Landscapes & Letters
Paul McCarney
Monthly Archives: July 2015
Who doesn’t like to nerd out once in a while about archery gear? While by no means an expert, I’ve tried a few different combinations of bows, sights, rests, stabilizers, releases, and arrows over the years, and I can at least comment on what I use now and why I like it. If you are new to archery and bowhunting, check out my Introduction to Archery post for some background information on… Read More
One of my hesitations with social media is the inherent difficulty in using these tools to discuss issues that are located in a large and complex grey area of social opinion and politics. However, increasingly, news websites seem to be showing Twitter responses as part of their coverage, so there’s no denying that these are important platforms for engaging with current issues. This does not mean that we need to simplify our discussions to… Read More
As a follow up to yesterday’s post about the representation of hunters and hunting in media, I thought I’d share this shorter post today. As hunters we are always trying to find more thoughtful and effective ways to articulate what we do, why we do it, and maybe most importantly, what it means to us. It’s a difficult task – words rarely do it justice, photos are sometimes misconstrued, public images can be… Read More
One of the things I frequently discuss with other hunters is the importance of public perceptions of hunting. I imagine that most non-hunters never personally witness or participate in a hunt. They develop a perception of hunting that reflects their perception of hunters. The way we portray ourselves and represent hunting impacts the future of the activity (since hunting is affected by laws that are determined by a largely non-hunting voting public). As… Read More
I’ve had countless philosophical conversations with non-hunting family members about why I hunt. While they’ve always respected these reasons and tried to engage in the conversations, I always questioned just how much I was really getting through. Was I actually creating any deeper sense of understanding on a personal level? At some point, it occurred to me that the old saying may be true, that the way to a person’s heart might… Read More
My identity as a hunter is inseparable from my identity as a conservationist. My understanding of being a conservationist includes everything one associates with the concept of conservation: naturalist, animal lover, environmentalist, manager, activist. Here, I want to articulate how I conceptualize the relationship between my motivation to hunt and my role in conservation. In other words, how can hunting be enacted as land ethic?
Introduction to Blog The idea of this blog is to explore a topic that is controversial to many, and perhaps for the most profound reasons that a topic can be controversial. Eliciting a wide and diverse spectrum of opinions and feelings, hunting is a topic that involves complex ecological, political, cultural, and ethical dimensions. Considered this way, it’s hard to deny that at the very least it is worth earnest and sincere discussion.
Paul McCarney