ORIGINAL: Pinwheel 12

Sigh...where to begin...OK, first, there are less lands to hunt every year due to development, and more cities and people with "alternative lifestyles".So yes, there are less hunters---simple mathematics used here will clearly verify that, it's a no brainer that there would be less numbers.

Development is not the reason why we are losing hunters. Ask the NRA, this is what they published:

"According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service`s National Survey of Hunting, Fishing and Wildlife-Associated Recreation, on average, just one out of every four children from a hunting household actively participates in hunting.

One way to assess the health of hunting in America is to use the same models biologists use to gauge the health of wildlife populations.

For a wildlife population to be stable, every individual of a species lost to disease, predation or old age must be replaced by another of that species, in a 1-to-1 ratio, through a process known as "recruitment."

If you look at the recruitment rates of American hunters, you see we already may be endangered. Since most hunters are introduced to the sport as youngsters, and since few adults take up hunting if they weren`t exposed to it in their youth, common sense suggests that having a stable population of hunters requires that the percentage of youth hunters should match the percentage of adult hunters. But it doesn`t. Not even close.

Indeed, nationally, if you compare the percentage of the population between the ages of six and 16 that hunts, with the percentage of the population over age 16 that hunts, instead of getting the 1-to-1 ratio needed to maintain current levels, you get just 0.69-to-1.

Stated simply, we may be about 31 percent below keeping our heads above water.
Putting Logic into the Laws "Fifty years ago, most kids started hunting at an early age as a form of family recreation and to help put food on the table," said Dawson Hobbs, NRA-ILA manager of hunting policy. "Today, with 160 satellite tv channels, video games and everything else, young people have never had so many activities competing for their attention. If we don`t involve them early on, we`ll lose them to those other activities."

http://www.nraila.org/Issues/Articles/Read.aspx?ID=171

But guess what?Overall numbersmake no difference to the truehunters themselves who enjoy the lifestyle and heritage called hunting

Speak for yourself. That is a selfish statement. It does matter. The numbers dont lie (again same NRA article):

"Each year, American hunters spend more than $700 million on hunting licenses, permits, tags and stamps. Without these monies, who would fund the state and federal conservation programs that keep wildlife populations healthy and in balance?
On top of that $700 million, American hunters spend another $20 billion on hunting equipment, transportation, lodging and the like--more than Americans spend on coffee.
How many American jobs would be lost without that $20 billion boost to our economy?
Yet, compared to the long-term consequences for freedom, those costs could be trivial. Since most hunters are introduced to the sport by their parents, one generation is all it would take to cut off hunting at its knees.

--it ONLY makes a difference to those who are looking to make money from the sport, that is one of the veryfirst arguements they usein fact. My entirefamily, and many other hunting families all across the countryare firmly rooted into this lifestyle that is called hunting, and the traditions are being passed as we speak to future generations. The future of hunting is VERY intact with those who live it and whodo not everwish to smear the heritage itself, and/or morph it into something it is not.

Its NOT intact. Again the numbers dont lie. If you dont believe me go argue with the NRA and NSSF amongst others.

BASS turned fishing into a glorified three ring circus, and that is NOT how I or any of my true hunting bretheren wants to see our heritage publicized as. Nor did it increase fishing numbers of regular Joes

Do you seriously think that Bass fishing (more specifically BASS)hasnt increased or assisted in the stabilization of fishing licenses or recruitment??? If you believe this you are way out of touch with the youth of today. Go down South and share your rhetoric and see what kind of response you get...People love BASS and thats why they are all over TV today. It hasnt RUINED fishing either.