NPR on decline in hunter numbers and the effect on conservation

[wesfromky]

Decline In Hunters Threatens How U.S. Pays For Conservation : NPR

 

[elkguide]

Pretty negative view of the future but I'm not ready to give up yet and I'm very glad to take a kid hunting again this summer and this fall.

 

[juan trueno]

It’s not true. There’s way too many hunters and more every year. Especially out of staters.

Or at least what every thread is about- is too many hunters - too much pressure- too many tags -and they are too hard to draw.


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[TexasCub]

A lot of variables to take into consideration......

#1 there’s almost 100 million more people in the US since 1990 and most live in urban metros where hunting is not a normal recreational activity

#2 in 1990 you could buy over the counter tags for just about any species in most states for a small fee.

#3 In 1990 you didn’t have a thousand outfitter companies leasing up land all over the US to then charge inflated Hunt fees to wealthier hunters

#4 In 1990 a farmer or rancher would allow friends and acquaintances to hunt on their land on a hand shake. Today hunting on their land is a money making proposition that once again only benefits the wealthier hunters.

Stricter regulations, higher license and tag fees, less land available to most hunters and an increase in pressure in the places that one can hunt doesn’t encourage many to either stay in the sport or to enter the sport. My father in law is 70years old and has hunted his whole life and raised his family with game meat as a staple food. I remember some years back when he could no longer buy an OTC deer tag in Utah and did not draw a deer tag. He said it was the first year in some 50 years that he could not hunt deer. Hunting has been going downhill for a while now. You have to really love the sport and the time spent outdoors more than filling a tag these days that’s for sure.