See in the local paper today that the USF&W says there has been a 10% decline nationwide in the number of hunting licenses issued. Most noted were the New England area, the Rocky Mountain West and the Pacific Coast areas.

anyone notice a decline in the license issuance in your area? Sure seems like there has been more than a 10% INCREASE in Arizona! :eek:

One thing I see here in Idaho is an increase in out of state hunters and a decrease in young (18 to 25 year old) hunters. Most of the folks you see in the woods are folks from their mid 30's to mid 60's and more out of state folks in the same age bracket.

I don't know if this is because the younger folks are just to busy working or there seems to be more interesting things to do when your that age. It could also be that hunting just costs more now and folks in that age bracket seem to have to really keep their noses to the grindstone to make ends meet.

I do know that areas that I used to elk hunt seem to have many more folks concentrated in the camping areas than there were 10 or 15 years ago. Campers, four wheelers, SUV's, and four wheel drive pickups seem to be crowding every road and wide space open to park a rig in. If you drive thru and stop and listen the noise from folks cruising the trails with four wheelers is a steady drone from daylight to dusk.

Perhaps because we still have a general elk season and over the counter tags is the big draw for those few weeks the season is open and that's why it seems so crowded, I don't know. I haven't kept track of the success rates here in Idaho, but got a feeling harvest rates are down from ten years ago. I do see elk coming out of the woods though.

Good elk country up near the Idaho Montana border.

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q172/faucettb/North%20Idaho/LochsawRiver1.jpg

I doubt if I even buy an elk tag this year, I'll just hunt deer around the home place and let the crowds chase the elk around and around. I'm getting to the point that I like hunting coyotes about as good as anything. No animals to skin, no meat to cut up and no limits and no seasons. Lots of shooting and the challenge of calling keep that interesting.

In case I just can't leave a good coyote lying on the ground.

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q172/faucettb/Preditor%20masters/CoyoteHelper.jpg

Been thinking about this some lately and kinda think it has to do with how hunting and hunters are portrayed to the world now days, to a certain extent. When I was a kid hunters were portrayed in a very positive light but now we are looked at as dirty in need of a bath or clean clothes and as heartless killers, that are a card or two short of a full deck..

There was a report in the Anchorage Daily News a few weeks ago. Basically, it said that nationwide and in Alaska, the survey conducted by the USFWS shown that the percentage of hunters in the general population have declined, but in most states, the number of hunter license sales have increased.

In effect, there are more hunters and fisherman than ever before, but as a percentage of the total population, the percentage is down.

I suspect this trend will continue as the USA becomes more urbanized and we get farther from an agrarian society. However, I think we will continue to see increased hunting pressure on public lands and more traveling hunters than ever before.

Basically, we have an expanding population, the highest rates of population expansion being in the cities, but the raw numbers of hunters will continue to increase. As a precentage of the overall population, I suspect the hunters % will decrease...

The numbers are available (or at least were available) on the USFWS website.

Alyeska, don't know about Alaska specifically, but the most recent data shows the actual number of hunters has decreased. The percentage has been dwindling for years, but now the actual numbers are lower.

There must be a lot less huntable land, though. Like Bob, I see more hunters in my usual spots every year. I don't see how this could be in a state like Idaho, with a fairly large amount of public land, but it's true. Maybe people are being pushed from private lands onto public?

Here's a link to the survey by the USFWS. It does say the total number of hunters have declined in the past 5 years, however big game hunters are steady.
http://federalasst.fws.gov/surveys/surveys.html
5 YEAR TREND INFORMATION

A comparison of estimates of the 2006 and 2001 Surveys reveals that millions of Americans continue to enjoy wildlife recreation.

Fishing — Fishing continues to be a favorite pastime. In 2001, 13% of the U.S. population 16 years old and older spent an average of 17 days fishing. Comparing results of the 2006 Survey and 2001 Surveys reveals that although the number of all anglers declined 12%, their expenditures for fishing equipment (rods, reels, etc.) and fishing trips increased 5% and 7%, respectively. There were drops in expenditures for auxiliary equipment (special clothing, tents, etc.) and special equipment (big ticket items such as boats) by -14% and -12%, respectively.

The biggest declines in fishing participation were Great Lakes fishing which dropped 23% and Saltwater fishing which dropped 15%. Excluding the Great Lakes, freshwater fishing participation decreased by 10%.

Hunting — Five percent of the U.S. population 16 years old and older, 12.5 million people, hunted in 2006. They spent an average of 18 days pursuing their sport. The number of all hunters declined by 4% from 2001 to 2006 and there was a 3% drop in overall expenditures (not a statistically significant change).

Although the total number of hunters declined from 2001 to 2006, the number of big game hunters held their own. The biggest declines were in migratory bird hunting (-22%) and small animal hunting (-12%).

As in the case of fishing expenditures, expenditures for hunting equipment (firearms, ammunition, etc.) actually increased 3%, as did hunting trips which rose by 13%. The biggest drop in expenditures was for special equipment—big ticket items like trucks and cabins—which declined by 30%.



The rest of the survey summary is at the link above.

For Alaska, we had an increase in license sales (for hunting, the license is not broken down into small game and big game), however, as a percentage of the population, the number of hunters has decreased in the past several years.

The state generally sells between 400,000 to 500,000 licenses, and while there have been minor fluctuations, officials still think their numbers show an increase over time, Vincent-Lang said.

The rest of the story, including the USFWS summary, is at:
http://www.adn.com/outdoors/story/9219174p-9135328c.html

See in the local paper today that the USF&W says there has been a 10% decline nationwide in the number of hunting licenses issued. Most noted were the New England area, the Rocky Mountain West and the Pacific Coast areas.

anyone notice a decline in the license issuance in your area? Sure seems like there has been more than a 10% INCREASE in Arizona! :eek:

I read an article about a year ago that said that Arizona has the hightest hunter recruitment in the country, for every hunter that quits hunting 1.6 hunters take his or her place. I live in Nevada and we are seeing a slight increase in hunters, mainly because we are growing so fast.

i quit because i just plain got tired of killing......, four legged critters that is :D

I just cruised over to the NY DEC website to see if it had any info on license sales statistics. NY DEC website shows license sales statistics from 2002 through last year. Since 2002 hunting license sales have dropped over 12%. I did not expect to see that !! I recall reading somewhere recently that hunting license sales in NY are down over 30% from 25 years ago. I see the effects of that in some of the places I go. State land down the road from where I hunt only has a couple vehicles parked on weekends during deer season. That same piece of land used to be very crowded during deer season 15 years ago. I also notice that opening morning vehicle traffic isn't nearly as heavy as it used to be.

On the other hand, with more and more land being posted or developed each year, public land within an hours drive of Buffalo and Rochester is still overcrowded with hunters during deer and upland bird seasons.

MikeW

I agree anyone that I see in the woods re my age, mid 30's or older. Very small amount of younger persons. I think it's due to the teachings in the public schools. It seems that anything related to guns or killing is being taught as being wrong. My son learned at a young age that killing for food is a natural chain of events. Our food depends on someone killing something. Either it being ourselves, or the butcher, or whomever. I'm not sure how many of freinds understand this chain of events.

The other thing I have seen is an increase in women hunters. Have no ideas on this one....

See in the local paper today that the USF&W says there has been a 10% decline nationwide in the number of hunting licenses issued. Most noted were the New England area, the Rocky Mountain West and the Pacific Coast areas.

anyone notice a decline in the license issuance in your area? Sure seems like there has been more than a 10% INCREASE in Arizona! :eek:
From 2001 through 2005, Texas has averaged about 1.1 million licenses sold. That hasn't varied much. The state of Texas has done every thing it can to to increase hunting with extended seasons, youth hunts, managed land and exotic hunts and hunting in the State Park system.

We are blessed with many large ranches that offer different hunts during the year which brings in many hunters. But, the problem we are faced with is the large ranches that are breaking up into smaller tracts of land. It seems like everyone wants to buy 200- 500 acres and call it a cattle ranch or high fence it and call it a hunting preserve. That isn't bad, but that does change the way the land is hunted and usually closes its door to lease hunters. Even down here, we are running out of land. I don't want to be pessimistic but I think we can expect higher prices and fewer deer.
This brings up another can of worms, high fences. Sorry, I'll get off of that one. One ranch near us was 1000 +/- acres, and just sold to three different people. Those folk will family hunt their smaller ranches. I don't blame them but that's just the way it is.

Been thinking about this some lately and kinda think it has to do with how hunting and hunters are portrayed to the world now days, to a certain extent. When I was a kid hunters were portrayed in a very positive light but now we are looked at as dirty in need of a bath or clean clothes and as heartless killers, that are a card or two short of a full deck..

i spent alot of time with my 36 year old son last weekend and he expressed the same as the last part of your statement.... i said what the **** makes you tink that way? he had no real answer.... he sure didn't learn it from me!

well i recon ill alienate a lot of people.
but some hunters talk about what ever they hunt,,as if
they are not a live animals that woke up that day,expecting to live a lot longer.. now im pro hunting ,fishing and more or less against any law that treads on or threatens my individual rights..
but my kids were taught pretty young that one of our
animals had to die to get the meat for the stew or hamburger or whatever we were having for supper..
hunting or fishing is fun because it is part of mankinds
fundamental nature.. that nature was put there to help mankind survive.. the best hunter of a tribe was looked up to
throughout history. so we hone our skills at it. but lets be careful how we sound to a world of people who ate bacon this morning but think they dont believe in ever killing anything..
jmo