What challenges—and successes—will the next 50 years bring for hunters and anglers? That’s up to us

Fifty years ago, I was a 19-year-old angler and hunter. I didn’t know a lot about biology, the environment and politics, but I sure loved the sound of elk bugling at dawn, the sight of rising trout, and the gabble of an incoming flock of geese. I lived in what felt like a paradise that would last forever—a world where cackling pheasants exploded out of willow thickets, swarms of mallards circled over grain fields and bull moose appeared like magic in shadowed forests. It was all I really cared about—I figured politics and polemics were for others.

Today, I live in the fading remnants of that world. Many places where I used to fish and hunt are now out of bounds, lost to urban sprawl, rural subdivisions or industrial forestry. Last fall, for the first time ever, I had to submit the heads of my deer to be tested for CWD. Gin-clear streams where I fished for native cutthroat and bull trout are now muddy and shrunken, and full of undersized non-native species.

Still, I pray today’s fishing and hunting continues to inspire 19-year-olds. They can’t regret the things they’ve never experienced. Fifty years from now, they will be looking back at a lifetime of change. Will what they see bring them more joy than grief? Really, nobody can say. The world of fish and game conservation offers no working crystal balls.

There is, however, one thing we can say with certainty: conservation outcomes don’t happen by accident. The future will be the result of the choices we make today. May we choose wisely, while we can.

In June, long-time Alberta contributor and conservationist Kevin Van Tighem was awarded an honorary doctor of science degree from the University of Lethbridge.