Sell it before they fell it

Whether or not you think kids ten to seventeen need an early hunt, putting such an event in place should help raise additional tax dollars.

The math is easy. If you get them to start hunting and stay hunting, they provide thousands in licensing fees over an extended period of time. While some say a special opportunity isn’t needed to get the next generation involved in hunting, for an adult interested in taking his or her child out hunting, it can make all the difference.

Hunting is traditionally considered to be a family-oriented activity, yet there exist many younger parents currently in a cultural limbo, parents from hunting backgrounds with little motivation to engage in the community with families of their own. By offering a unique opportunity to involve their children, the number of parents that successfully pass on one of humankind’s first pastimes grows. Preservation of our wildlife and their habitats is essential, and the money generated through game and fish programs is vital to that mission. The more opportunities children have to bag their first deer, the better. They’ll get hooked like so many of us have.

As Jay Johnson, DNR hunter recruitment and retention coordinator, said, "The idea is to provide a high-quality initial hunting experience for youths." He’s waiting for more input from the public, but even if this is only tried one year, it’s another experiment that we should optimistically undertake.