Clinics Pursue Elusive Quarry: New Hunters

The future of Maryland's conservation efforts may lie in the gun-toting hands of people such as Sharon Nicholson.

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Nicholson, 30, spent a recent weekend learning to hunt at a two-day women's clinic sponsored by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. She emerged a member of an endangered species: licensed hunters, whose fees pay for most of the state's wildlife management and preservation funds.

The dwindling number of hunters poses serious problems for many states that rely on millions of dollars from license fees. A continued decline in the number of hunters could mean fewer efforts to protect threatened animal populations and fewer staff members to help motorists who have hit deer, natural resources officials said.

To combat the trend, Maryland officials have stepped up efforts to recruit new hunters, people such as Nicholson, who said she had wanted to hunt ever since she tasted fresh venison for the first time a few years ago.

"If we do not find a way to bring new hunters into the fold, we're facing an insurmountable crisis," said Paul Peditto, director of wildlife and heritage service for the department.

From 2003 to 2006, the number of full-season hunting licenses issued to Maryland residents dropped from 91,524 to 84,046, an 8.2 percent decline. Virginia saw an 8.6 percent slide during the same period, from 221,964 to 202,947. Nationwide, the number of hunters has fallen nearly 35 percent in the past 30 years, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The decline in the number of hunters also means that natural resources officials must find new ways to control animal populations, especially deer. Hunters kill about 100,000 white-tailed deer in Maryland, and about 210,000 in Virginia, every year. Without population management, deer are more likely to wander into roads or disturb people's homes.

"Too many deer is not a good thing, and there is no better population management tool for white-tailed deer than hunting," said Julia Dixon, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

Officials blame the downturn in hunting on what some have called a "nature-deficit disorder." The average American lives farther from a forest than in the past and is often overburdened with work, school and organized activities for children, Peditto said.

Both Maryland and Virginia offer several hunting clinics, some of which seek out women, children or senior citizens, each year.

"Our outreach works with targeting some different audiences to serve people who have not had the opportunity extended before," said Karen Holson, outdoor education supervisor for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. "People who came from families where they didn't have that heritage seem very interested in learning those skill sets."

Nicholson said she had wanted to hunt for several years, but she was too nervous to walk into a hunting supply store without guidance, and she didn't want to head out with her boyfriend and his friends. Then she read about the Becoming an Outdoors-Woman clinic, which teaches hunting basics at the Blossom Point Army facility in Charles County. For a $40 fee, she and 28 other women learned hunting basics, had target practice and went on a full-fledged deer hunt accompanied by a dozen instructors.