I came across an article in Outdoor Life that discussed how we — as hunters — suck at recruiting new hunters, and how we can fix it. The numbers offered showed that hunting participation peaked in 1982 with about 17 million nationwide. But by 2016 that number had dwindled to only 11.5 million, which is less than 4% of the population.
Hunter numbers are important because as they decline so too does funding for wildlife agencies and conservation organizations. And, as hunter numbers decline, hunters lose political relevance, and the control of wild game gets out of hand. If you think nuisance bears are a problem now, stop hunting them and cut the funding for natural resource departments to control them.
Different states have taken different approaches to increasing hunter numbers, but by almost any measure they’ve all failed. Some believe youth seasons and special programs to attract young hunters are the answer. Others think we should be recruiting hipsters, vegans, organic farmers, and nutritionists, into the fold of wild and organic protein and the challenge of obtaining it. I believe that these are mostly just noble efforts to let us feel like we’re doing the right thing.
I think there are a lot of reasons hunting has declined and the current political football of guns is one reason. When I was in middle school the first semester of my seventh grade gym class required participation in West Virginia’s hunting education program. We shot shotguns out on the baseball field and air rifles in the gym. Hell, we even loaded shotgun shells during class as part of the curriculum. This provided great firearms safety education for young teens, but just as importantly, it showed everyone in class that hunting and the guns used for it are an integral part of American tradition. Girls and boys alike were asking fathers and grandfathers to take them hunting.
But that alone wasn’t enough either, because for kids from families that did not hunt, there was no tradition, and to all but the few kids in families where it was, hutting was a hobby. Hobbies are a good thing, but from a survivability standpoint a hobby cannot compete with a tradition. A Field & Stream article addressed hunting tradition, and wisely observed that,
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