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Good Question: Does Hunting Have A Future?

(WCCO) Saturday is the start of Minnesota's waterfowl hunting season. Firearm deer hunting season starts in early November. Historically, for Minnesotans, the fall has been a time for hunting. But is hunting part of Minnesota's future?

"It was the participation sport for upper classes. It was the golf course and the private country club," said Dennis Anderson, Outdoors Editor for the Star Tribune.

However, as the state's population has grown near the Twin Cities, the connection to the agrarian roots has faded, he said.

"We've become an urban state, we've become an urban society," according to Anderson.

Steve Cordts, waterfowl specialist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources told the Star Tribune that annually the average age of duck hunters goes up.

"The average age of our duck hunters is 45 or 46," Cordts told the paper. "Thirty years ago it was in the 20s."

Anderson said there's a great deal of competition for the attention of young people, especially with the increase in participation in team sports.

"From a very young age kids are dropped off, and parents, I would argue, find it a little too easy to drop junior off at a soccer field and then come back in an hour or two," he said.

Duck hunting is suffering from several problems, according to a recent report by the Department of Natural Resources. A decline in wetland habitat has led to a decline in ducks, which in turn has led to a decline in hunting.

Last year, 87,000 Minnesotans got duck hunting licenses. But in the late 1990s and early 2000s, that number was closer to 125,000.

"We have always led the nation in the number of hunters for ducks. Now that number has slipped and we probably trail Texas," said Anderson.

The numbers for deer hunting have been fairly steady. In 1992, the DNR sold 448,716 Minnesota firearm deer licenses. In 2007, the DNR sold 425,964 licenses.

This is not a Minnesota-only problem. According to the U.S. Census bureau, in 1996, there were 14 million hunters. As of the 2006 report, there were 12.5 million hunters.

Anderson said there are consequences if the hunting culture fades away.

"We become a different kind of people. Ultimately, the big concern is, we become less concerned about the land and the water. Already it's a difficult conversation to have with people who have no first hand experience with the land," he said.

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