02-18-2020, 05:53 AM
California scrambles to increase hunting to help protect public lands![[Image: STC-L-HUNTING-02XX-01_71219289.jpg?w=978]](https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/STC-L-HUNTING-02XX-01_71219289.jpg?w=978)
SUISUN, CA - JULY, 22, 2019: Logan Crim ,13, throws out duck decoys in the Suisun Marsh during a session at Camp Sprig on Monday, July 22, 2019, near Suisun City, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
Every winter, duck hunter Randall Smith invites a flock of friends and family members to join him on the wetlands, but no one ever takes him up on the offer. So he makes the trip alone, driving hours to hunt at dusk rather than dawn because development has claimed the public lands that were once much closer to his Santa Cruz home.
“I feel like a dying breed,” said Smith, a 71-year-old martial arts teacher.
With waning public interest, an ever-shrinking number of hunting grounds because of urbanization, stricter gun laws and the loss of family traditions, fewer Californians are hunting than ever before — less than 1%of the population, compared with 4% nationally. But the state is now trying to reverse that trend by “recruiting, retaining and reactivating” hunters – an initiative dubbed R3.
That’s because the loss of revenues from hunters means that California could lose critical funding to protect its public lands, state wildlife officials say.
[color=#000000]![[image]](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,<svg height=)
[img=0x0]https://i0.wp.com/www.santacruzsentinel.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/STC-L-HUNTING-02XX-03_71219259.jpg?fit=620%2C9999px&ssl=1[/img][size=small]MORGAN HILL, CA – JULY, 20, 2019: Vy Nguyen, left, shoots on a skeet range with members from the Nor-Cal group of Becoming An Outdoors-Woman, during a fun shoot at Coyote Valley Sporting Clays on Saturday, July, 20, 2019, in Morgan Hill, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group))
Shumake learned to hunt to spend more time with her son, who was interested in trying the sport. An avid angler, Nguyen caught the hunting bug in 2017, spending a waterfowl season learning the ropes from a family friend.
“I was the bird dog,” she said, recalling her time retrieving downed ducks in the marsh and soaking up information. Last year, Nguyen bought a rifle and harvested a cow elk on a hunt.
Wild game cooking classes, pint nights at local bars and fishing trips are other outreach strategies used in the R3 effort across the country. For some of its programs, the California Waterfowl Association provides a guide, guns, ammo, waders, decoys and the opportunity to hunt on one of its six properties.
The Department of Fish and Wildlife also notes the popularity of its advanced hunting education classes, which attract participants from around the Bay Area. Some of the attendees have never hunted before; others are seasoned veterans. The ability to meet other Bay Area hunting enthusiasts and exchange contact information goes hand-in-hand with the chance to pluck and gut a few mallards during the class.
Some advocacy groups, however, are pleased to see a dwindling interest in hunting — and point out that there’s been a surge in other outdoor activities.
“While participation in hunting has indeed declined, wildlife-watching tourism has greatly increased,” said Samantha Hagio, director of wildlife protection at the Humane Society of the United States.
This shift calls for a fresh look at how wilderness areas are funded, Hagio argued.
While hunters pay heavily to help fund conservation projects across the country, wildlife officials note, other outdoor enthusiasts get to use many wilderness areas for free or only a fraction of the hunters’ cost. Birders at Los Banos Wildlife Area, for example, pay $5 a day for a pass to access the trails.
So, Hagio said, state wildlife agencies should “look for alternative sources of funding outside of hunting to reflect the interests and values of the vast majority of the public.”
[*]Allen also is doubtful about the future of the current approach to funding. “I’m a hook and bullet guy, but I’m also a realist,” he said. “It’s the people in the state of California who are ultimately responsible for the care of their wildlife.”
He just isn’t sure if Californians are ready to pull out their checkbooks now that the hunters have put away theirs.
https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/2020/0...lands/amp/
- Ariana Remmel and Aric Crabb
- PUBLISHED: February 13, 2020 at 4:09 p.m. | UPDATED: February 14, 2020 at 3:24
SUISUN, CA - JULY, 22, 2019: Logan Crim ,13, throws out duck decoys in the Suisun Marsh during a session at Camp Sprig on Monday, July 22, 2019, near Suisun City, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
Every winter, duck hunter Randall Smith invites a flock of friends and family members to join him on the wetlands, but no one ever takes him up on the offer. So he makes the trip alone, driving hours to hunt at dusk rather than dawn because development has claimed the public lands that were once much closer to his Santa Cruz home.
“I feel like a dying breed,” said Smith, a 71-year-old martial arts teacher.
With waning public interest, an ever-shrinking number of hunting grounds because of urbanization, stricter gun laws and the loss of family traditions, fewer Californians are hunting than ever before — less than 1%of the population, compared with 4% nationally. But the state is now trying to reverse that trend by “recruiting, retaining and reactivating” hunters – an initiative dubbed R3.
That’s because the loss of revenues from hunters means that California could lose critical funding to protect its public lands, state wildlife officials say.
[color=#000000]
[img=0x0]https://i0.wp.com/www.santacruzsentinel.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/STC-L-HUNTING-02XX-03_71219259.jpg?fit=620%2C9999px&ssl=1[/img][size=small]MORGAN HILL, CA – JULY, 20, 2019: Vy Nguyen, left, shoots on a skeet range with members from the Nor-Cal group of Becoming An Outdoors-Woman, during a fun shoot at Coyote Valley Sporting Clays on Saturday, July, 20, 2019, in Morgan Hill, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group))Shumake learned to hunt to spend more time with her son, who was interested in trying the sport. An avid angler, Nguyen caught the hunting bug in 2017, spending a waterfowl season learning the ropes from a family friend.
“I was the bird dog,” she said, recalling her time retrieving downed ducks in the marsh and soaking up information. Last year, Nguyen bought a rifle and harvested a cow elk on a hunt.
Wild game cooking classes, pint nights at local bars and fishing trips are other outreach strategies used in the R3 effort across the country. For some of its programs, the California Waterfowl Association provides a guide, guns, ammo, waders, decoys and the opportunity to hunt on one of its six properties.
The Department of Fish and Wildlife also notes the popularity of its advanced hunting education classes, which attract participants from around the Bay Area. Some of the attendees have never hunted before; others are seasoned veterans. The ability to meet other Bay Area hunting enthusiasts and exchange contact information goes hand-in-hand with the chance to pluck and gut a few mallards during the class.
Some advocacy groups, however, are pleased to see a dwindling interest in hunting — and point out that there’s been a surge in other outdoor activities.
“While participation in hunting has indeed declined, wildlife-watching tourism has greatly increased,” said Samantha Hagio, director of wildlife protection at the Humane Society of the United States.
This shift calls for a fresh look at how wilderness areas are funded, Hagio argued.
While hunters pay heavily to help fund conservation projects across the country, wildlife officials note, other outdoor enthusiasts get to use many wilderness areas for free or only a fraction of the hunters’ cost. Birders at Los Banos Wildlife Area, for example, pay $5 a day for a pass to access the trails.
So, Hagio said, state wildlife agencies should “look for alternative sources of funding outside of hunting to reflect the interests and values of the vast majority of the public.”
[*]Allen also is doubtful about the future of the current approach to funding. “I’m a hook and bullet guy, but I’m also a realist,” he said. “It’s the people in the state of California who are ultimately responsible for the care of their wildlife.”
He just isn’t sure if Californians are ready to pull out their checkbooks now that the hunters have put away theirs.
https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/2020/0...lands/amp/