Originally Posted by Oldtimr

There are few states if any that have no experienced a drop in hunter numbers. Many state agencies try to stem the flow by making it easier for people to become first time hunters with programs such as mentored youth and mentored adults programs that do not require a hunter safety course or age requirement until the youth reaches the age where they can and must buy a license and the adult program in my has a time limit. In my opinion none of this or anything else will stem the drop in hunters. We are an aging society and one of the biggest losses of numbers comes from the greatest generation who have mostly died off and from baby boomers who are now at the age where they have slowed down and have health problems that prevent them from enjoying hunting any longer. In addition, the young people today have many other things to do for fun that doesn't require them to get cold or wet or bored by having to wait for an opportunity to shoot. and many of them have no one to teach them as our culture changes. When I was a kid it was hard to find a boy that didn't hunt. Also, many places that people used to hunt on private ground are now shopping centers or housing developments and rather than hunt public land they just get disgusted and quit. Almost all the places I hunted up until I got out of the service are gone and it is disheartening to see. The places where my father and brothers and I laughed and had a good time hunting pheasants when there were pheasants in PA are no longer woods and farm fields farmed the old way long before no till came to town. I went back to see what was left one day, I live in a different county now, and what I saw was so sad I left with tears in my eyes. If hunting was not so deeply ingrained in my blood by my father I just may have quit but it is part of me so I will continue until I can't any more and then give it another year. All these things and more are reasons for loss of hunter numbers and I think it is naive to believe it can be stopped, it can be slowed some but our numbers will continue to drop. Doggy, what less hunters will mean in the future will not be more game for those who hunt, it will mean less people to lobby and pressure the state and federal governments to manage wildlife for optimum numbers for the habitat and to buy land and manage it for hunting and less money to do it. We only have what we have today because of our numbers. Once our numbers are low enough so that the General Assemblies in the respective states no longer are concerned about their voting block, they will pay more attention to the voting blocks of the anti hunters. State constitutions that have hunting as a right will be amended to remove it. I wish I could see a brighter future.