Wildlife managers, and particularly those involved in managing wildlife on private lands, must be much more than just wildlife managers. They must be able to incorporate wildlife programs into existing land uses that are both economically and traditionally more important to the landowner than wildlife. While our profession has been preaching multiple-use management, I find most wildlife managers incapable of actually developing such programs, due primarily to their lack of understanding of other land uses and management. For this reason, landowners are mostly unwilling listeners to their wildlife management programs. Secondly, we lack credibility as on-the- ground managers, since most of our efforts are still directed to law enforcement, planning and research. As pressures increase to use our private open-space lands more intensively, it is a must that wildlife managers become multiple-use managers and get more involved. If we don't, wildlife resources will continue to take a back seat and suffer accordingly.
|
