CNN (via the AP) has the following story, Where have all the hunters gone?
Hunters remain a powerful force in American society, as evidenced by the presidential candidates who routinely pay them homage, but their ranks are shrinking dramatically and wildlife agencies worry increasingly about the loss of sorely needed license-fee revenue.Observers say increasingly urban and suburban culture is contributing to the decline in hunters and fishers.
New figures from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service show that the number of hunters 16 and older declined by 10 percent between 1996 and 2006 -- from 14 million to about 12.5 million. The drop was most acute in New England, the Rocky Mountains, and the Pacific states, which lost 400,000 hunters in that span.
The primary reasons, experts say, are the loss of hunting land to urbanization plus a perception by many families that they can't afford the time or costs that hunting entails.
"To recruit new hunters, it takes hunting families," said Gregg Patterson of Ducks Unlimited. "I was introduced to it by my father, he was introduced to it by his father. When you have boys and girls without a hunter in the household, it's tough to give them the experience."
Some animal-welfare activists welcome the trend, noting that it coincides with a 13 percent increase in wildlife watching since 1996. But hunters and state wildlife agencies, as they prepare for the fall hunting season, say the drop is worrisome.
"It's hunters who are the most willing to give their own dollar for wildlife conservation," Patterson said.
Read the entire story (CNN.com)
I'm quite content to hear that hunting is declining, but I find it a bit ironic that wildlife conservation efforts would still be significantly dependent upon those who wish to kill the large animals in those areas. It's almost like saying that the only way to extract value from the natural spaces is to use them as shooting ranges. It really suggests that the US Fish and Wildlife Service needs to partner with other governmental organizations to figure out better ways to simultaneously promote and extract revenue from non-hunting/non-damaging uses of natural spaces.
Of course, as suburban sprawl continues to envelop larger and larger areas of formerly wild land, the chances for anyone to observe, let alone hunt, big animals will be greatly reduced. Will we get to the point where the only large wild mammals left in the US are deer? Given the range of animals that lived here just 200 years ago, that will certainly be a sad day if (or when) we do.
