Ted Nugent is a rock and roll guitarist, bow hunter, and American icon.
He recently spoke with The Epoch Times about his childhood in Detroit, conservation, wanton waste laws, legendary bowhunter Fred Bear, and his own environmental war cry—“Get out there and heal thyself!”
Like all kids in those days, my cousin Mark Schmitt and I couldn’t get enough of bowhunting and exploring the woods and swamps near our homes in southern Michigan. We didn’t play baseball, hockey, football, or anything else. We hunted and explored, period. We were driven to learn how to sneak up on critters and make increasingly better shots with our bows all the time.
Our pure, uninhibited youth facilitated our natural instinct to be the reasoning predators that God designed us to be. We were and remain nature’s children, thank God!
We ritualistically and conscientiously remain connected to Mother Earth better than anyone else, annually harvesting the essential surplus every fall and winter to make room for all these renewable wildlife crops. It’s all so simple—even guitar players can figure it out pretty quickly.
Overfishing a body of water is no worse than underfishing it. So much water can only support so much life, and with inadequate annual harvest, it won’t take long for a massive die-off to occur if the population growth overruns the habitat carrying capacity of that body of water.
That same, simple, basic science applies to every inch of planet Earth, and it takes a foolish, selfish, and grossly irresponsible amount of denial to hide from such a glaring, ubiquitous scientific fact of life. Fortunately, only a lunatic fringe of anti-nature goofballs don’t get it or just hide from the evidence.
Meat hunters are perfect conservationists. Sport hunters are perfect conservationists. Casual hunters are perfect conservationists. Gung-ho hunters are perfect conservationists. And shout it out loud and proud, trophy hunters are perfect conservationists, because we all pay our way and reverentially utilize the precious resources from God’s miraculous renewable pantry.
It was the hunting families of America that created the demand for intelligently regulated, sustain yield, sound science game laws that include the wanton waste laws making it a crime to waste the sacred venison of the hunt.
The horrible, lying, dishonest propaganda media of the world has done a phenomenal job of brainwashing some of the citified, comfortably numb, embarrassingly disconnected populations of the world in all sorts of dangerous ways, but when it comes to intentionally misrepresenting our perfect, honorable hunting culture, they rival the Joseph Goebbels Nazi propaganda ministry of repeating a lie often enough to become the norm in a mushy-brained society.
I was a certified hunter safety instructor for years, teaching new conservationists the safe, ethical ways of the wild. Those of us who live the outdoor lifestyle should aggressively reach out to educate and remind our families and friends what we have known all along; that nature heals and if ever there was a time to go fishing, plant a garden, plant some trees, watch the stars, hike, or get a bow and arrow, that time is now.
These are tangible remedies that I believe to be universal to mankind. With the zombie-inducing, mind-numbing, couch potato electronic technology reducing so many young people to soft, out-of-touch goofballs, all who care must dedicate ourselves to pushing hard for rugged individualism, self-sufficiency, independence, and environmental conservation awareness and accountability.
My family and friends literally hunt in forests that we planted.
It really doesn’t matter how magnificent the view may be, but rather the spirit of the people around our campfires that truly inspire. Each campfire fortifies the spirit and reminds us of our stewardship responsibilities to leave the world better than when we got here.