by Graham Averill

These are tough days for environmentalists. Key legislation like the Clean Air Act is under attack from the current administration, funding is being cut for land acquisition programs, coal companies are enjoying a free for all in the Appalachians, and logging companies are getting paid to cut trees on public land. It’s no wonder environmentalists have started carrying guns.

Okay, environmentalists aren’t packing heat, but they have begun reaching out to the gun-toting population. “We’ve made a real effort to form a partnership with the hunting community,” says Karen Foerstel of The Nature Conservancy. “It’s a new strategy that a lot of environmentalists are using. Hunters are a critical constituency for us.”

The new hunter-friendly strategy marks a significant shift in the environmental movement’s dynamics. Members of the two groups have often found themselves on the opposite ends of the political spectrum, hunters traditionally leaning toward the Right, environmentalists to the Left. Some environmental groups are blatantly anti-hunting, while others are deliberately vague about their hunting position. And hunters, for the most part, have traditionally denied any ties to the environmental movement. Many hunting organizations that actively lobby on behalf of the environment even refuse to refer to themselves as “environmentalists.” They’re “conservationists,” and they insist there’s a difference.

But in the last several years those differences have slowly been set aside. The Nature Conservancy bends over backwards to open their protected properties to hunters. The Sierra Club has instituted a Hunter and Angler Outreach Program. And The Wilderness Society has formed successful partnerships with hunting organizations across the United States.

“We may not have a position on hunting,” says Ben Beach of The Wilderness Society, “but hunters can strengthen our hand in a lot of issues, so we seek coalitions with them whenever it’s appropriate.”

These coalitions make sense, adds Foerstel. “We’re both fighting negative development and protecting native habitats. It’s a natural fit.”

It’s more than just a natural fit, according to Chris Camuto, a long time environmentalist, hunter, and author of several naturalist books. It’s a power marriage. “It’s completely political. Environmentalists need sportsmen. You get a lot of bang for your buck with sportsmen groups. Hunters are very influential in congress. The numbers may not be there, but the dollars and power are there.”

Take Ducks Unlimited (DU), which is arguably the most successful environmental group in America, and it’s not even an environmental group. It’s primarily a hunting group. DU, which is comprised almost entirely of waterfowl hunters, has conserved or restored more than 11 million acres of wetlands in North America. And their strongest ally in wetland restoration is the Bush Administration.

President Bush’s 2005 budget called for a substantial funding increase for key wetland conservation programs; $4 billion in total. This is the same budget that eliminated most of the funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the cornerstone of forest protection. While most environmental groups fight the federal government to save their land protection acts, DU uses the government to fund their protection.

In 2001, the Supreme Court proposed to weaken the Clean Water Act, limiting protection of certain wetlands, which prompted DU’s president to have a sit down with President Bush at the White House. Shortly after the meeting, the Bush Administration announced the Supreme Court decision would not lower protection for America’s wetlands and promised to increase funding for key wetland programs.

Even though hunters represent only 5 percent of the American public (as opposed to the 71 percent who participate in outdoor recreation) they have a relationship with the government that no environmental or recreation lobby has been able to procure. This relationship was never more obvious than in the 2004 presidential race, when both Kerry and Bush showed up on the campaign trail sporting camouflage jackets and rifles. No one ever saw either of the candidates stopping to take water samples of a polluted river during the election.

The good news for environmentalists is that hunters finally realize they need stronger environmental protection. As our forests and streams continue to be plundered, hunters have fallen back on the conservation ethic that once defined their culture in the days of Teddy Roosevelt.

“More and more, hunters are concerned about the fate of the land. They see the handwriting on the wall,” Camuto says. “The truth is in the landscape. You can just walk into the woods and see that something needs to be done.”