Hunting traditions change as age demographics shift
Published: Friday, December 3, 2010
Updated: Friday, December 3, 2010 04:12
Hunters are beginning to see a change in the way their peers approach the outdoors as Baby Boomers begin to hand down their rifles and a younger generation of hunters populate the woods.
State wildlife officials have noted a growing number of cases in which young hunters are not practicing the degree of land stewardship previously celebrated in Montana.
Thomas Baumeister, Hunter Education Coordinator for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks said a combination of demographic shifts, the targeting of young people by entertainment industries and economic challenges contribute to the transition.
The majority of today's hunting population is comprised of aging Baby Boomers, Baumeister said.
"It's not a matter of if they are going to drop out [of hunting] but when," Baumeister said. "And by the time a young person can hunt, they are hooked into other things, like electronic games."
Jeff Darrah, game warden for FWP, has seen a number of cases where it appears that young people are hunting with a "video game mentality."
One instance, he described, was one in which teens were competing against each other for how many animals they could kill.
"Ten points for deer, 50 points for an elk, a hundred for a moose," Darrah said.
Illegal hunts recorded on YouTube or Facebook have led wildlife officials to convict offenders.
In October, a Corvallis man was charged with allegedly poaching a trophy mule deer. Video, e-mails and text messages of the animal brought to wildlife officials instigated an investigation.
Darrah does not attribute these violations to a lack in hunting education. In the Missoula area, he said, nearly 1,000 people take hunter safety each year.
"In the early years, hunter safety was primarily about gun safety," Darrah said, "and now it's more about the heritage and ethics of hunting."
In Montana, there are 229,000 people that hunt, according to Baumeister, which is the highest number of hunters per capita in the nation.
Dale Smith started teaching hunter safety over 50 years ago in Hamilton. He said when classes first started he had only 10 students. Today, he said there are nearly 40 people, young and old alike, getting their hunter safety certification.
Hunting is always changing, Smith said. Animal populations grow, shrink and move around, and people are spreading into wildlife habitat. The number of hunters is not declining, but rather the manner in which animals are hunted.
In Montana, Darrah said FWP works to encourage young people to get out into the woods. This year, general hunting areas opened two days earlier for those ages 12 to 15, providing young hunters the first shots of the season. In addition, a hunter's first license is free, those under the age of 15 can hunt cow elk without buying a license and a number of wardens in Montana have taken kids out for their first hunts if family members are not able to do so.
For three years, Darrah has taken first-time hunters into the field.
"The kids are excited, I'm excited and it means a lot to me to help a kid get their first animal," Darrah said.
One of the hunters whom Darrah helped bag his first deer recently moved out of the state.
"I didn't think I'd hear from him again," Darrah said. "But he called me this fall."
The teen was letting Darrah know that he had shot another deer and told his mentor he was still involved.
"It gives you that warm feeling," Darrah said.
Numerous states have opted to lower or eliminate minimum hunting ages to further encourage young people to hunt.
"In my personal opinion, carrying a high-powered rifle through the woods, the physical and mental ability needed to do so, and to do it safely isn't something someone younger than 12 years old can do," Darrah said. "Dads need to be getting their kids out long before they're 12 to teach them this."
The changes observed in the way new generations hunt can't be blamed on one thing like entertainment technologies, Baumeister said. Communities are aging, he said, and with today's economic changes, not everyone can afford the gear and time needed to go hunting.
"It's the societal nature of our time," Baumeister said. "We have high game counts and opportunities to hunt them, but it takes a hunter to make a hunter. This tradition has to start and continue in the family."
http://www.montanakaimin.com/arts-culture/hunting-traditions-change-as-age-demographics-shift-1.1818402
hannah.ryan@umontana.edu
State wildlife officials have noted a growing number of cases in which young hunters are not practicing the degree of land stewardship previously celebrated in Montana.
Thomas Baumeister, Hunter Education Coordinator for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks said a combination of demographic shifts, the targeting of young people by entertainment industries and economic challenges contribute to the transition.
The majority of today's hunting population is comprised of aging Baby Boomers, Baumeister said.
"It's not a matter of if they are going to drop out [of hunting] but when," Baumeister said. "And by the time a young person can hunt, they are hooked into other things, like electronic games."
Jeff Darrah, game warden for FWP, has seen a number of cases where it appears that young people are hunting with a "video game mentality."
One instance, he described, was one in which teens were competing against each other for how many animals they could kill.
"Ten points for deer, 50 points for an elk, a hundred for a moose," Darrah said.
Illegal hunts recorded on YouTube or Facebook have led wildlife officials to convict offenders.
In October, a Corvallis man was charged with allegedly poaching a trophy mule deer. Video, e-mails and text messages of the animal brought to wildlife officials instigated an investigation.
Darrah does not attribute these violations to a lack in hunting education. In the Missoula area, he said, nearly 1,000 people take hunter safety each year.
"In the early years, hunter safety was primarily about gun safety," Darrah said, "and now it's more about the heritage and ethics of hunting."
In Montana, there are 229,000 people that hunt, according to Baumeister, which is the highest number of hunters per capita in the nation.
Dale Smith started teaching hunter safety over 50 years ago in Hamilton. He said when classes first started he had only 10 students. Today, he said there are nearly 40 people, young and old alike, getting their hunter safety certification.
Hunting is always changing, Smith said. Animal populations grow, shrink and move around, and people are spreading into wildlife habitat. The number of hunters is not declining, but rather the manner in which animals are hunted.
In Montana, Darrah said FWP works to encourage young people to get out into the woods. This year, general hunting areas opened two days earlier for those ages 12 to 15, providing young hunters the first shots of the season. In addition, a hunter's first license is free, those under the age of 15 can hunt cow elk without buying a license and a number of wardens in Montana have taken kids out for their first hunts if family members are not able to do so.
For three years, Darrah has taken first-time hunters into the field.
"The kids are excited, I'm excited and it means a lot to me to help a kid get their first animal," Darrah said.
One of the hunters whom Darrah helped bag his first deer recently moved out of the state.
"I didn't think I'd hear from him again," Darrah said. "But he called me this fall."
The teen was letting Darrah know that he had shot another deer and told his mentor he was still involved.
"It gives you that warm feeling," Darrah said.
Numerous states have opted to lower or eliminate minimum hunting ages to further encourage young people to hunt.
"In my personal opinion, carrying a high-powered rifle through the woods, the physical and mental ability needed to do so, and to do it safely isn't something someone younger than 12 years old can do," Darrah said. "Dads need to be getting their kids out long before they're 12 to teach them this."
The changes observed in the way new generations hunt can't be blamed on one thing like entertainment technologies, Baumeister said. Communities are aging, he said, and with today's economic changes, not everyone can afford the gear and time needed to go hunting.
"It's the societal nature of our time," Baumeister said. "We have high game counts and opportunities to hunt them, but it takes a hunter to make a hunter. This tradition has to start and continue in the family."
http://www.montanakaimin.com/arts-culture/hunting-traditions-change-as-age-demographics-shift-1.1818402
hannah.ryan@umontana.edu
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