Sunday, December 19, 2004
J. MICHAEL KELLY
OUTDOORS WRITER
The Syracuse Post-Standard.
Recent research shows that teenage boys and girls who in times gone by might have taken up hunting with their dads or other adults are now more inclined to spend their leisure hours slouched in front of a TV or computer screen.
Nothing shocking there; most parents don't need behavioral scientists to tell them what they have seen with their own eyes.
It is a pleasant surprise, however, to learn that somebody with clout is actually trying to reverse the trend by luring more young people into the field.
The new hunter-recruitment program hatched by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the National Wild Turkey Federation and the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance is called "Start 'Em Young." Campaign organizers will work to increase hunting opportunities in the 23 states, New York among them, that set minimum ages for people wishing to hunt deer and other big-game animals.
In the Empire State, kids ages 14 or 15 who are accompanied by a licensed parent or guardian can hunt deer with bow and arrow, but one must be at least 16 to hunt deer with firearms. No other state sets the age bar so high for gun hunters.
According to the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, youth participation in hunting declined 26 percent between 1990 and 2000. Only about one-fourth of children who live in households with one or more hunters participate in the sport themselves.
Rob Keck, the chief executive officer of the Turkey Federation, thinks the basic problem is that prospective hunters aren't recruited at an early enough age.
"The window for hooking new hunters is when they're between 6 and 15 years old," Keck said. "If they're not allowed to hunt until they're 12 or older, we are missing a chance to share the hunting tradition with our children and grandchildren."
As a first step to increasing the ranks of young hunters, the partners in Start 'Em Young intend to gather statistics on hunter-recruitment successes in states with or without age restrictions.
One of the program's goals is to demonstrate that laws limiting youth participation in hunting result in diminished funding for conservation efforts that hinge on the sale of sporting licenses.
