Falling license sales remain hunting's top threat

October 14, 2008

Good for deer and wildlife, but bad for farmed animals.

http://www.mcall.com/sports/outdoors/all-berg.6610092sep30,0,7442418.column

Christian Berg | Outdoors September 30, 2008

At next month's Pennsylvania Game Commission meeting, sportsmen will argue the pros and cons of allowing crossbows in the archery deer seasons.In the General Assembly, lawmakers are sparring over the commission's need for a license-fee increase.In the state court system, the Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania are suing the commission over its deer-management program.In the court of public opinion, animal rights activists are attacking hunting as a cruel anachronism practiced only by modern-day Neanderthals.

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As serious as all those issues are, putting too much focus on any of them is fiddling while Rome burns. The fact is, the slow but steady decline in hunter numbers -- both in Pennsylvania and across the nation -- remains the No. 1 threat to the sport's future.As of the end of August, Pennsylvania hunting license sales were down 5 percent to 507,097 -- a decline of 24,623 from the same period a year ago. Although the rate of decline is likely to be somewhat smaller by the end of the year, you can be certain license sales won't increase.In the decade between 1998 and 2007, Pennsylvania's hunting license sales declined nearly 14 percent, from 1.07 million to 924,448. Over the past three years, the annual rate of decline has been just over 3 percent.A 2005 report from the National Shooting Sports Foundation found that on a national basis, there are just 69 new hunters coming into the sport for every 100 people who

drop out. In Pennsylvania, the replacement rate is even lower, with only 62 new hunters recruited for every 100 lost.Surveys show there are a multitude of reasons for the decline, from increasingly busy family schedules to suburban development to lack of access to prime hunting areas. Since there are numerous causes for the decline, it will take a significant effort on a number of fronts to reverse the downward trend.I am not suggesting that any sporting organization abandon its core beliefs. However, it's well past time that leaders within the hunting community stop worrying so much about their own interests and start evaluating their motives and actions based on the long-term good of the sport.Speaking of hunting's future, there are many people who feel legalizing Sunday hunting would go a long way toward boosting license sales in Pennsylvania.Perhaps the state's biggest proponent of Sunday hunting is Rep. Edward

Staback, D-Lackawanna, whose House Bill 779 would repeal the Sunday hunting prohibition and allow the Game Commission to permit seven-days-a-week hunting when and how it sees fit.Staback, chairman of the House Game and Fisheries Committee, is working to build grass-roots support for his proposal, which faces staunch opposition from the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, conservative religious groups and even some hunters.Now, Staback's effort is getting support from Robert Miller Jr., Gov. Ed Rendell's adviser for hunting, fishing and conservation.Last week, Miller sent me a packet of information highlighting the potential benefits of allowing Sunday hunting, including results from a 2005 study commissioned by the Legislature that indicates legalization of Sunday hunting would stimulate $629 million in additional spending that would create 5,300 jobs and generate $18 million in state taxes.''Not having Sunday hunting is costing us

something,'' said Miller, who is using the information to recruit support from travel and tourism groups.Miller said he is coordinating his efforts with Staback, who hopes lawmakers will give Sunday hunting a serious look in 2009.''Hunters are a valuable commodity in this state on many different levels, and we're losing hunters,'' Miller said. ''The reasonÂ…is because young and old alike feel they don't have enough time. Having the day we prohibit over a weekend is just killing us.''Happy trails to Wildlife Conservation Officer Matthew Teehan, who took a transfer from Lehigh County to Berks County, effective Sept. 20.Teehan, who has been a WCO for nine years, had been assigned to Lehigh County since April 2004.Despite his departure, Teehan will continue to cover Lehigh County in addition to his new district in eastern Berks County until his replacement is found.''I was the Lehigh officer covering Berks.

Now, I'm the Berks officer covering Lehigh,'' said Teehan, who will still attend local sportsmen's meetings and hunter education classes, as well as respond to wildlife complaints and enforce hunting and trapping regulations..cberg