Less People Are Hunting, Causing Less Money For Wildlife Conservation

There has been a sharp decline over the years with the amount of hunters.  There are many different reasons for this, but it ultimately creates a problem for conservation.  The states pay for wildlife conservation largely with hunters license fees and taxes.  The amount of hunters has been steadily declining for over 20 years, and with the baby boomer population aging, it's expecting to get far worse.

That leaves a big question: Will the rest of the public help pay for wildlife conservation?

This is all according to an article in NPR.  What they've reported on is making sense to what a lot of us have been seeing.

Our next generation doesn't seem very eager to get out an hunt.  There's an ever growing anti-hunter movement.  Kids have access to endless entertainment at home with video games and streaming services. As much as we try, it is an uphill battle to get the next generation excited about hunting.

One of the surprising statistics in this article was that the average age a hunter retires from the sport is 65.  As baby boomers grow older, more and more are retiring, and that is going to cause a huge drop off in revenue for state's conservation budget.

What do you think we need to do to get more people hunting?  Or is the answer to start charging more fees for state parks and other non hunting activities?