NEW BLOOD

TO AVOID A CONSERVATION CRISIS, WE NEED MORE YOUNG HUNTERS

BY ROBERT PYE

HUNTERS BRING IN waterfowlers and duck stamp collectors. As a result, I believe we could reach a conservation crisis.

Through their outdoor passion, hunters contribute to conserving marshes and shorelands that support biodiversity, capture carbon and help prevent floods. But fewer hunters means fewer dollars for the likes of Ottawa’s already underfunded migratory bird stamp program, which pays conservation bills. In the wake of climate change and the more-homesbuilt-faster mantra, we simply need to find creative ways to recruit more new hunters to our ranks. The good news is, governments and hunting organizations are already aiming for such

Free migratory bird hunting permits for youths aged 18 and under, introduced last year by the Canadian Wildlife Service, is perhaps the single-most progressive new move toward water- fowler Heritage Day. I’d like to see this approach also applied at the provincial level for youth hunting licences.

No doubt, the feds in charge of migratory bird hunting see the potential trajectory. Losing sales that they never had to begin with is a smart move to possibly recruit new lifelong waterfowl hunters—the best hope to restore funding to Wildlife Habitat Canada’s oversubscribed conservation grant program. (By the way, the price of the duck stamp has not changed in 32 years, so seasoned hunters can’t cry foul about getting nickel-and-dimed.)

Ease Of Entry

Busy family schedules and tight budgets often stop hunting in its tracks before it can even be discovered. Online hunter education courses bedroom—conveniently between his hockey and school schedules—for just $60. Such fast and affordable services for busy families will surely help move the needle on hunter recruitment. In fact, I think it will ensure a growth rate the hunting community hasn’t witnessed since the legal hunting age was lowered from 15 to 12 in some provinces.

Culture Of Inclusion

Signs that new hunters are welcome often surface during volunteer events at local gun clubs and so on, with photo ops for the dozen or so kids in attendance (many of whom already come from hunting families). Before these future hunters even get home, however, how many veteran hunters age out of the conservation ranks instead? No, a net gain for hunting will

Despite the naysayers, what we need now are more once-impossible dreams, such as hunter apprenticeship programs, new hunting seasons, Sunday gun hunting, expanded archery opportunities, online hunter education, and tags available for purchase by apprentice hunters rather than forcing them to share their mentors’ tag.

I also think it’s time to let kids enter deer and moose draw systems in my home province of Ontario. New hunters are just as qualified as any other accredited hunter, and in my deer woods, no one deserves a crack at filling a doe tag more than a young gun.

Touting the take-a-kid-hunting messaging only works when the hunting system we deal with is equally forward-thinking and ambitious. Meanwhile, new and veteran hunters alike