Distrubing Trend

P

Pheasantphan

Member
We had a staff mtg the last couple of days and as usual discussed our efforts in the recruitment/retention of those who participate in hunting and fishing in our state. The license sales/participation numbers are a big enough obstacle, but my boss got some facts at a recent conference that really concern me.

In state conservation agencies around the nation at this time about 55 - 60 percent of the employees do not participate in hunting or fishing. Trends indicate that in as little as 10 - 15 years that number could exceed 85 percent. This does not mean anti-hunters but those who do not participate, this concerns me.

We have an uphill battle my friends and we need to do all we can to combat the trend of non-participation. Get kids out there, get adults who do not hunt out there, provide opportunities in some way, form or fashion. I can tell by your posts many of you are involved with kids, new hunters, etc. but we need to make an extra effort to get folks out there.

I know if we recruit more it increases crowds but those crowds pay the bills of the conservation agencies by buying licenses, boosts revenue in towns they visit and so on and so forth. I duck hunt public land here in AR and I dont like the fact it gets crowded at times but that generates revenue and helps insure our future of hunting. I am getting more concerned that apathy toward hunting may be more damaging than the anti hunters in that it creeps up on us without us realizing it.

I know many of you do a lot for our resource - thanks for what you do.

See you guys in Kansas next week, looking forward to it.
 
You used the word that says it all "Apathy". If you can figure out a way to get the majority of our hunting associates off their butt. Shed their constant attitude of "Let George/whomever do it". Then we will get someplace. I am sorry to say we in minority will continue to get trampled until then.........Bob
 
Used to be people who were not hunters themselves, at least had a positive response to the sport. Now most are detached from hunting and rural pursuits, don't have a hunting father, brother, uncle, or whatever, and are easily influenced by the Disney/bambi, anti's, and the Humane Society horror commercials. Young people don't want to put that much energy into recreation. I made my 13 year old girls grind out a bird here and there, walk miles for a shot, my wife thought I should breakdown and take them to a perserve, but I wanted them to seewhat it's really about, so they could appreciate the difference, failure is common, success is sweet, the enjoyment is in the experience. What we need is a massive PR campaign to rehabilitate our image. A large segment of the population will never be hunters, but we could by our efforts win them over as allies, with common goals, they like to see wildlife, feel good about land stewardship, clean water, healthy air, sustainable food supply, all the things we believe in also.
 
i agree with everything here thats been said. i am only 20 years old, coming on the big 21 soon, and cant get but only 2 or 3 guys that i went to high school with intersted in hunting like i am, i mean ive got friends that deer hunt, or duck or turkey hunt, but they rarely get out and do, maybe once or twice a year. i wish i could get them to come out and pheasant hunt with me, or get serious about deer hunting and waterfowl like i am, they just dont seem interested, they think they have better things to do like party. ive got younger cousins that want nothing to do with it, my grandpa and dad got me into hunting at a very young age, but all my cousins thought it was dumb. my younger sister is actually showing interst in it, but shes busy with sports and hasnt got around to getting her hunters safty yet, hopefully she does soon i would love to get her out and show all the great things about it and how rewarding it can be to harvest any animal after putting in the work
 
There will always be hunters and then everyone else. Trying to convert the others to hunters is not something I can or want to do. Either they have the desire, equipment, time, and money it takes or they don't. Sometimes they have higher priorities for those resources.

We do not have a battle to get other hunters into the field. The states have the problem. Be it not enough productive public access, higher than reasonable out of state fees, or limited permit availablity. All these ,plus other factors, are impediments to getting more people into the field or more trip taken to the field.

I agree we should all try to introduce new hunters to our group but trying to drag a complete newbie to the field. Not interested.

I took five of my sons college friends, plus one dad, to Kansas last December for their first pheasant hunt. They all are looking forward to going again in a couple of weeks plus we are adding one other. However these are all people who already had an interest in hunting and had the resources/equipment.

I may have missed the point the OP was trying to make here but from my read he seemed to be putting the problem at my feet. I do not accept that but I will try to do my part to get more "hunters" into the field and try to instill hunting ethics in them.
 
oldandnew said:
Used to be people who were not hunters themselves, at least had a positive response to the sport. Now most are detached from hunting and rural pursuits, don't have a hunting father, brother, uncle, or whatever, and are easily influenced by the Disney/bambi, anti's, and the Humane Society horror commercials. Young people don't want to put that much energy into recreation. I made my 13 year old girls grind out a bird here and there, walk miles for a shot, my wife thought I should breakdown and take them to a perserve, but I wanted them to seewhat it's really about, so they could appreciate the difference, failure is common, success is sweet, the enjoyment is in the experience. What we need is a massive PR campaign to rehabilitate our image. A large segment of the population will never be hunters, but we could by our efforts win them over as allies, with common goals, they like to see wildlife, feel good about land stewardship, clean water, healthy air, sustainable food supply, all the things we believe in also.
Click to expand...

:thumbsup: helluva' post! there are hunters and then there are 'shooters'..
I took my 12 yr old grandson a cpl weeks ago. Hunted from dawn to dusk. I'm sure we walked 'at least' 10 miles and flushed fewer than a dozen birds. We did manage to connect on a cpl of roosters, but hunting was tough.
At the end of the day, "I" was somewhat disappointed with our success. But the disappointment quickly transposed into pride and appreciation when on the trip into the motel, he says "What a great day gran'pa" :eek:
Just to know that it "isn't" just all about the shooting for him, made MY day!
 
Thanks for the comments guys. Did not mean to sound as if I was placing this on any one group of people. This is something we must all work on, and we will all have different approaches. There is a lot of good in hunting, not just in the act itself, but all around and we need to make sure it is evident so the non-hunters will be able to place some value in hunting. I agree, there are those who do not want to go and there are many obstacles to increasing participation but we, as a group, can help make a difference in people's attitudes toward our sport.

Interesting story - a single parent lady took the time to take her son to a hunter ed class here in our state. After the class was over her question was simple - I dont hunt, now who will take my son hunting?
 
I agree with lots that have been said here. The single biggest deterent here in Illinois is no access or opportunities to go hunting. Everything is private. Knock on doors until your knuckles bleed. You ain't getting on. You can open up your wallet and still not sure what you will get.
There are a few state run put-n-take pheasant places which are not bad but still a hastle. Arrive a 7:00am, check in and wait until 9:00am to begin your hunt. The reality is young hunters need action thats why video games are so popular. Asking kids to wait 2 hours to hunt is not popular with them.
I took my son Deer hunting. Asking him to sit for 5 hours and not see a deer is simply not fun for someone who is "new" to the sport.
I'm 44 years old and I was lucky to hunt where we had farms to hunt and saw game. Lots of birds and deer. Those times are gone. My son enjoys hunting but not the way I did at his age. None of his friends hunt. He knows only 2 kids in his entire high school which has 4000 students who hunts.
I applaud everyone for their efforts but I think this trend of lack of new hunters will keep going down.
Bob
 
Deer camp a couple years ago-

stick10dec07012-2.jpg


Fortunately, so far, my grandkids love the ranch and its hunting opportunities. Here in a few hours my youngest son's family will arrive for deer camp 2010. A seven year old grandson and a four year old granddaughter will be in the field with me and my son chasing some Kansas whitetails, mulies, and if the opportunity presents itself a Kansas elk.
 
Maynard,

Thats awesome!
However, to my point, you have the ingredients to attract and retain new hunters. Sounds like you have a ranch (land) and game (deer, pheasant, Elk) What kid would not have a blast watching all of that wildlife.
For most new hunters that type of a hunt is an illusion. It will never happen so the reality is new hunters won't enter the sport. Like it or not the statistics don't lie. Fewer and fewer people are entering the sport and more and more are leaving the sport.
I will never stop hunting. Its in my blood. However, I cant force my kid to like it when the hunting is poor and access to land in impossible.
Have a great Deer Camp!

Bob
 
Bob,

There are grassroots efforts to attract new hunters. One such is our own Mike Christensen here on the forum. His organization, Pass It On, Outdoor Mentors get a lot of kids involved with hunting, fishing and other outdoor activities. His efforts are not exclusively aimed at the Big Brothers and Big Sisters, but he works with many of these kids, certainly kids that likely would never have a chance to encounter what those of us hold near and dear to our heart. The stories of these efforts will bring a tear to your eye.

My wife and I, along with another couple attended the Bust A Clay at Flint Oak in April. What a great time and retreat, all while raising money for this great cause. I would encourage all from any distance to attend in 2011. Flint Oak is a first class facility, with excellent dining, lodging and shooting.

http://flintoak.com/sportingclays.html

Check it out-

http://www.outdoormentors.org/
 
Apathy and lack-of-interest will always be a problem regarding hunting. However, the BIGGEST problem is all of the "former" hunters that quit every year due to losing access, proliferation of pay-hunting, and over-hunted WIA's etc. If you can't keep the active hunters (grandad and dad) in business, where do you think the kids will go.

The problems have all been identified, but the solution/fix is likely not obtainable!
 
I think many of you here are missing the point of the original post. More and more, our government natural resource agencies are being populated by liberal, bunny hugging, tree hugging, anti-hunting, anti-timber, enviro-whackos. This is a huge problem. Those people think we in the forest products industries, who make a living out of creating products from out naturally growing timber, are neanderthals. Our last chief state forester here in Wisconsin was told he was a dinosaur.

They think of hunting in the same light. Our natural resources universities are producing graduates that are for the large part unemployable. These people believe we should live in cities and leave the countryside to return to pre-settlement conditions. The majority of the wildlife biologists they are hiring want to preserve and protect tweety bird, but have no interest in the management of the resource for hunting and they don't hunt themselves. They've been inspired by Rachel Carson, the bastardization of Aldo Leopold's writings, Disney and John Muir is god. Forest products companies can't find foresters trained in business or traditional forestry, because the schools produce graduates interested in bio-diversity, protectionism and who cringe at the thought of cutting a mature tree to make lumber.

This past year a young man called me in February, explaining that he had graduated from U of MN Twin Cities in December. His mom was upset with him for spending the past two months on her couch, college degree in hand, but no ambition. Two months past graduation and he is asking me for advice on how to go about looking for a job. I was pretty brutal with him, told him that was a question he should have asked at the beginning of his senior year, not two months after graduation and that I didn't have anything to offer him. He wasn't too happy with what I had to say, but tough sh$$t, the world is a tough place and he needs to grow some balls. I meet more and more young people like this entering the ranks of our natural resources agencies. It disgusts me and is something I've been fighting going on 30 years now. It's a sad state of affairs. And it also makes me appreciate all the more the ones I meet who are hold traditional values.
 
Ranger Rick,

The issue of who will be staffing state fish and wildlife agencies is indeed of great concern. That's the key reason behind the Conservation Leaders for Tomorrow program, where they take kids currently studying to fill these positions, but have no hunting background, and actually take them hunting. The program seems to be producing good results, but I don't know how many kids/year they take through the program.

But if we (those of us who value our time outdoors and the wonders of nature) don't step up and make a concious effort to introduce kids to the outdoors, we won't need to worry about who is staffing the fish and game agencies as they won't have anyone interested in hunting or fishing, no licenses to manage and no revenue to manage the resource with.

If you look at what the conservation organizations have accomplished in this country, it's really quite remarkable. In the early 1900's, the whitetail population was down around 500K animals nationwide. Now, due to the efforts of sportsmen and women, they are almost to the pest stage. Same kind of story with ducks and turkeys. Here in KS, we didn't have any turkeys to hunt when I was growing up. Don't remember if there were deer, but we never saw any in western KS. Today there are antelope and deer.

I'm sure there were a lot of naysayers back then who wouldn't have given the wildlife population much of a chance for recovery. But thanks to committed individuals who had a passion for the great outdoors, this country has unrivaled wildgame hunting available to anyone who wants to make the effort and go.

I believe that the same kind of concerted effort, directed at giving our youth a chance to get outdoors, will yield the same kinds of results.

Do we have access issues? Of course we do. But, here in KS, anyone can purchase a license and have access to over 1M acres to hunt upland game. Can this be done in other states? I can't answer that. But I'm sure there are talented individual working on it.

There is still much work to be done. If we want to preserve the hunting heritage that is unique to this great country, it's up to us to do it. The non-hunting public certainly won't. They'll simply bemoan the fact that their shrubery is being eaten by all of the deer. We have to continue to have organizations like PF, QF, DU, RMEF, SCI, NWTF and all of the others further their work to insure that wildlife can continue to thrive. And we have to dedicate similar efforts to making sure the next generation has an appreciation of what our hunting heritage is all about so that it will be there for generations to come.

OK, I'll get off my soap box now.

Mike Christensen
http://www.outdoormentors.org

P.S. Maynard...thanks for the plug! Hope things are looking up for you!
 
Mike, I wholeheartedly agree with you and thank you for your efforts to introduce youngsters to hunting. The issue of the "greening" of natural resources professionals is a pet peeve of mine. I also am disturbed by the trend of young people moving farther and farther away from the woods/field. In my own family, I have two daughters who do not hunt. They know how to shoot, but they're activities through high school didn't allow for the time and college took them away, too. They do get to fish with me on those rare occassions they are home, which I am grateful for every opportunity. All of the girls in the family fish, none hunt, but it's more about the lack of opportunity than desire. Two of my brothers have boys. One hunts, another is addicted to video games and his dad can't interest him enough to get off the couch. I believe it's his fault for using the video game as a baby sitter. I see this with a lot of kids these days. My sister's boys are growing up in a Chicago suburb and they love coming north to hunt and fish with their uncles. We've succeeded there. We grew up hunting and fishing with dad. We really were "born to hunt, forced to work". So even one of the new generation not really wanting to be out there with us is a slap in the face to our family culture and tradition.

I know people who hunt now, but did not grow up with it. It took someone to get them interested and involved. I'm sure every one of them is grateful that they were encouraged and offered the chance to go.
 
Again, thanks for the replies. As I have said we are headed to KS next week. One of the guys coming with me is a young man that is a family friend and I have been fortunate to spend lots of time afield with him. His dad hunted some, but not that much so I started taking him. I have watched him kill his first deer, his first turkey, his first greenhead, his first pheasant and many more animals. He is a great "kid" and loves the outdoors. To top it off he will be completing his Masters work at Ark State University this spring and is headed to the conservation field.

He is making his own way hunting now, chasing deer, turkey and ducks and also Scuba diving. Oddly enough much of his and my hunting for that matter occurs on public ground and we have been successful. It can be done, just not an easy road.

We have been to Iowa and SD for public ground hunts and hope for some success in KS next week. If so great, if not we will have a great time anyways. He and I both love upland hunting. I hope to someday get him behind some good dogs, but till then we will hunt hard with our labs and Brit and see what happens.
 
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