Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife
- Alaska Chapter -

SFW Alaska President’s Message
Fall 2011

It's Never Too Early

By Ralph Seekins - President

This last September my wife, Connie, and I had ten of our grandkids out with us at one point or other during hunting season. The youngest wasn’t even walking yet and the oldest was a teenager. Except for the teenager, none of them really understood all the rituals of hunting camp. However, they did - for the most part - get in some successful Arctic grayling fishing and most were there when we processed the family moose. It was a great opportunity to introduce these youngsters to the traditional family activity of harvesting what we eat. They saw, and the four-year-old and older ones understood, that the animal had to be killed in order to produce meat for hamburgers, hot dogs and other dishes for family dinners. They understood and took part in the field dressing of the animal and, when we got it back to town, in the packaging of the meat for the freezer. There was no revulsion – just amazing curiosity – albeit at differing levels of understanding. We, as grandparents, felt fortunate to have the opportunity to help teach our grandchildren what my parents and grandparents had taught us.

Having come from a farm background, I knew from an early age that we grew animals to provide food for people. I was there when steers and hogs were butchered. I was there to gather eggs from the chickens and had it explained to me that when the older hens quit laying they became Sunday dinner. I was there when my dad brought home deer and elk and butchered them to fill the family freezer. I was there to learn that weapons are deadly and should be handled carefully. I learned that hunting to feed the family was not a cruel or despicable act but was in total ecological harmony. By the time I graduated from High School, I had harvested and processed numerous deer, elk and moose for the family larder. At the same time, I learned how important it was to work to restore and preserve wildlife habitats and defend wildlife populations against wanton waste and poaching. I naively thought everyone had learned the same. It wasn’t until my college years that I found out most people had never learned those life lessons.

So, as our kids came along and grew up, Connie and I got them out into the field with us. We taught them to respect the environment – that all hunters and fishers should be sportsmen and nature lovers. We taught them how to feed the family with the moose, caribou, salmon and halibut that we harvested ourselves. Now, along with their parents, grandma and I are helping teach or grandchildren the same values. We determined it was nevertoo early to get them involved. That’s why you find camouflage one-piece outfits with feet sewn on the bottom of legs around our place. We couldn’t find a camo baby seat or we would have had a few of them around as well. That’s why we have a handful of .22 rifles in the gun safe and why we sent the grandkids to Bud Buris’ rifle class. That’s why we put up with the extra noise around hunting camp where, as the grandkids say, the bathroom is outside. We want to share with them what were some of the best parts of our own education and, in the process, help make them sportsmen and sportswomen first and mighty hunters and fishers after that.

God has blessed us with the children and grandchildren we have the opportunities to teach and to share with them the values we have learned through being sportsmen and sportswomen for fish and wildlife. If you too are blessed with following generations, I encourage you to do the same.

(Ralph Seekins is one of the Founding Board Members of SFW Alaska. He is a former Alaskan Legislator, a successful businessman from Fairbanks, and an outspoken advocate for constitutionally-based abundance management.)