SUN JOURNAL • June 4, 2022
Fueled by a liberal press and the animal rights lobby during the past decade, the conventional notion is: recreational hunting is on the skids. Even some of my peers have bought in to this negativity, arguing that the blood sports are terminal in Western culture. Is that really the case? The total of licensed hunters in this country has remained flat over the past two decades. The growing influx of women hunters has, apparently, offset the decline in recruitment of young hunters. More surprising, a recent survey revealed there was a 25% increase in new hunters and a 5% spike in licensed hunters in 2020. Most incredible, last year, those of us who hunt generated $1.5 billion dollars for wildlife departments and conservation efforts throughout the country. ~ V. Paul Reynolds