State targeting girls to boost ranks of hunters

June 14, 2008

This is a great LTE opportunity. Young girls all over Texas are being misled...

-Holly

dallasnews.com.

Story: State targeting girls to boost ranks of hunters

State targeting girls to boost ranks of hunters

12:00 AM CDT on Saturday, June 14, 2008

By JESSICA MEYERS / The Dallas Morning News jmeyers

BURLESON -- Move over, fellas. From all-female hunts to co-ed shooting camps this summer, Texas wildlife officials and industry advocates are looking to girls to save a nationally declining hunting trade.

Girls are redefining the face of hunting. And they will change more than father-son hunting expeditions, said wildlife administrators.

Wal-Mart now carries camouflage gear for girls; Texas Parks and Wildlife arranges all-female hunts; and hunting camps this summer are marketing themselves as co-ed. Bliss Long loves it. She started hunting 10 years ago with her father to continue a family tradition. Now 17, she's an assistant at a co-ed hunting and fishing camp. "There are a lot more girls than there used to be," Bliss said. "They want to get back in the outdoors now ... away from the TVs and video games and shopping. "They learn hunting isn't just about harvesting an animal."

The trend is starting to show in the numbers. About 15 percent of 2008 youth licenses -- about 20,000 -- went to girls under 17. That's 6,000 more girls since Texas Parks & Wildlife began tracking the data in 2003.

And it may be just in time. The Texas hunting industry will see a loss of $346,000 next year when some baby boomers turn 65 and stop paying full price for licenses, said Texas Parks and Wildlife's License Revenue Manager Tom Newton.

"With the baby boomers coming up in age, the drop will be larger," said Mr. Newton, who estimates they will need to make 3 percent to 5 percent more to offset the loss. "We have to have young folks out there to fill a growing decline."

Enter the ladies. Makaylah Loveless of Burleson skinned her first deer two years ago when she was 9.

Bliss, of Stanton, is now a high school hunting master. And Whitney Marion's sorority at Texas A & M gets a subscription to Texas Trophy Hunters.

"Females are the key to our success in the future," said Jerry Warden, the executive director of Texas Wildlife's Youth Hunting! Program , who estimates that about 20 percent of participants are female. All-female hunts, where even the guides are women, are part of the reason, he said.

Texas has been bucking the national trend. Hunting license revenue was up $1 million in the 2008 hunting season, to $47 million. But the number of licenses has remained the same. And the state soon will fall in line with the rest of the country. A U.S. Fish and Wildlife survey released last year showed an 11 percent decline in the number of hunters nationwide from 1991 to 2006.

The number of female hunters, who make up 9 percent of the nation's 12.5 million hunters, has increased slightly since 1991, but not enough to affect percentages. And officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said more girls may be taking up rifles nationwide, but not enough to prove statistically significant.

Not all wildlife enthusiasts believe that should be the focus.

"No matter a person's gender, we hope that people will do wildlife photography, or go hiking or canoeing when they want to enjoy the outdoors and leave violence out of it," said Nicole Matthews, a spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Bliss believes girls can do both -- setting the example for others across the country. A member of the Texas Youth Program, she is spending the summer working at Outdoor Texas Camp, a co-ed hunting and fishing camp near Columbus, about 75 miles west of Houston. "It used to be if you found a camp that had girls you would be the only one there," she said about her initial hunting experiences a decade ago. Now, she said she sees at least 10 girls a week at the camp's seven-day sessions.

She takes her camera when she goes hunting, and shoots it almost as much as her rifle. Makaylah, who is also in the Texas Youth Program, has that same appreciation for wildlife. She's about the size of her gun, but her mother, Wynne Loveless, said she's a better shot than her older brother. Ms. Loveless said she, too, has seen an increase in the number of girls who go on the hunting trips -- from three when her son started taking the trips seven years ago to about 20 per hunt now. She attributes it largely to the direct targeting by the Texas Parks & Wildlife's all-female hunts. She's been on two hunts with Makaylah.

"A lot of times, dads take the kids hunting and moms say, 'Eww, gross,' " she said. "But this way they get to do it, even skin the deer and bring it home."

Makaylah -- who has a closet full of camouflage clothes, from a T-shirt with orange butterflies to a skirt with a bright orange sash -- said the boys are growing accustomed to the presence of females.

"They think I'm cool," said the 11-year-old, smiling shyly. Still, David who founded the Outdoor Texas Camp five years ago, said attracting girls hasn't gotten much easier. "It's a cultural thing," he said. "It's the same reason Sex and the City did $60 million the other weekend. We each have our little worlds, and we have to force our way into them." Ms. Loveless thinks that's what's about to happen. "Because there's so much growth everywhere, people are realizing they have to preserve the outdoors," she said. "And they can't do it if they just focus on guys."