Why are Wildlife and Wildlife Management Valued?
Wildlife are valued for a variety of reasons, and thus we manage for wildlife. The management approach may differ depending on the particular values of a landowner or user. Among the common values are: Metaphysical: These are the private, often spiritual or religious feelings, insights, or benefits that people may receive from wildlife as they contemplate the nature of things. Character: Wild animals provide part of the wild character, the vitality, the natural completeness to forests; a forest is not the same without a bobcat or pileated woodpecker. Aesthetic: The representation of wildlife in the arts, from cave paintings to television, attests to the importance that humans have attributed to its aesthetic benefits of wildlife. An evening grosbeak on a snow-covered hemlock bough, a downy woodpecker on a fire-scarred tree stump– these are among the beautiful things. Wildlife may create a “scene” or may be like Kierkegaards touch of crimson that enhances or makes splendid an otherwise
