The Higher Calling

The higher you climb, the farther you can see.

I learned this as a 12-year-old visiting Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The claim is that seven states are visible from the summit. Although I’m not sure about that, I will never forget looking out and seeing the world from a mountain perspective.

This month marks 35 years of publication for Texas Fish & Game, a testament to hard work, vision and quality content. At this juncture of celebration it is time we climb even higher to get a better look at the big picture.

The world of wildlife, hunting, and fishing has never faced more threats, experienced quicker change, and collided with a world more confused and confounded than now.

It would be easy to dive into pessimism and join the chorus of people calling the younger generations clueless. This only spawns division and hate, while accomplishing zero for the cause.

We see today’s world as an opportunity to make positive strides forward. We can take wildlife conservation to a new level. Under the North American Model, this involves hunting and fishing and consumptive engagement in the outdoors.

We also believe we can influence enough people who neither hunt nor fish, but who love wildlife, to join our cause. We can do this by going where no publication has gone with our coverage of important issues here in Texas Fish & Game and at a national level at fishgame.com.

We are in a deep investigation of teen poaching and root causes that has been incredible challenging and interesting. When is the last time you saw anything on this topic?

If you did, it was in one of my columns here. The corporate wildlife media have ignored the problem. We won’t, and promise an eye-opening series of stories.

How about the border wall and wildlife? Ever thought of the impact? This is not as simple as it seems. We’re not just talking about wildlife movement access but other issues such as commercial poaching from the Mexican side and wildlife trafficking. It’s all tied in.

Then there are the dangers being faced by landowners in certain areas. You will see reports on this here. There is much more including the future of the southern flounder, seagrass habitat issues, and the growing problems of hogs in urban and suburban areas.

You noticed I didn’t promise tales of some mid-40s guy with his pretty blond, 15-year-younger wife and their miraculous deer hunt— a hunt that produced a buck bigger than the legendary Hole in the Horn buck, and which cost more than most of our net worth to shoot.

Turn on any outdoor television network if that’s your flavor.

We heed a higher calling to give a look at the great outdoors that is not only information but inspiring. We will always have hot spots, “how-to” articles and engaging columns, but the feature space is more and reserved for cutting-edge articles and investigations to let you know what’s really going on in the great outdoors.

You deserve it, and it’s our promise to deliver.

“This Higher Calling” has become a slogan for my life this year on a personal level, and it’s exciting to see Texas Fish & Game headed upward.

Thirty-five years is a long time to cover the great outdoors but in my opinion you ain’t seen nothing yet.

 

Email Chester Moore at cmoore@fishgame.com

 

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