Even in my suburban upbringing, I had chances to hunt on my own.

For every hour I spent in the field with Dad, I spent a hundred more with friends or on my own. As I look around my suburban neighborhood today, I don't see any places a 12-year-old kid could repeat the experiences I had.

Protecting The Tradition
Over the last decade, state and federal wildlife agencies, hunting groups and mainstream conservation organizations have spent a growing amount of time and money recruiting and retaining hunters. Wildlife professionals recognize that hunting has provided the core funding and political support for conservation over nearly two centuries, and they're looking for ways to protect the tradition of the hunter-conservationist.

Many of their approaches hold promise. Mentor programs that match kids with veteran hunters should help the next generation get started in the field. More volunteers would help these efforts, and some sort of insurance against liability would be welcome as well. A new "archery-in-the-schools" program allows young people to get an introduction to shooting. More shotgun and rifle ranges would provide another venue for training, especially if they weren't too far from town.

Waterfowl might provide an exceptional opportunity for that kind of close-to-home hunt. Most urban areas are overrun with resident Canada geese and mallards. I wonder whether we could establish wetland hunting areas on the fringes of our major metro areas. Are there waterfowlers who would volunteer as guides and mentors on such preserves?

There's another component of the recruitment puzzle that's worth considering. A growing number of people take up hunting as adults. One study of this phenomenon found that, from 1951 to 1961, 18 percent of the people who took up hunting were 20 or older when they started. In the period from 1962 to 1972, that proportion jumped to 29 percent.

In this era of political polarization, waterfowlers and other sportsmen have obvious selfish reasons for bringing more people to the discipline of hunting, but the size of the hunting community touches more than the future of hunting itself. The hunter is a crucial part of American conservation, a component that, once lost, could not be replaced.