Incompatible Bedfellows

Today I got tricked into signing a petition to stop a mining operation in the Colorado wilderness that ended with a weird pro-hunting blurb. I realize that some environmentalists think that siding with hunters is the only way to preserve natural lands, and that's horribly sad. Not only do I not want the wilderness destroyed by mining run-off pollution and logging, but I ALSO dislike it being destroyed by sport hunters blowing everything that moves away with automatic rifles.  Hunters do absolutely nothing to preserve natural lands, often siding with extremely unnatural "animal management" policies that allow forest service and fish & wildlife agencies to kill off all the natural predators so elk or deer can reach overpopulation levels that make it "necessary" for human hunters to come kill indiscriminately. It's an ugly partnership between environmentalists and hunters (that's pretty one-sided, too - what hunters are all like "And it's good for ecology too!" when they're making weekend plans?) and I resent being accidentally convinced to sign anything that acknowledges hunters' rights to any opinion when it comes to preserving natural lands.