Why Johnny Won't Hunt

Field & Stream has an interesting article on the decline of hunting. If we were an animal species - we'd be on the endangered list:

Hunting's vital signs continue the steady decline that began in the 1970s, according to a wave of research released this year. A new U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service survey shows that our total numbers are down: just 12.5 million, dropping half a million in the last five years alone. Our average age is up: 24 percent of us are over 55, whereas only 12 percent of us are under 25. Recruitment is failing: 38 percent fewer newcomers joined our ranks in the last 15 years. And the proportion of Americans who hunt has dropped to 3 percent, a figure guaranteed to shrink as the general population continues to expand.

The article goes on to argue that this is really harmful to the conservation movement. I don't think that's quite right - although hunters and other sportsmen are great supporters of public lands conservation, there is a growing number of non-hunters who are also supporters. I get the feeling that even if the hunting numbers decline there may still be an increased interest in conservation and environmental issues due to increasing non-hunter outdoorsmen and outdoor enthusiasts. Now, that's reassuring for our public lands - but it's still not reassuring for the future of the hunting tradition and I think their diagnosis of where the problems are is spot on. So - take a kid hunting.

The Economist reports on the same.

Newsweek makes fun of all the new hunting gadgets.