Spring 2020 issue Backcountry Journal

PUBLIC LAND OWNER
BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS
Apprentice licenses may be the key to recruitment
BY FISHER NEAL
It’s old news that hunter numbers are falling, and the revenue
implications have wildlife agencies across the country scrambling
to turn the tide before it’s too late. An important change being
made to combat this is the introduction of apprentice licenses
and hunting mentorships, which allow a person to purchase a license
and hunt without taking hunter education so long as they’re
accompanied by a licensed and legally responsible mentor in the
field. Some states have had to fight fierce opposition to pass the
exemption into law, usually on the claim that it’s unsafe, and several
remain with either no apprentice option or a seemingly arbitrarily
limited option.
I know from firsthand experience that hunting mentorship
works. In 2014 I started a guide service offering lessons and outfitted
hunts on public land to beginners in and around New York
City. I got my SEO dialed in and for the next three seasons fielded
regular emails that almost always went roughly like this:
Client: “Dude! I just found your website! I have always wanted
to try this! Can we go next weekend?”
Me: “Actually you have to take hunter education, which isn’t
available right now, but you can take it in the spring and we can
go next fall!”
Client: (Radio Silence.)
When the apprentice license became available in New Jersey in
2017, a radical shift took place. Not only was I able to say “yes”
to everyone who wanted to go; my main source of revenue turned
out to be returning customers. Clients returned to hunt with me
repeatedly as apprentices, and many took the hunter education
course and began hunting on their own. The opportunity to experience
hunting was all they needed to cross the threshold from
interest into action, and soon they were hooked.
I remember vividly the lesson of “barriers to entry” during my
college economics class. What’s become abundantly clear to me
through these guiding experiences is that barriers to entry are the
problem with hunter recruitment – not the tired notion that everyone
moved to the cities and therefore were no longer interested
in hunting. Yes, more people live in cities now, but it’s not their
lack of desire that is the problem; it’s the fact that the logistics
and the pace of society have changed, and the hunting world has
been too slow to keep up. City people crave nature because they
so rarely get to be in it. And, they will go to great lengths and
expense to acquire quality meat that’s lived a respectable life, but
they have big barriers to entry when it comes to proximity to land,
space to store equipment, parking a vehicle, and even the legality
of owning firearms.
28 | BACKCOUNTRY JOURNAL SPRING 2020