Decline In Hunters Threatens How U.S. Pays For Conservation (NPR)

bobbydean said:
Ben Lamb please explain his support for never-ending war. Obama did jack shit. The Nobel prize was ridiculous. Tell me why he deserved it.

I actually like your posts and I am sure you will explain it to me. I have zero respect for Obama!

I hope I am assuming Obama, but my best guest!
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Keep calm Bobby. :)

I was agreeing that it was a ridiculous achievement, given his support for continuing war in the middle east, the administration's love of drone strikes, fast & furious, etc.

Obama made many, many mistakes and I didn't agree with everything he did, but I'd take him back in a heartbeat, especially as it relates to public lands and wildlife management.
 
bobbydean said:
Ben Lamb please explain his support for never-ending war. Obama did jack shit. The Nobel prize was ridiculous. Tell me why he deserved it.

I actually like your posts and I am sure you will explain it to me. I have zero respect for Obama!

I hope I am assuming Obama, but my best guest!
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You missed the sarcasm emoji:hump:.
but carry on :W:
 
mr_steve said:
That does sound like a good opportunity for recruitment. What would the downside be? How do you go about propose ideas like that? At a high level I think having an area just for new hunters allows veteran hunters to encourage people to start hunting without the risk of "Giving up their spot".
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It is a great idea. I'd volunteer to tag along and help someone with their first critter too. Sort of like a "youth" season for adults. It might work.
 
BWALKER77 said:
Sure, there is nuance, but what I posted is true. I woukd also argue prehaps its easier to deal with those on the right that want to ruin public land hunting vs dealing with those on the left that want to ruin hunting period.
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What you posted is not inherently true, but it is how the discourse has unfortunately been framed in our current social setting.

I would rather make hipster some elk steaks and talk about where the meat came from and the biological necessity of hunting than try to sit down with the a large land owner and try to explain to them the intrinsic values of public lands, but both are important conversations to have and you aren't going to be successful in either endeavor if you make it about being a D or and R.
 
Ben Lamb said:
Keep calm Bobby. :)

I was agreeing that it was a ridiculous achievement, given his support for continuing war in the middle east, the administration's love of drone strikes, fast & furious, etc.

Obama made many, many mistakes and I didn't agree with everything he did, but I'd take him back in a heartbeat, especially as it relates to public lands and wildlife management.
Click to expand...

Yup, we need to get the gun sales going again.
 
Ben Lamb said:
What I love most about Obama is that the guns I like were never in short supply, same with reloading components. Eccentricity wins!
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I thought they were running short on 6.5creedmoore during tht dark period
 
Kearnsie14 said:
uster19 said:
Around my area most of the farm land is either hunted by friends/family or leased. I am finding there aren't as many hunters but the people that do hunt, hunt more often and harder.

This is a great observation. I'm new to the forum and thought I'd give an example to underscore your point. As background, I'm a long time whitetail hunter from OH where we have very little public land and what little there is gets overrun with hunters. I'm a CPA and I did about $5k of financial work for a friend with no money but that owns 300 acres (that may not be much land out west but in OH, that's alot of land). I knew he could never pay me $5k so I told him to keep his money and I'd settle instead for 1 weekend of whitetail hunting on his land. His response was that there was no way he could do that because his cousin was the only guy that hunted his land and he didn't want to make his cousin mad. Thankfully, I have other places to hunt so I'm not upset about it - just entertained at the notion that the guy wouldn't even give up one single weekend of hunting on his land to satisfy a $5k debt because it risked upsetting his cousin, who apparently had laid claim to exclusive hunting rights to a 300 acre piece of land for the entire 4 month whitetail season. That type of story is very common in Ohio and illustrates your point well - fewer guys hunting more often, harder, and more exclusively. Getting access to private land is everything here. When guys don't have it, they quit hunting.
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This highlights an issue I see in IN. Used to be no trouble to get permission to hunt small game, the aforementioned squirrels and rabbits, in many places here. Now when you ask, it's often a "no" because they allow someone to deer hunt there. Harder to find a place to take new hunters for small game, which I think are a better introduction to hunting that deer hunting as it's done here.
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wllm1313 said:
I have to disagree because these issues are way to nuanced, and the gross oversimplification us v. them mentality that is exposed by Dems and Reps and in the media does not reflect reality.

I own guns, but given the reality we are living in am receptive for arguments against certain types of weapons and for more restrictive laws... does that make me pro or anti gun? I also love animals, I think factory farming is cruel and should be reformed even if it means increase in food prices. I also like having wolves around in the woods ... but I think all populations should be managed scientifically with hunting AND TRAPPING used as methods for this management. Where do these views put me, I have similar "non-conforming" views on most issues as I'm sure most people do.

I get that you are trying to say the NRA is conservative and PETA is liberal, but while the stance of the organizations may follow that they are composed of individuals with a variety of opinions and positions.

If you look at the stats 25% or democratic and 30% of leaning democratic households have guns and 57% of republican and 56% percent of leaning republicans own guns... which means there are lots of republicans who are probably "anti-gun" and lots of democrats that are "pro-gun"... "pro-gun" being a stupid way of describing it because everyone is probably pro guns to some degree and anti to another.

The point is why try to boil everything down and exclude others and instead say hey I get that we don't see eye to eye on AR-15s but we both want elk in that field, maybe for different reasons, and we both want to be able to hike that trail over there so why don't we work together. Sure that person might be your opponent on an issue like lion hunting, but if you worked together on a grant to get some open space designated or an easement on a trail, then down the road when there is a vote to close lion hunting that person might say "well I don't like trophy hunting, but Joe hunts lions and I think he is a good ethical guy so I'm going to vote to keep the season open.
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Whoah there buck, there's no call for making a whole lot of sense, here...
 
Increased urbanization, restricted access to huntable areas, lack of free time, and the rise of Netflix, video games and all-consuming youth sports are all dropping hunter numbers, but the most-pressing challenge is one that Warnke and others can't do anything about.
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Have to agree with most of what's been posted, but I highlighted the two biggest factors I see with the guys I hunt with. Most of them are in the early 40's with young to teenage age kids. Trying to get any of them to go for a half day of either hunting or fishing is next to impossible, much less even bother planning an actual trip of multiple days. Money also plays a factor, but I see it not so much the spending of money since most of them have good paying jobs, but the having to justify it to the spouse who in most cases didn't come from a hunting family. Causes friction so they just don't go.
Guess I don't understand the cutoff age of 65 mentioned either, just because you can't go as far or as fast as when you were 35 or 45 doesn't mean you should quit. My dad will be 81 this fall when we chase antelope in WY, after which he'll load up his wirehair and head to KS for some bird hunting. He might squeeze a CO antelope hunt in there too if he gets drawn.
 
wllm1313 said:
What you posted is not inherently true, but it is how the discourse has unfortunately been framed in our current social setting.

I would rather make hipster some elk steaks and talk about where the meat came from and the biological necessity of hunting than try to sit down with the a large land owner and try to explain to them the intrinsic values of public lands, but both are important conversations to have and you aren't going to be successful in either endeavor if you make it about being a D or and R.
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It most certainly is true. Name one right wing animal rights or anti gun group?
I should have prefaced my comments buy saying I have no party affiliation and have a degree in the environmental sciences.
I would also say that many landowners have some of the same interests as hunters so its a natural thing to find common ground. Trying to do the same with a urban hipster, not so much.
 
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BWALKER77 said:
I would also say that many landowners have some of the same interests as hunters so its a natural thing to find common ground. Trying to do the same with a urban hipster, not so much.
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Come by my office and we can rustle up a half dozen or more hipster grad students and go shooting - or turkey hunting. You'd be surprised about hipsters. They are not all cast of the same common cloth. There are also a goodly number of them that want to try it, but are afraid to for lack opportunity (guns, land, learning), but I work on that a little bit.
 
Brent, not sure where you live but thats not true for most of the country. When I was going to school very few in the Earth Sciences department hunted and I attended college in Upper MI.
 
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I went to an east coast school that, by your definition definitely is/was a very "liberal" college, it was absolutely full of hipsters. You wouldn't know it just from walking around and sitting in the dining halls but there was a decent hunting culture at the school. Students weren't walking around in mossy oak and sitka with MTN Ops stickers on their cars, but there were a decent number of students who got out every fall and most of my friends from school who don't hunt are pretty support of hunting when I talk to them about it, especially if I steer the conversation towards food.

I know 5 guys from my class that have hunted caribou on Adak, I'm sure that when they go back for our reunion most people have no idea they even hunt. My point is just because people don't talk about hunting or display the trappings of hunters doesn't mean they don't hunt and more importantly it doesn't mean that they aren't interested in it but just don't have someone who is willing to take them under their wing.

... from the school that had a riot because a conservative author was speaking at the school...
https://middkid.com/outdoor-guide/hunting/
 
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