they stand on the shoulders of giants—giants of conservation and American democracy who made the most of their moments on Earth. Those fathers of this great nation who designed a government that gets its power from the people and those founders of a system of conservation that we call the North American Model.

Lowell E. Baier, President Emeritus, Boone and Crockett Club; National Fish and Wildlife Conservationist of the Year, 2008: The North American Model grew out of the concept of democracy—people own the wildlife, and therefore, it is their responsibility to manage the wildlife scientifically, not politically.

Speaker: It’s a system that recognizes wildlife as a natural resource belonging not to the government or the crown but to the people who are its rightful owners.

Becky Humphries: As we built the country and we did find that the authorities between the federal government and the states under the public trust doctrine that the wildlife became under the state authority.

Speaker: Public trust doctrine gives states the privilege and the responsibility to hold wildlife in trust for the people.

Lowell E. Baier: It is fundamental to the Democratic Federalist principles that the states manage the wildlife for the people. That is a product and a function of this great democracy that was established here, right here, 200 years ago.

Speaker: Of course, most people have never heard of the North American Model or how it evolved over the last century. They’re not aware of the Pittman–Robertson Act or other mechanisms of sportsmen-funded conservation. Few Americans would recognize the names of conservation trailblazers Gifford Pinchot and George Bird Grinnell, and those who do speak of Theodore Roosevelt and Aldo Leopold likely know only the trimmings of their contributions to the most successful conservation system the world has ever known.

Female Speaker 1: Look at all of them out there. It’s amazing.

Speaker: But people do appreciate wildlife, and as heirs to North America's wildlife legacy, they’re fortunate to have conservation leaders who understand their critical role in the world today.

Carter Smith: These jobs are an extraordinary privilege. There’s no doubt about that. That’s absolutely undeniable. But these jobs are not about being a director. They’re really about being a steward. They’re about being a champion and an enabler for this extraordinary group of professionals that are biologists, and technicians, and game wardens, and communication specialists, and outdoor recreation professionals, and helping to inspire them to do more for our home ground.

Larry Voyles, Director, Arizona Game & Fish Department: Well, you know it cuts both ways. Because the brilliant work they do, the incredible entrepreneurship that they employ, the opportunities they seek, the risks they take—it's just amazing. When you have people like that that are working for you but really doing the work that you dreamed about your whole life, if you can't be inspired by that, you really need to wake up and ask yourself, what's life all about? I'm also proud of a system that has restored wildlife across our nation through the 20th century at a level that nobody ever dreamed possible.

Speaker: For more than 100 years, state wildlife agencies have had a huge role in transforming this continent from one that exploited and exhausted its precious natural resources to one that’s blessed with a wealth of wildlife thanks to sustainable science-based management and conservation.

Larry Voyles: And I don’t think anybody does it better than Arizona Game & Fish. We’ve kept the most successful black-footed ferret restoration effort of all the efforts in the country here in Arizona. Desert nesting bald eagle—there were those that predicted calamity with this de-listing. The calamity hasn’t happened. The populations continue to grow. We have more nest sites being found every year.

When you try to describe the achievements of Arizona Game & Fish, it becomes an almost impossible task because there are so many diverse accomplishments. Sonoran pronghorn—it’s been an amazing success story, and it’s a success story driven by the kind of work that comes out of the North American Model coupled with conservation or protected species. It’s doubtful Sonoran pronghorn will ever be hunted. This isn’t about hunting, this is about conservation. And people need to understand those are integrated systems that bring about the successes that we have.

Speaker: Those successes are made possible by our North American Model of Wildlife Conservation. It's built around laws like the Pittman–Robertson Act, which generates billions of dollars a year for conservation from an excise tax on the sale of guns and ammo.

Larry Voyles: If you look back in the 1930s at the advent of the Pittman–Robertson Act, most people thought the enemy of wildlife was the gun. Well, now, hunting has become one of the primary support systems for conservation. Clearly, that “user pays, user benefit” construct, the hunter and angler contribution is essential to having the biodiversity that we have in America today.

One of the least mentioned success stories that is most important to the success of our conservation systems is the success stories of wildlife law enforcement in America.

Female Speaker 2: If they are not currently registered, they get cited.

Speaker: There are only about 630 federal agents devoted to wildlife within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. That pales in comparison to more than 8,000 sworn officers employed by state wildlife agencies.

Larry Voyles: Those 8,000 card-carrying sworn officers are paid for by the North American Model and the “user pays, user benefit” construct. And that major success story for the nation’s conservation of wildlife will be as important in the 21st century as it was in the 20th century.

Speaker: Yet today, conservation is at a crossroads.

Larry Voyles: Huge, huge challenges. Absolutely. And as our society becomes more urban and we’re more split from our connection with nature, there’s enormous challenges from that. Population growth creates enormous challenges. The demands that are placed on our natural resources are greater than they’ve ever been.

Carter Smith: No doubt. There’s a litany of challenges, and they’re big. As I reflect on 20 or 25 years in this profession, the challenges that we confront, they’re bigger, they’re more complex, and really, it scales that are absolutely unprecedented in what we’ve seen in the past. And so that creates enormous challenges for us. It also creates enormous opportunities.

Speaker: Opportunities to draw on the source of past success, so that one-time challenges become a brighter future.

Larry Voyles: There’s opportunities to partner on scales we have not tapped yet. From extractive industries to renewable energy industries to transportation industries—all of those folks could become partners.

Lowell E. Baier: When I look back on the history of wildlife conservation, there are special moments in time that are unique. That are turning points. That 50 or 100 years from now, people will write about. Today, right now, this is one of those moments.

Female Speaker 3: He’s ready to go.

Speaker: Once again, North America is looking for leaders to define a path forward.

Larry Voyles: There’s no question that the Arizona Game & Fish Department is helping carve the way. It starts by doing good conservation work on the ground every day, 24/7. And we do. We’ve done a marvelous job through the 20th century. The job is going to be bigger in the 21st century. There are a lot more species at hand that need to be addressed. But the states are still going to be the players that have the resources on the ground to be that incubator to bring forth the conservation of the future.

Becky Humphries: We have to think about what’s going to need in 100 years? And that's what's probably the biggest challenge and could be the biggest missed opportunity—that we get so focused on the problems of today that we don’t change and anticipate the needs of 100 years from now.

Lowell E. Baier: When times get tough, this is what we’ve got to remember. This is what we’ve got to keep in mind—our future generations. We do it for them—the kids Sammy and Marilyn Joe. These grandkids and all of the kids in our country just like this. Right, kids?

Sammy and Marilyn Joe: Yeah.

Speaker: If our nation’s wildlife legacy is to prevail through the 21st century, our conservation leaders will have to seize the moment.

Carter Smith: Every moment does matter. But I think it’s less about thinking about those moments as a defining moment than thinking about the fact that the work we do is measured in generational scales. We are planting the proverbial tree to have shade for somebody that’s not even born yet. The defining moments in conservation are usually identified after the fact. We always need to be looking forward.

On screen:
Produced by Arizona Game & Fish Department
Video/Photos Courtesy of:
Alaska Department of Fish & Game
Arizona Game & Fish Department
Arkansas Game & Fish Commission
Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission
Georgia Wildlife Resource Division
Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Resource
Missouri Department of Conservation
North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission
South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks Department
Texas Parks & Wildlife Department
Saskatchewan Farmland Moose Project
USFWS National Conservation Training Center
National Park Service
Special Thanks:
Lowell E. Baier, President Emeritus, Boone and Crockett Club; National Fish and Wildlife Conservationist of the Year, 2008
Becky Humphries, Chief Conservation Officer, National Wild Turkey Federation; Former Director, Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Carter Smith, Executive Director, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department
Larry Voyles, Director, Arizona Game & Fish Department; AFWA President, 2014–2015