Hal _does_ present the dilemma --it's legislation (and/or raw political
power) that will make a difference in how effective birders can be in
re-focusing the allocation of resources towards managing wildlands for
a variety of "renewable" purposes. He asks, in essence "what can
birders do?"

I think that the first thing birders can do is to not think of
themselves as "birders". Think of themselves as one of a larger context
of similarly minded factions. Then, the "coalition" that Hal suggests
forming starts to become big enough to gain that political clout.

Hunters buy gas, outdoor clothes, binoculars, birdbooks, motel rooms,
restaurant and fast foods, and all the other things that birders buy,
so I doubt that birders alone will influence the producers that Hal
identifies as possible pressure points. The coalition needs to have
votes in the political arena, I think. We saw the effects of these
larger coalitions, from time to time, e.g. in the late 60's-early 70's
for a more recent "greening"; but, the anti-greening forces regrouped
and are now a sophisticated force to have to deal with.

And, it's probably not "hunters" and "hunting" per se that are the
problem, as much as it is the imbalance of resource allocation, and the
relative levels of undesirable "intrusion" each of the varied outdoor
activities makes upon one another, which needs resolution. Finding
compromises which don't create a lower average-quality-of-life
situation for everyone (which is what has been occurring) is the
elusive goal.
Peter

>Date: Mon, 7 Nov 94 09:05:07 -0800
>From: Hal Opperman <halop at continuum.com>

[severely edited]

> Problem is, how do we get those taxes redistributed the way we
>want them? The answer is legislative muscle, and birders as a group (so
>far) ain't got much.
>Maybe we birders should take a look at all the
>money we spend to pursue our avocation, break it down by categories, and
>figure out who are the principal beneficiaries of our largesse. Then we
>could ... begin to form
>a coalition that might actually make itself heard by lawmakers.