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It isn’t hard to find “bad” news about the outdoors. Sometimes, it seems, we can’t escape it. It is as if we’re surrounded by it.
Wetlands drainage. Short-sighted development. Industrial pollution. Anti-environment legislation. Threats to hunting and fishing. Fewer people visiting national parks and refuges. The list is endless—a continuous loop of negativity that, I believe, threatens our outdoors heritage.
Beyond those vexing problems, I’m most concerned about the reports that our kids are becoming increasingly disconnected from nature and its many wonderful activities—particularly hunting and fishing. Some have called it Nature Deficit Disorder. Call it what you’d like. The fact is kids aren’t spending near enough time in that “playground” that most of us growing up could not escape.
Consider:
A new study funded by the Nature Conservancy shows that kids are more interested in playing video games, surfing the net and sitting on their duffs watching television—the sedentary life involving electronic media that researchers call “videophilia”–than participating in nature-based activities. The study was published in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and it builds on mountains of evidence from other nonprofits and state and federal agencies that far too many kids are indifferent at best to living an outdoors life.
“As a scientist and a conservationist, I find these results almost terrifying,” said Oliver Pergams, assistant professor of biological sciences at the University of Illinois (Chicago) and the study’s lead author. We are seeing a fundamental shift away from people’s interest in nature, not just in the U.S. but in other countries, too.”
The trend, as ominous as it is, isn’t going to end unless we as society do something about it. And perhaps it won’t help even if we do—despite the best efforts of our natural-resource agencies, nonprofit groups, families and others. Some have suggested that participation rates in hunting and fishing will continue to fall incrementally over time. The culture—not to mention society—is changing, they say, and there’s really nothing we can do about it.
Perhaps they’re right. But the 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation, which showed hunter numbers the lowest they've been since 1970, does have an analysis by a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service economist that may help us better understand hunting participation and potential retention.
Consider:
* The hunting initiation rate declined dramatically among children living in households with incomes of less than $40,000 but was virtually unchanged in households with $40,000 to $99,999 incomes.
* Parents who hunt small game are far more likely to have children who hunt. Squirrels and grouse had the most noticeable impact, while rabbits, ducks and pheasants have a positive but less pronounced impact.
* Children are more likely to become hunters if their parents hunt. In households where the male parent hunted 1 to 3 days, sons were nine times more likely to hunt than in households where the male parent doesn't hunt. And if the female parent hunts, children participation rates skyrocket.
* The decline in the hunting initiation rate between 1995 and 2005 was five times higher in urban areas than it was in rural areas, and the decline in the retention rate among urban hunters was double.
What the above factoids tell me is that we have to understand these problems before we can fix them. If we want more children to develop a kinship with the outdoors—be it hunting, fishing or other activities—we need to do more than offer “special” youth events.
For example, targeted youth hunts are great, but we need to develop programs that incorporate the entire family unit if we hope to convince kids to be lifelong outdoors people.
As the above analysis illustrates, kids are more likely to be retained as hunters if their parents hunt—especially the mother. That’s a powerful statement, and one we shouldn’t forget.
The stakes are high, my friends. If we continue to lose hunters, the revenue stream that underwrites our conservation and wildlife management programs will dry up. We will also lose political influence on legislation that affects hunters and anglers. That’s why parents must do all they can to connect themselves and their children to the natural world. If we don’t, we will pay a heavy, heavy price. Before long, we will have children who have little or no appreciation for the food, water and clean air that the natural world provides.
In fact, we’ve already lost untold youngsters to the video-game culture, which, of course, is cause for grave concern.
The Nature Conservancy-funded study and others like it are grim confirmations that our kids are drifting away from nature—the world of hunting and fishing and other nature-based pastimes that most of us grew up with and coveted.
Here’s hoping we can reverse that trend before it’s too late.
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