Chicago
Thanks to Trump administration budget cuts at the United States Agency for International Development, the Department of Education, the National Parks Service, proposed cuts at the National Institutes of Health and more, "Who will they come for next?" has become a refrain--especially from those with affected jobs. (Is National Public Radio in the crosshairs, for example?)
What has not been said yet is, "When will they come for state Departments of Natural Resources next?" but here in Illinois, there is reason to worry. Almost a fifth of the Illinois DNR budget comes from federal grants which support wildlife and natural areas management, outdoor recreation, recreational trails and more.
TRYING TO WOO A NEW GENERATION
As the number of hunters diminishes--their licenses, along with trappers, produce $16 million of the IDNR budget every year--the department has been desperately seeking new revenue. For years it has been trying to woo young, would-be hunters away from their cell phones and video games to participate in "controlled hunts" (aka canned or "put and take" hunts) of pen-raised pheasants on state lands. But the programs, operated at a loss, have been underwhelming.
As far back as 2008, an Illinois Office of Management and Budget spokesperson told a local paper, "Raising pheasants at a financial loss, just so they can be killed, is not one of our top priorities when the state is facing a $750 million budget gap."
"People are under the impression that the program pays for itself 100 percent, but it just plain doesn't," said another official.
But in 2023, Illinois was still "raising hatching out and boxing about 9,000 Manchurian pheasant chicks that will be taken to our Mount Vernon game farm," according to a Facebook photo in an apparent continuation of the program. Will current awareness of mass chicken kills and the chicks' irresistible neoteny and "cuteness" change any sentiments about the impending hunts?
IF YOU CAN'T BEAT THEM, EAT THEM
As Canadian geese have become pests in some milieus, state environmental and agricultural departments have asked why people can't just eat them, especially the homeless? Kill two birds with one stone--pun intended.
The same question has been asked about humanitarian, hunter-donated deer programs and it produced the same answer: Dangers lurk from bullet lead and other toxins in the meat. In fact, in 2008, health officials in North Dakota put the kibosh on deer donated to food pantries after 53 packages harbored lead fragments from bullets. Health officials in Minnesota and Iowa promptly followed suit.
Still the urge to turn plentiful animals into revenue and good causes springs eternal. Years ago in Chicago, Heifer International set up a tilapia aquaculture operation in a housing project so that at-risk youth could embark on promising livelihoods by selling fish to area restaurants. The project would also help young people, "become stewards of the natural environment and their community," enthused Heifer.
Unfortunately, all the fish froze to death when the heat and power went off and two years later, the stock was decimated again when the air conditioning went off. The fish leaped "out of their barrels trying to escape accumulating ammonia and rising temperatures," wrote the Chicago Tribune.
CARP DIEM
Now, the Illinois DNR is trying to turn invasive carp--a constant threat to the local multibillion dollar sport fishing industry--into a revenue-producing product. They have renamed the fish Copi and it will be offered this month at the Illinois Products Expo at the Illinois State Fairgrounds.
"Expo visitors will be able to enjoy delicious Copi tacos, Copi chili, and Copi poke bowls from award-winning chef Maurice Jackson," says a press release. "The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) has led the rebranding of invasive carp to combat public misconceptions about the fish and increase consumer interest in this healthful, delicious, top-feeding protein source."
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