Deer hunting, a time to reflect.

This past weekend marked the end of A zone deer season. I sat on a hilltop looking down on the narrow deer paths worn into the opposing slopes with my son Steven beside me. Together we watched the sun slide behind the coastal mountains, and talked in low voices about hunting.

I am fortunate that my son is interested in hunting and the love of the outdoors that it inspires. He has all the distraction of these modern days, a Playstation2, CD player, and sports. When he asked to go hunting with my friend Dan and I on the last weekend of the season, I set the alarm for 5:00 and went to bed happy.

I spend many hours a week with my son, on the way home from school, at diner and working on his homework. I cannot think of a more enjoyable three hours I have spent with him this year.

It is something that is hard to describe to non-hunters, especially anti-hunters. When most of urban America thinks about deer hunters, they think about beer-drinking rednecks with machine guns spraying the forest indiscriminately. Or at least that is what I have heard from more that a few. This is unfortunate. The fact is we may have more in common with the environmentalist than they realize. The first maybe hard to come to grips with, we love animals. We do. I love to watch a doe and her fawns eat the grass on the hills. I can watch them for hours, they are beautiful creatures.

I also know that the best way to manage the deer population is through a regulated hunting season. My background is in ranching, here in California and Oregon, I can remember the look of starving deer caused by two years of drought and a very hard winter. If we stopped hunting this year, the deer herds would soar then die off in a vicious cycle. Although many hunters try, I do not hunt for trophy deer. I usually take an immature buck for the freezer and the horns are used for buttons or other projects.

I did not kill a buck this year. I paid for my license and deer tags, like I do every year, even when I am sure I won’t have time to hunt. Why, because this money goes to the department of fish and game. These funds help the department conduct research into deer related diseases and to patrol the state for poachers.

As my son and I walked back down to the road in the gathering darkness, we spoke of next year when he will be old enough to hunt with me not as a spectator, but as a hunter. I am sure we will have many more great times in the field, both as father and son, and as hunters.