The future of hunting:

Recruitment and retention efforts are crucial

By Rory Aikens, public information officer,
Arizona Game and Fish Department

The concerted effort to increase hunter recruitment and retention in Arizona didn’t happen overnight, but it did have a major point of genesis.

The management shift in Arizona to create more hunting opportunities and to remove existing barriers to participation ties back to a report from the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies in 2004, outlining efforts by state wildlife agencies to increase public participation in hunting and shooting sports.

Projections of declining hunters and shooters are disturbing, because these people provide the social, financial and political support for wildlife management in North America.

Arizona Game and Fish Department leaders saw the handwriting on the wall. The legacy of hunting and shooting sports, and the cornerstone of wildlife management, could be lost to future generations if steps weren’t taken.

In September 2004, department leaders decided to create a cross-functional department Hunter Retention and Recruitment Team (HRR Team) that was told to scour the nation, find all the best ideas and practices, then to think innovatively and come up with a game plan for increasing hunter and shooting retention and recruitment here in Arizona.

The HRR Team employed a variety of tools and methods to identify relevant issues and generate concepts that would address the primary objectives it was tasked to address. It took months of hard work, discussion and information synthesis.

The final team report encompassed 178 pages, but the team came up with the following 12 recommendations as the base steps needed:

1. Construct a comprehensive property management plan for the wildlife area complex that includes Robbins Butte, Powers Butte and the Arlington Wildlife Management Area that promotes small game opportunity and provides a venue for hunter recruitment and retention activities.
   
2. Develop a short-term hunting lease program through Landowners Relations designed to obtain access to provide lands for small game hunting opportunities.
   
3. Implement enhancements to the department’s hunter education program that promote course convenience and flexibility to customers and that further institute adaptive management evaluation-management practices.
   
4. Charter a team to identify improvements in the delivery of hunting information through the annual regulations booklet in a manner that encourages and facilitates use and understanding, especially by new, inexperienced hunters.
   
5. Evaluate existing big game draw and hunt structures to maximize hunting opportunity on a sustainable basis.
   
6. Institute special licenses that promote participation of new hunters through family-friend social structures that serve to reinforce and support hunting activities.
   
7. Incorporate enhancements to the department’s Web page that promote and support hunter recruitment-retention programs and activities.
   
8. Create a new hunter recruitment and retention coordinator position in the Information and Education Division to launch and coordinate hunter recruitment-retention programs, activities and promotions.
   
9. Establish a full-time shooting range development coordinator position in the Information and Education Division to promote convenient public access to shooting sports and shooting ranges.
   
10. Launch coordinated department-wide public information and outreach efforts that promote hunting and otherwise reinforce hunter recruitment-retention efforts.
    
11. Update the department’s strategic planning documents to proactively address urban encroachment as it relates to maintain small game hunting opportunities in proximity to urban areas, which advance hunter recruitment and retention efforts.
    
12. Conduct periodic reviews of important hunt draw and license sales data and trends and apply adaptive management practices to department hunt recruitment-retention programs as needed.

These recommendations were embraced by department management and adopted by the commission. Since that time, those 12 recommendations have spawned a host of activities, actions, and changes, especially when it comes to traditional hunt structures.