The landmark research done and the management strategies developed on Fort Perry Plantation and Tecomate Ranch opened up a new frontier of game management. Ultimately it allowed managers to grow more and bigger bucks and hold them closer to home than most ever thought possible. Today, the food plot management strategy developed on those two properties has changed the face of deer management forever. North American Whitetail was an integral part of this process, and the magazine led the way in reporting it.
Because of sound management, today is the “good old days” of trophy whitetail hunting. Furthermore, as management becomes more widespread, I believe even better times lie ahead. And the great thing about management is that it involves the managers/landowners (and their families) in the sport and land stewardship far beyond just the hunting season. Management and related activities become year-round endeavors, often for the whole family.
Everyone involved becomes more knowledgeable and appreciative of the land and its wildlife. And the payoff management success brings encourages more people to buy and manage their own land, and this obviously promotes better land and wildlife stewardship. It also makes small and heretofore nonproductive tracts more valuable, thereby encouraging their preservation as game lands instead of, say, shopping centers. All in all, management stands as the great hope for wildlife in the years ahead. North American Whitetail has contributed significantly to the development of management strategies that will take us into this bright future. The magazine has also played a key role in helping to disseminate this knowledge to an eager and evermore involved and capable whitetail hunting community!
Finally, I want to mention one more thing North American Whitetail has given to the whitetail world over the last 25 years. It’s what I am most proud of — the people of Whitetail magazine. Some have worked behind the scenes while others have become household names to many serious whitetail hunters. These people have contributed so much to the sport of deer hunting. There are far too many to name them all, but I must mention a few who “grew up” with Whitetail magazine and made their mark through its pages.
People like Steve Vaughn, Chuck Larsen, Dick Idol, Gordon Whittington, Duncan Dobie, Dr. James C. Kroll, Ken Dunwoody, Aaron Pass, Mike Biggs, Leonard Lee Rue, III, Greg Miller, Curt Helmick, Gene Wensel, Dr. Charles T. Arnold — these and many others contributed greatly to the magazine and to the whitetail community in general. They helped mold it into what it is today. Indisputably, whitetail hunting now drives and financially underpins the U.S. hunting market and has risen to the heights of becoming the greatest hunting sport on earth!
Nothing else even comes close. And the people of Whitetail, those mentioned and many others, are the people who made North American Whitetail the continent’s “Premier Deer Hunting Magazine” for the last 25 years. Perhaps those named, and others who come after them, will continue to do so for the next 25 years as well!
North American Whitetall North American Whitetail is designed for the serious trophy hunter. It provides authoritative coverage of world-class whitetails, the latest approaches to deer management and advanced hunting techniques.
