On this episode of Talk Is Sheep, Kyle Stelter is joined by guest co-host Jann Demaske for a timely and important conversation with Charles Whitwam, Founder and Executive Director of HOWL for Wildlife.
Charles has emerged as one of the leading voices in North America when it comes to mobilizing hunters, anglers, conservationists, and sustainable-use advocates around the issues shaping the future of wildlife management.
What began as an effort to make it easier and more effective for everyday people to communicate with decision-makers has grown into a powerful grassroots movement focused on advocacy, education, collaboration, and making sure the hunting community has a meaningful voice when wildlife policy is being decided.
Kyle, Jann, and Charles dive into Oregon’s Initiative Petition 28, an extraordinary proposal with implications extending far beyond hunting and fishing into agriculture, livestock production, commercial fishing, and the broader relationship between people and animals. Charles also shares his experience sitting down with one of IP28’s chief proponents and discusses the documentary HOWL is producing to bring this conversation to a much wider audience.
The discussion also turns to Colorado, ballot-box wildlife management, Proposition 127, the movement to constitutionally protect the right to hunt and fish, and what can happen when the hunting community stops playing defence and begins thinking proactively.
But this conversation is bigger than any single ballot initiative.
It is about telling our story.
It is about reaching people outside the hunting community, helping the public understand science-based wildlife management and the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation, and recognizing that if hunters do not tell their own story, someone else will tell it for them.
Charles challenges the hunting industry to think differently, invest in communicating with the non-hunting public, work together across organizations and interests, and recognize the opportunity in front of us.
Engage. Connect. Educate. Show up.
The future of hunting, fishing, sustainable use, and wildlife conservation may depend on it.
Presented by SITKA Gear.
This episode is supported by WSSBC Conservation Partner Precision Optics.
