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It is hard to believe that the Fourth of July is almost here, the day when we celebrate our independence. The fourth is also a day to remember our men and women that are serving in the military for they are making sacrifices to ensure our freedom.
We have always heard that freedom is not free and will never be free. According to an old newspaper article that I read:
"There were 56 men that signed the Declaration of Independence; nine of the 56 fought and died from either wounds or hardships from the war; five signers were captured by the British as traitors and tortured before they died; twelve had their homes ransacked and burned to the ground; two lost sons, and two had sons captured while serving in the Revolutionary War; one signer was a wealthy trader, whose ships were captured and sunk by the British, with his home and properties sold to pay debts, and died a poor man; another man was driven from his wife's bedside as she lay dying, while their 13 children fled for their lives, his fields and gristmill were laid to waste, and after returning from more than a year of living in forests and caves, he died from exhaustion and a broken heart; another man's home and property were destroyed, while his wife was jailed and died a few months later."
Actually, our independence began on June 15, 1215. That date was very important in human liberty because it was the date that the Magna Carta was signed by King John and ensured feudal rights (meaning that the game belonged to the owner of the land and not the king) and guaranteed that the king could not tamper with this privilege. The Magna Carta took absolute power from the king and guaranteed certain rights to every freeman.
Prince John Lackland is known by most school children as the wicked prince, whose efforts to take over the throne of England were stopped by Robin Hood. Now, this is a false story and here is the true story.
King John was not popular. One important objection that the Barons of England had with King John was that he reserved all wildlife as his own private game. After hunting and killing the game, King John sold it to the peasants, who lived in the villages, for a very high price. The king hired men to watch over his ward and since game was their ward they became known as game wardens.
If these wardens caught the peasants hunting/poaching the king's deer or other wildlife, they were imprisoned or killed without a hearing. Perhaps, the poachers were hung right on the spot with the very bow string that they had been using to kill the deer.
The barons had pushed the king into a corner, which led to the meeting on June 15, 1215, at a place called Runnymede, where the signing of the Magna Carta took place. This great charter, in which both the barons and the king agreed, that no one was to be imprisoned without a trial by his equals and that all men were equal before the law. This meant that all had a right to a trial by jury. Justice was not to be sold, delayed or denied to any freeman, which gave them a right to a speedy trial.
No taxes except the customary ones would be levied without the consent of a Council of Prelates and Greater Barons, which meant no taxes without representation.
The Magna Carta did not stop the peasants from poaching, but it did ensure that they would at least get a trial if they were caught.
The peasants would blacken their faces before going out to poach to avoid being recognized. This was called blacking. Rewards, which were offered for these blacking men, resulted in a secret poaching fraternity being formed. To combat this, the Great Game Law was passed in 1671. This law gave game wardens the right to search during daylight hours and the right to destroy, take and seize any guns, bows, dogs and nets found in the possession of the peasants.
The Magna Carta did not change the ownership of game. It still belonged to the owner of the land where it was found. When the colonists came to this country they developed a fierce sense of ownership of wildlife. After the American Revolution, the title to all the natural resources was transferred from the king to the states.
Today, the federal government has jurisdiction over wildlife that migrates across state lines and individual states have jurisdiction over non-migrating wildlife found within their state. Our hunting heritage began way back on that field at Runnymede when King John relented and signed the Magna Carta.
When I began my career as a wildlife officer, I started jacklight patrol on the Fourth of July weekend. Jacklighting is the name given to the illegal practice of killing game at night, while using a light. The name comes from the fact that our early ancestors burned pine knots in metal baskets to illuminate the night so that they were able to shoot at game.
The favorite kind of knots were jack pine because they burned brighter and longer than any other kind of pine knots.
The mountain population always increased during the Fourth of July holiday with people coming up to their cabins or visiting family and friends. A favorite past time was spotlighting for deer, and of course, some went a step further by having illegal venison roasts. These jacklight patrols never produced a lot of arrests but acted as more of a deterrent. It always came as a big surprise when someone was stopped and checked in the wee small hours of the morning.
When on jacklight patrol an officer positioned himself in an area where he could see spotlights and hear shots that might ring out. In hindsight, even though there was a lot of activity on the mountain, it was not a good weekend to do jacklight patrol because the fireworks being set off sounded just like shots.
When I told Mary Alice I was writing about freedom she asked what that has to do with nature. Ahh, let's see, I did mention jacklighting.
Bill Bower is a retired Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Officer. Read his blog and listen to his podcasts on the outdoors at www.onemaningreen.com.