Here is a story that is worth a local look. A few calls to your state wildlife and revenue departments should put you on the right track. Don't forget to talk with retailers, hotels, sportsmen lodges, guides and stores that sell and service all-terrain vehicles.
The Associated Press reports:New figures from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service show that the
number of hunters 16 and older declined by 10 percent between 1996 and
2006 -- from 14 million to about 12.5 million. The drop was most acute
in New England, the Rocky Mountains, and the Pacific states, which lost
400,000 hunters in that span.
The primary reasons, experts say,
are the loss of hunting land to urbanization plus a perception by many
families that they can't afford the time or costs that hunting entails.
Take a state by state look [PDF] at the federal data here.
There is more to the story. Hunting and fishing licenses provide much of the money that pays for state-sponsored wildlife preservation nationwide. Fishing is not as popular as it used to be, either.
The AP story says:
... The number of Americans who fish also has
dropped sharply -- down 15 percent, from 35.2 million in 1996 to 30
million in 2006, according to the latest version of a national survey
that the Fish and Wildlife Service conducts every five years.
Of
the 50 state wildlife agencies, most rely on hunting and fishing
license fees for the bulk of their revenue, and only a handful receive
significant infusions from their state's general fund.
"They're
trying to take care of all wildlife and all habitats on a shoestring
budget," said Rachel Brittin of the Washington-based Association of
Fish and Wildlife Agencies.
Indeed, hunting remains vibrant in many rural states -- 19 percent of
residents 16 and older hunted last year in Montana and 17 percent in
North Dakota, compared with 1 percent in California, Connecticut,
Massachusetts and New Jersey. Nationally, 5 percent of the 16-and-over
population hunted in 2006, down from 7 percent in 1996.
The same federal survey
that showed a decline in hunting showed an increase in activities such
as bird watching and wildlife photography. The federal survey said that
from 2001 to 2006, expenditures for wildlife-watching equipment (cameras, binoculars, etc.) increased by 20 percent, while wildlife-watching trips increased by 40 percent.
A couple of years ago I was teaching at a television station in Grand Rapids, Mich., on the first Saturday of deer-hunting season. The Friday night before the season open, the interstate was packed with hunters heading to the countryside -- vehicle after vehicle towing ATVs. When I flew to Fargo, N.D., one fall day last year, the plane was packed with pheasant hunters on their way to South Dakota to spend a week hunting. Make no mistake about how big this issue of declining hunting could be.
How KHOU-TV Got the Coretta King Files
My friend David Raziq, KHOU-TV (Houston) investigative producer who recently taught as visiting faculty with me at Poynter, just landed a huge story about the contents of the FBI's secret files of Coretta Scott King. The files showed that even after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed, the FBI stepped up its surveillance of Mrs. King.
Read the story and see the documents here. I interviewed Raziq by e-mail about the investigation:
Why did you, a reporter for a local TV station in Houston, go after the King files?
Well, first, given the way the news business is changing with the Internet as a delivery platform, I think the term 'local' station is becoming less meaningful. Plus, historically the investigative unit at KHOU has never been 'shy' about going after national and large stories as long as they were also relevant to our area. Finally, I personally have been very interested in the history of intelligence-gathering in the U.S. and how it has interacted with the other parts of our government and culture.
So, consequently, I was very aware of the FBI's dissident counter-intelligence program called COINTELPRO and how it had been used against Martin Luther King Jr. and other activists. In short, I knew and my unit knew from talks we had had that MLK had an FBI file that ended up being very revealing about the FBI of that era. So as myself, Mark Greenblatt, and Chris Henao were watching the funeral of Coretta Scott King in January 2006, and I was talking about the campaign against her husband and what his file revealed, it was an easy leap for all of us to wonder if they had surveilled Coretta and if there was a file. So right there and then we started drafting a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to the FBI.
What kind of FOIA request did you file? What were the barriers to getting the information?
It was nothing special, just a standard federal FOIA. The biggest barrier to us receiving the file was that we had applied for it so early. The government was just beginning the de-classification review process, which passes through a number of hands and is thorough. So we just kept calling the bureau and checking on the status of our request, and finally after a year-and-a-half, the file was ready and we had it overnighted to us.
What surprised you the most about what you found in the files?
There were two things -- one surprising and one shocking, even though it's known that COINTELPRO did far worse things during that time. The first was that the file indicated that after MLK died, the spying on his widow seemed to increase a great deal. That was surprising, but in a way logical, since there was concern that she might start carrying on her husband's work and his talk of uniting the civil rights movement with the anti-war movement.
The second discovery that sort of left us feeling 'ill' was the report that Ralph Abernathy, MLK's best friend (and, after the assassination, the new leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference), was unsure of himself and afraid he might be assassinated. So this FBI report from the Atlanta office suggested that they conduct psychological warfare against him by making sure Abernathy always knew of any death threats the FBI learned about as a way to destabilize him and the movement and perhaps "turn him" toward the FBI. That was very disturbing to actually read.
What other FBI files do you wish you could get your hands on?
I think what will be most interesting is when the files that are still classified or sealed regarding MLK and John F. Kennedy start getting released in 2027 and thereafter. It's a shame we have to wait so long.
Facebook/MySpace Stalking
MSNBC turned in an interesting story about how couples spy on each other using social networking sites.
A Popular Housing SolutionBusinesses in some parts of the country are losing employees who can't afford to live in the community any longer. At the same time, there are others who can't afford to move in. So it makes sense that the concept of employer-assisted housing (EAH) is so interesting.
The St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times reports:
Sound revolutionary? Perhaps. But workers are leaving for cheaper pastures. Some employers are embracing the EAH idea:
-Pinellas County gives interest-free loans for down payments to
qualifying firefighters, paramedics, pharmacy techs and other workers.
It has a similar, forgivable loan program for teachers.
-Two
hospitals go farther: Baptist Health South Florida plans to snap up
discounted condos or build apartments on land it owns to create
affordable rental units for workers. And Morton Plant Mease is
reserving seven units of a new Dunedin townhome development for
hospital staffers who meet certain income provisions.
"They get
to know that they have a place where their employees can live," said
Frank Bowman, the county's housing development manager, referring to
the hospital. "It stabilizes their work force.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's
Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story
excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as
original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly
from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided
whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends on the
accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and
inaccuracies found will be corrected.
