They come from all corners of the economic landscape —rich , poor, and middle class.

Some are highly paid professionals, others work with their hands or behind the counter of a sports store, dishing out shotgun shells and advice.

A few are young but far more are middle-aged or older —worry for hunters who see their sport in decline.

All feel the heat of scrutiny from growing ranks of people who think what they do is wrong; many feel the chill from oncoming generations for whom woods, and farms and wildlife are extraneous.

But 14 million Americans still hunt, 9.3 percent of the U.S. adults, down from more than 10 percent a decade ago. They go afield to fuel hard-to-define passions and find satisfaction that draw them back often into old age.

It’s futile to try to figure what Americans at large think of hunting, though.

Ask anti-hunting forces and they trot out recent surveys showing 51 percent of the nation opposed to “ hunting for sport. ”

Ask pro-hunting forces and they produce recent U.S. Fish and Wildlife Surveys showing the same nation 81 percent in favor of “ continued legal hunting. ”

Much obviously depends on how the questions are asked, since most respondents approach the subject from the dark.

Practically anyone associated with hunting, or with efforts to limit or eliminate it, concedes that only a small percentage of Americans actively engage in it and only a small percentage aggressively oppose it.

The other 80 percent or so fall somewhere in the middle, trying to figure out how this ageless pastime fits into our fast-changing world.

In April comes another highly popular hunting season in the Mountain State.

The spring gobbler season is one of the hottest sporting activities for West Virginians, who are among the nation’s highest concentration of hunters per capita.

More hunters log time in the woods in Southern West Virginia than practically anywhere else in the country. It has been estimated that one out of every three homes are occupied by at least one person who hunts sometime during the year.

Visit nearly any barbershop, fast-food establishment, convenient store or bar and chances are that you’ll hear someone who has a favorite quarry or hunting camp, a favorite gun or bow, a favorite dog or type of camouflage, a mind’s-eye picture of the perfect gunning experience styled by his own reminiscences and the popular culture.

Engage in conversation with local hunters and they’re apt to wax eloquent on nearly any outdoor topic —d ogs, guns, game or what have you.

When it comes to their passion for hunting, they are sentimentalists, droning on about the places they go and the camaraderie with fellow hunters.

And yet they are reviled by perennial complaints about trespassing, shooting too near homes, recklessness, and carelessness by too eager hunters, and…yes…even poaching and baiting of wildlife before and during hunting seasons.

Some believe, perhaps with good reason, that hunting will not exist by the year 2075.

Seeking a handle on what makes these people tick and how they see their future, we began my columns more many years ago and I’ve never lacked for feature material during any phase of the calendar.

People let you know when you are giving them what they want.

I ran into a fellow the other day at a local bookstore, and he wanted to share some of his hunting experiences with me. “ I like hunting, ” he began, “ because it’s completely unprogrammed. You don’t know what’s going to happen. And the kind of hunting I do takes me to beautiful places —duck hunting especially, in the marshes, and turkey hunting, which takes you to the wildest places. ”

Then he hit on something that’s in the hearts and minds of many nowadays: the future of hunting in general.

“ It’ll probably last quite a while, long after I’m gone. But it’s important now to cultivate an ethic —n o t to take too much, to stick to modest bag limits. There ought to be real respect for the game —to bring it home, prepare a special dinner. That’s all to the good.’’

Some DNR game biologists believe the biggest threat to hunting is as the population gets higher and places are more densely settled, there will be less land.

But wildlife experts admit that the ability of game to coexist is impressive, especially when you look at the resurgence of ducks and deer and turkeys and black bears in the eastern U.S.

Others worry about the future of hunting for different reasons.

They fear that what’s happening throughout the nation is, the older hunters are dying off and fewer young ones are coming up.

“ People are living in urban environments and finding other things to do, ” explained Larry Berry, retired wildlife biologist with the DNR. “ Everybody hunted when I grew up, but now those little towns are losing population and people are moving to places where folks don’t hunt.

He added, “ Were lucky in our area, because we’re growing in the number of hunters being introduced to the sport. That’s largely because fathers around here take their sons and daughters hunting with them at an early age.

“ That’s not the case nationwide. The future of hunting doesn’t look too bright in some regions of the country, but a lot of organizations are working to keep it alive. Habitat and places to hunt will be the limiting factors. And who knows: if it ever comes to a vote, it might not even be close. ”

Recently the Izaak Walton League of America conducted focus group studies around the nation on hunter attitudes. Their conclusion: The tenuous link between generations that has kept hunting alive since the advent of human society is in danger.

The IWLA cited conservation and ethics problems as causes for the drop off in hunting numbers during the past 50 years.

The study found that hunting is not something taken up cold; someone must show the way.

If older hunters lack the time or place or energy to teach, if the young are disinclined to listen and learn, and if hunters in general prove unable to hew to ever higher standards of ethical behavior, in 50 or 100 years hunting in America may very well wither away and die.

Which wouldn’t be the end of the world. Just one more simple pleasure lost to the pitiless march of time.  

Lootpress brings you the latest news in Southern West Virginia and around.

© 2021 Lootpress - Your News, Now! Lootpress.

© 2021 Lootpress - Your News, Now! Lootpress.

Login to your account below

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.