THE MYTH OF ABUNDANCE

Think about the narratives we love to tell each other—and the non-hunting majority of our fellow Americans—about how we hunters and anglers brought back the nation’s wildlife populations. We speak sort of defensively, ready to argue with those who can’t understand how we could chase down, kill and then eat something that we cherish.

But we’re often stumped when a critic asks us about all those animals we didn’t bring back, either to huntable numbers or at all.