Each hunting season, it seems fewer responsible hunters take to the mountains of Tooele County. That’s partly due to the decline of hunting as a lifestyle, but also partly due to an influx of one-weekend warriors who like the idea of hunting but lack experience in the sport or the outdoors in general. This trend of pseudo hunters rising in inverse proportion to skill and good sense is an alarming sign of the booming New West.

In times past, fathers taught their sons — and sometimes daughters — to hunt. Kids learned how to make a simple camp, and how to wake early and climb a ridge before dawn to stake out the best vantage points. They learned how to pack for a day in the mountains, how to handle firearms, how to stalk silently, how to identify droppings and prints, and how to field dress a deer or elk if they shot one. Perhaps most importantly, they learned there was a code of ethics among hunters to respect each other, their prey and the natural world.

Compare that era to the circus we too often see today. Nowadays, many hunters pull a trailer the size of a semi-truck into the mountains with a pair of ATVs behind that. They run a buzzing generator all night so they can watch the latest Hollywood DVD in 75 degree comfort while they heat up a frozen pizza in the microwave. When morning comes, it’s time to fire up the ATVs and break new trails in an effort to get as high up as possible before being forced to get off and walk. If they spot a deer, they crack off shot after shot from impossible distances — no matter who else is around — and if they’re lucky enough to hit and find the animal, they drag it back to the ATV whole in the hopes they can pay someone to gut it later.

And that’s if all goes well for the hunter. State wildlife and forestry officials say the number of hunters who lack outdoors sense, don’t know the terrain of the area they’ve chosen to hunt in, and don’t pack appropriate gear is a persistent problem each year. That means more hunters stuck on muddy roads, lost in canyons they can’t find their way out of, and at the mercy of the elements overnight. It also means more taxpayer-funded rescues.

It’s time to get back to that old code of the outdoors that previous generations of hunters adhered to. The Boy Scouts still have their Outdoor Code, which emphasizes cleanliness, fire safety and conservation — three other values often in short supply during the annual hunting season. Hunters need to reclaim those values. Hunting should be a simple, quiet activity in which the hunter tries to be a part of nature, rather than trying to beat back nature to snatch at a trophy.

Come to think of it, the old code of the outdoors could probably benefit all of us year round. Maybe hunters can set the example and spread the word.