Oh boy, here we go again

[DesertBull]

Now AZ is hosting a conference on how to screw up hunting -

 

 

 

www.azgfd.com

 

 

 

Western wildlife agencies are discussing declines in hunting and fishing participation

 

A national survey shows a continuing decline in hunting and fishing participation and wildlife agencies meeting in Flagstaff, Arizona in early July are looking at ways to combat those trends.

 

"Hunter and Angler Recruitment and Retention" is the theme for the annual conference of the Western Association of Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA) in Flagstaff from July 6-10 at the Radisson Woodlands Hotel. The conference is being hosted by the Arizona Game and Fish Department.

 

"This year's conference theme, hunter and angler recruitment and retention, comes at a crucial time in our history," says Arizona Game and Fish Director Duane Shroufe, who is the current president of the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.

 

As the western states urbanize, Shroufe says, participation in outdoor recreation in general, and hunting and angling in particular, is falling. "Whether we call it a crisis or an opportunity, what wildlife managers do in response will shape the future of conservation in North America."

 

The conference theme is on the mark. Every five years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service puts together a massive survey of outdoor recreation, and the 2006 preliminary numbers were released in mid June. Nationally, the number of anglers has dropped 12 percent since 2001; the hunter count has fallen off by 4 percent during the same five-year period.

 

Those trends have wildlife professionals concerned for many reasons, including the fact that hunting and fishing generates the lion's share of revenue to fund wildlife conservation throughout North America.

 

During the plenary session of the WAFWA conference, there will be a panel discussion on July 9-10 about hunter and angler recruitment and retention. The panelists include such notables as:

 

Shane Mahoney, an internationally acclaimed biologist and writer who is renowned for chronicling the history of North American conservation in an award-winning video.

Rob Keck, the chief executive officer for the National Wild Turkey Federation, one of the fastest growing conservation organizations in North America. His focus is marketing and selling the sizzle of wildlife conservation and the importance of preserving our hunting heritage.

Rob Sexton, the legislative liaison for the US Sportsmen's Alliance, which is leading the way on eliminating barriers to hunting.

Steve Williams, the president of the Wildlife Management Institute, a non-profit conservation organization headquartered in Wash., D. C., that emphasizes science-based wildlife management.

Dr. Delwin E. Benson, a professor of wildlife biology at Colorado State University and chairman of the Center for Conservation and Education for the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation in Illinois.

Gordon Batcheller, a wildlife biologist and section head for the New York State Division of Fish, Wildlife and Marine Resources.

 

The Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, which represents 23 states and Canadian provinces, will also be discussing a wide range of other issues during its annual conference. These range from threatened and endangered wildlife issues, bird conservation, state/federal/tribal interactions, human dimensions, human-wildlife conflicts and inland/marine fisheries to name a few.

 

WAFWA members represent an area covering nearly 3.7 million square miles of some of North America's most wild and scenic country that is inhabited by over 1,500 premier wildlife species.

 

WAFWA has been a key organization in promoting the principles of sound resource management and the building of partnerships at the regional, national and international levels in order to enhance wildlife conservation efforts and the protection of associated habitats in the public interest.

 

The timing and theme of the conference could not have been better. Although the U.S. Fish and Wildlife final report on the national survey won't be available until November, wildlife professionals are taking the initial findings to heart because despite a rapidly expanding population in this country, millions fewer people are going hunting and fishing.

 

In 2006, 13 percent of the U.S. population still took the rod and reel out for a cast. Nearly 30 million people - five million less than 2001 - went fishing, spending an average of 17 days angling during the year. They dropped about $40 billion on licenses, equipment and trips to support the activity.

 

Mark Damian Duda of the outdoor research group Responsive Management in Harrisonburg, Va., says there are countless reasons for the trend, chief among them urbanization and changes in America's rural culture. Video games and cable television vie for the attention of young kids, and their parents can't find the time or gain access as readily to the nation's rapidly disappearing hunting fields and fishing holes.

 

Duda is optimistic about the long haul, because states are noticing the trends and working hard to stop the slide.

[Red Rabbit]

Now AZ is hosting a conference on how to screw up hunting -

 

So how is trying to find ways to get the youth engaged in hunting and fishing, and looking down the road 30 years and still have hunting and fishing a bad thing?

[GameHauler]

Why can they not understand the reason for decline is because of the bad decessions the comission is making?? The Hunters are Mad. The Hunters are the only ones who can recruit new hunters.

[AZP&Y]

Here's a link to the company that did some of the research for a study on why kids don't hunt or continue to hunt:

 

It's 111 pages (somewhat long and drawn out - PDF file) , but still some real interesting stuff in there.

The 12th grade students were polled @ Phoenix Area schools in 2001.

•Factors Related to Hunting and Fishing Participation Among the Nation's Youth:

 

This study was conducted to better understand the factors related to hunting and fishing initiation, participation, retention, and desertion among today's youth 8-18 years old.

 

http://www.responsivemanagement.com/downlo...torsPhaseII.pdf

 

Mark Damian Duda of the outdoor research group Responsive Management in Harrisonburg, Va., says there are countless reasons for the trend, chief among them urbanization and changes in America's rural culture. Video games and cable television vie for the attention of young kids, and their parents can't find the time or gain access as readily to the nation's rapidly disappearing hunting fields and fishing holes.

 

Although public lands seem to be constantly decreasing, AZ still has plenty of space to take kids outdoors , hunting and fishing...30 years from now - who knows?

 

AzP&Y

[DesertBull]

Now AZ is hosting a conference on how to screw up hunting -

 

So how is trying to find ways to get the youth engaged in hunting and fishing, and looking down the road 30 years and still have hunting and fishing a bad thing?

 

 

It's not, obviously, but where have we heard this before - "Hunter and Angler Recruitment and Retention" is the theme for the annual conference of the Western Association of Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA)

[crazy4COUES]

Why can they not understand the reason for decline is because of the bad decessions the comission is making?? The Hunters are Mad. The Hunters are the only ones who can recruit new hunters.

 

Why would a hunter want to have a negative affect on the future of hunting? I know I want to be positive towards hunting and involving the youth, afterall they are the ones who need to learn how valuable it is so they too will help protect it. Just because the Az. commission does something you may not 100% agree with doesn't mean you should just clam up and not help poeple old/young get involved. Sorry I do not understand your point....

[Red Rabbit]

Hunter recruitment and retention is a national situation that needs and is getting attention.

http://www.ussportsmen.org/Families_Afield.cfm

http://www.familiesafield.org/

[bobbyo]

G+F just doubles the price of tags and licenses and wonders why there is less hunters and fisherman. This is not rocket science. Although there may be less actual license holders; revenue for outdoor sports has increased dramatically. Sporting goods and state agencys are making more money then ever. This confrence is just to find new methods to grow revenue streams(more opportunity) and nothing to to with perserving our hunting heritage. Youth hunters = Money? Lets be real. What would our hunting heritage look like if every child became a hunter? I think it would be a memory.Our hunting heritage cannot support a infinite number of hunters. By the way if there is less people hunting and fishing why am I running into so many people in my secret spots? No more PMS with info.

Bob

[DesertBull]

If we do not recruit more kids into hunting and fishing, we are going to lose it all at the ballot box. That is a given. My point is, this conference is just another brain storming event to come with more ideas like moving the Sept elk tags into Nov, moving the Coues tags out of December, and issuing more and more tags, despite what current herd numbers are.

And our own G&F commissioner is the president of the group!

If this doesn't cement the fact that these new 2 year guidelines are going to implemented, no matter what the public input is, your head is in the sand.

 

Bobbyo is correct. They have these new catch phrases about recruitment, retainment and removing barriers to hunting, but they never hesitate to raise the prices, no matter what sort of barrier that might create.

[az4life]

There is a Right Way to do things,

A Wrong Way to do things,

and then there is the AGFD way.

They tell you one thing and do another.

They are Still making more money with less hunters,

increases in fees, diminished hunt quality.

They call that increased opportunity.

[tucrats]

Why would they want to recruit more when during the last vote the "general public" vote to sell off over 9,000,000 acres of state trust land that has been set aside since 1917. The vote said that it would be sold to the highest bidder and could do whatever they wanted with it.

 

If there was a decline in hunting and fishing, then how come we still have a draw process or bonus point. Sure hunting only went down 4 percent and fishing went down 10 percent, however I gaurantee there are a heck of a lot of unlicensed fishermen and hunters that we dont know about.

[GameHauler]

Why can they not understand the reason for decline is because of the bad decessions the comission is making?? The Hunters are Mad. The Hunters are the only ones who can recruit new hunters.

 

Why would a hunter want to have a negative affect on the future of hunting? I know I want to be positive towards hunting and involving the youth, afterall they are the ones who need to learn how valuable it is so they too will help protect it. Just because the Az. commission does something you may not 100% agree with doesn't mean you should just clam up and not help poeple old/young get involved. Sorry I do not understand your point....

 

I have always been a big supporter of the AZGFD and still am.

I will continue to hunt Arizona and take and teach my daughters as Much as possable.

I hear from people all the time about being fed up with the comm. and the changes they are making.

These people are saying they just are not going to put up with it and will go hunt other states.

The main reason the GF Dept wants to recruit hunters is because we are becoming more and more of a minority, Making or voices weaker and the tree hugers stronger and they are right.

I do not blame anyone for just going out of state to get a GOOD hunt.

By moving the hunt to be able to increase the # of tags is BS

I am glad to have a Elk tag this year but I know this is going to be a real Pain in the rear hunt.

My daughter had the same hunt last year with only 50 Tags, This year there are 100.

We did not have a problem finding Elk but had a heck of a time not getting them shot out from under us. That is just not FUN

Here is a example Oct 26th unit 22 will have 1100 deer hunter at the same time. Do you think a Kid on his first hunt is going to enjoy himself having deer shot from under him or some Jerk come up screaming at his father because they were able to harvest a deer before that butt head could get to it

Or just not seeing anything except trucks on every road and hunters on every hillside.

This makes me MAD because alot of guys are not going to subject themselves or ther kids to it.

Therfore they go out of state or don't hunt.

Hunting should be fun and they are taking the fun out of it

 

Mad Mike

 

P.S. maybe the Comm. will get the idea when the number of fights or shootings go up.

There goes there great record

[firstcoueswas80]

G+F just doubles the price of tags and licenses and wonders why there is less hunters and fisherman. This is not rocket science. Although there may be less actual license holders; revenue for outdoor sports has increased dramatically. Sporting goods and state agencys are making more money then ever. This confrence is just to find new methods to grow revenue streams(more opportunity) and nothing to to with perserving our hunting heritage. Youth hunters = Money? Lets be real. What would our hunting heritage look like if every child became a hunter? I think it would be a memory.Our hunting heritage cannot support a infinite number of hunters. By the way if there is less people hunting and fishing why am I running into so many people in my secret spots? No more PMS with info.

Bob

 

ding ding ding!

[Rembrant]

The editorial inside the front cover of the latest AZ Hunter and Angler: Harry Morgan states that Microsoft is throwing millions of dollars at the national humane association to fight a number of things that we cherrish and one of them being the exposure of young people to the sport of hunting, and they actually used the term, "hunter retention".

There is a bigger picture.

The Game Dept. is not using "catch phrases", they are fighting a gigantic battle for you, and me, and our offspring.

The complainers on this forum remind me of a kid trying to watch a parade through a hole in the fence, when the Game Dept is viewing the whole procession from a helicopter.

Big picture, guys.

Mike