ORIGINAL: HAZCON7
Good points Nix, although I'm on the fence about those numbers.
To me, the passion speaks louder than the numbers.And if all we get is 0.69-to-1 recruited of passionate hunters,like we have here on this forum, then I think our future looks great! That is, as long as we preserve the heritage, pass along our knowledge to qualified candidates,and continue to emphasize the morals, values, and ethics widely displayed in this forum.
<Upon further review of the play... Edited to remove unnecessary ramblings>
I understand what you are saying but the numbers really are staggering....I looked further into the decline in hunters annually and specifically the youth recruitment.
The best source of information I found was this study called "Factors Related to Hunting and Fishing Participation Among the Nation's Youth"
Here is the link:
http://www.ihea.com/documents/YouthFactorsPhaseI.pdf
There are several graphs that caught my eye on this study but one figure really did on page 56....
It says that there was a -26%change (decline)in Teens (age 12-17) that went hunting from 1990 - 2000. If I am reading this correctly thats about 700,000 less teens that went hunting in 2000 compared to 1990.
The average hunter spends about $2k per year on hunting so in other words we lost about $1,400,000,000 in the industry.
Imno statistician by any means but as I keep reading this study I have to admit I am very concerned with the trends...