No - it's not a misspelling of the title
of that old anti-war protest song by Peter, Paul and Mary. It's a
worrying question to which we must find an answer if the future of
wildfowling is to be ensured.
In the UK all shooting sports suffered a temporary setback as a
reaction to the Dunblane Primary School massacre but the decline has
now been reversed. Target shooting, clay pigeon shooting and, most
marked, driven pheasant shooting are all reporting healthy increases
in participant numbers. All except wildfowling.
Across the country it seems that,
with a few notable exceptions, wildfowling clubs are struggling to
maintain membership numbers and, in particular, are failing to
recruit young people into the sport. And there is no evidence that
coastal fowlers are moving out of the club system to pursue their
sport on an individual basis. Indeed, as "free" public foreshore
fowling rights progressively become harder to find, it is probably
that an even higher proportion of wildfowlers than ever before now
belong to clubs.
So, are there just fewer wildfowlers?
If so, why? And what can be done to reverse the trend?
Traditionally, wildfowling was the
front door to shooting sport for most working class recruits. Quite
simply it was inexpensive, readily accessible and did not suffer
from the "posh" image that bedevilled game shooting. Additionally,
it had a romantic image that attracted many professional adherents
and it had a firm reputation for conservation that brought in many
bird lovers. It presented a range of real challenges that other
forms of shooting lacked. It was, perhaps, the one branch of
shooting where factory worker, miner, teacher, doctor and
ornithologist could rub shoulders, united in a common purpose and
with a common love and respect for their quarry. Out in the
wilderness of a winter estuary, snugly ensconced by the pre-dawn
darkness, the colour of one's collar neither mattered nor could be
seen.
Has our society just become too
affluent? Are folk able to afford expensive pheasant shooting that
makes no demands upon their fieldcraft? And how would that stand up
against complaints about BASC fee increases and the cost of
non-toxic ammunition? Are we going soft - no longer willing to get
out of bed at 5.00 am on an icy January morning? Has the
centralisation and bureaucratisation of the former WAGBI (now BASC)
led to a disappearance of the fellowship and camaraderie that once
typified wildfowlers? Have the multi-million £££ campaigns by PETA,
aimed at flooding our schools with anti-fieldsports teaching packs,
poisoned the minds of our children? Have fowlers become dispirited
by the repeated failures of BASC to protect traditional elements of
our sport? Have we kept the attractions of wildfowling under a
bushel and do the public simply not know enough about it?
There are so many questions, so many
possible explanations.
The BASC has a Wildfowling Liaison
Committee that, I imagine, must be alarmed by the disintegration and
decline of wildfowling as a popular sport. It is their job to find
the answers to the questions, tease out the explanations, devise
plans to counter the threats .... and put those plans into
operation. FAST! |