I studied Wildlife Biology at Texas A&M in the early 70s. Back then, it was beginning, there were two basic types of students. There were the outdoor, country boy types like me interested in true conservation and wildlife MANAGEMENT and there were an increasing number of preservation types, what I used to call "eco freaks". Many of them were the bird watcher types. They HATED hunting and no amount of preaching "management" to them by traditional methods mattered. Many would gripe about Texas Parks and Wildlife funds going to game management while non-game species were ignored. I'd get in heated debates with some of 'em over this. I mean, as a hunter, IT'S MY MONEY you wanna waste on dickey bird species, marsh wrens, whatever. And, if you end hunting, the money dries up for all species!
I went on to make money and work in for the enemy (in their eyes), running an environmental lab for a major chemical company. I was a fisheries guy, an "aquatic type", and had a lot of chemistry as a background. I know one grad student that was one of the "eco freak" types, ran a bird banding crew I worked on part time while in college. He and I didn't get along too well due to this riff in ideals. He got me fired from that banding crew after a year, but I was about fed up with him, anyway. When I was out of school and had been working about 4 years for Dow Chemical in a salaried position making good money, I saw this guy on the news griping about some bayou in Houston or something. I found out through the grape vine he'd gotten his masters and went to work for his old man who owned a couple of auto parts stores. ROFLMAO! He was big in the Audubon club (haven for bird watchers, but he was a volunteer) and was speaking on their behalf on the news, his 15 minutes of fame, I guess. He was typical, all idealistic and not an ounce of realistic.
Anyway, I'm sure in the ensuing years, the "eco freaks" have taken over the profession or at least have become more powerful. I know TP&W does a lot more non-game management now days and I fear they might be taking over Austin at the political levels. I don't know this because I'm long since out of any grapevines, but I'm just speculating.