Maybe There's Hope After All

[J.B. Books]

I saw the handwriting on the wall so to speak back around 2004 when I was heading up the NH Hunter Education Program. When I looked at our annual statistics I looked at the number of 16 year olds that were graduating the program (the first year they would need the course to be able to buy a hunting license). I looked at the number of graduates at age 16 state wide against the 260 cities, towns and unincorporated townships in the state. We were graduating on average fewer than two 16 year olds per municipality. Hunting license sales were also plummeting. In the late 70's and early 80's our Fish & Game Department estimated we had 10,000 waterfowl hunters statewide. By 2004 the estimate was down to 1500. With guns and hunting being demonized by the media, schools and in social media I don't hold out much hope for any significant improvement.