People Who Cared

What really happened to hunting and fishing was that people who cared about it worked to preserve it. The European tradition for centuries was that only the nobility were allowed to hunt and, to a lesser degree, fish. I know more about how this changed in Germany than I do about the rest of Europe, but it was probably similar. After World War II, Germany was trying to become more democratic, so hunting was opened up to the common people. Since Germans had pretty well written the book on conservation, they knew they couldn't just let everybody do what they wanted or there would soon be nothing left, so they implemented some regulations. To get a hunting license, you had to demonstrate that you were a responsible person who cared about the sport. You had to take some classes and be interviewed by a board of local senior sportsmen.

The American tradition was somewhat different, but the goals are the same, to preserve the sport for future generations. No attempt was made to regulate hunting or fishing until around the beginning of the 20th Century because it was generally believed that it wasn't necessary, and it was not clear who should have jurisdiction. The people who called for regulation were the sportsmen themselves, and they mostly paid for it themselves. It was by no means unanimous, and there are people who resist it to this day, but it's way better than it used to be.

In my part of the country, during the 1980s, there was a big jurisdictional dispute about it between the State of Michigan and some Indian tribes. It went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Indians prevailed. Lots of people were upset about it, believing that the Indians would kill everything off, but that's not what happened. The tribes now regulate their own people and work cooperatively with the state and local authorities. They have demonstrated that they care at least as much about it as the White folks, and nobody begrudges them their privileges anymore. 

I don't know if the schools are the proper place to teach individual responsibility. Ideally, the parents should do it, but many parents cannot because their parents never taught it to them. I don't know whether or not this is a modern development. We had decent upbringing, but I'm not so sure that everybody else did in those days. One way or another somebody needs to do it, somebody who cares.