Hunters are the new endangered species in Florida

Frank Pickett came of age when a fishing pole, a bow and arrow, a couple of buddies and the great outdoors provided a young man with all the entertainment he could want.

Nature was the focal point of life, Pickett said. It’s just how he was raised.

“When you use the outdoors, you respect them,” he said.

The values of his upbringing even led him to transform hunting from a hobby to his career as co-owner of Pickett Weaponry, the local hunting supply headquarters in downtown Newberry, he said.

But Pickett fears his type is a dying breed.

“You think kids today want to get up at 4 a.m. to sit around and swat away mosquitoes and wait for something they’re not even guaranteed to catch?” he asked. “Nope, not when there’s a TV right at home.”

He said he can’t even convince his own nieces and nephews to peel themselves away from the computer or TV long enough to join him on a hunting trip.

“Their idea of big excitement is playing Xbox,” he said.

Pickett’s situation mirrors a trend witnessed by outdoorsmen across the state.

The tables have turned.

Florida’s newest endangered species are the hunters themselves.

Reasons for the Decline

Society’s evolution has changed the significance of hunting from a means of survival to an entertainment form, and competition for the entertainment dollar has never been fiercer.

Preston Robertson, Florida Wildlife Federation vice president, said the myriad of entertainment options current technology offers overshadows the appeal of the outdoors, especially to youngsters.

Nature seems uneventful compared to the mesmerizing animation and interactive adventures children see on the Internet, TV and video games, Robertson said.

He even referred to the diagnosis of “nature deficit disorder,” a syndrome stemming from lack of time outdoors, as coined by his favorite author, Richard Louv.

“If you don’t start hunting young, you probably never will,” Robertson said.

But children aren’t the only ones staying out of the woods.

When hunters find the time to get out and hunt, they want a quality experience with beautiful scenery and large deer, and Robertson said Florida doesn’t have it.

“We have changed to a completely urban society,” Robertson said. “There’s a Wal-Mart where I used to hunt.”

In addition, the majority of hunters don’t even seek Florida’s deer because most bucks are killed before they reach a desirable size, he added.

“We are probably the last state left without a bag limit,” he said.

A bag limit states the number of a certain animal a hunter is permitted to kill each season.

Unlike Florida, Georgia hunters are permitted to legally kill two bucks per year.

“I have heard of Florida hunters bagging as many as 150 bucks in a year,” he conceded with a sigh. “It would break your heart.”

Florida’s lacking animal management program has caused a large portion of outdoorsmen to flee the state to hunt in the hopes of finding game worth hunting, he said.

Adding traveling costs into the mix only lengthens the list of negatives people must evaluate when they consider hunting, he added.

And to make matter worse, the current state of the economy doesn’t provide room for many people to splurge, he said.

License Statistics

Robertson said the steady decline of hunting license sales over the past few years makes it hard to deny the loss of interest in the sport.

“The numbers have crashed,” he said. “I don’t see how you can look at it any other way.”

A resident gold sportsman license costs $100 per year and grants outdoorsmen permission to hunt and fish an assortment of species.

Sales of resident gold sportsman licenses plummeted from 20,075 in 2006 to 1,546 in 2007, according to data from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, or FWC.

“Less than .05 percent of the Florida population even buys a hunting license anymore,” Robertson said.

Douglas Shinkle, policy associate for the National Conference of State Legislatures, said hunting and fishing license sales are essential to conservation efforts in Florida because they comprise nearly all of the FWC’s funding.

The FWC allocates its funds to researching and preserving Florida’s water, land and endangered species, which is crucial to Florida’s weakening environment, Shinkle said.

Remedial Programs

A plethora of state agencies and lawmakers are searching for remedies to treat the financial plague caused by the decline of hunting, Shinkle said.

Because hunters and fishermen have generally comprised the majority of the FWC’s funding, they held most of the power as to how the money was spent, Shinkle said.

So Florida lawmakers created the “Nongame Wildlife Trust Fund,” an account financed by revenue extracted from someone other than sportsmen’s pockets, he said.

This fund allows environmentalists urging the FWC to spend money on other conservation efforts than just those related to hunting and fishing – such as preserving the Florida panther – to have a larger impact, he said.

“States are obviously concerned about the drop in hunting license revenue and looking for ways to diversify,” Shinkle said.

Several strategies have been formed through Florida statutes to help the Nongame Wildlife Trust Fund grow, he said.

One statute enforces a charge on tickets given for speeding by more than 5 mph that is deposited into the Nongame Wildlife Trust Fund.

The statute states that the charge increases proportionally with the amount by which the speed limit is broken.

Another statute enforces a $4 charge on the price of Florida car registrations for any car previously registered in a different state.

Additionally, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, known as NSSF, awarded the FWC $64,400 to increase hunting activity in Florida and fund research to identify and convince hunters who are leaving the state to stay in Florida, instead.

The grant to Florida was part of $724,980 the NSSF awarded to fund hunter recruitment and retention to wildlife agencies across 12 states.

The Significance of Hunting

“Hunters are truly a group on the front line of witnessing the impacts of global warming,” said Mary Burnette, National Wildlife Federation spokeswoman. “It is destroying the environments of the animals they hunt.”

Hunters’ passions toward preserving the environment makes them an integral part of conservation efforts, Burnette said.

“Their numbers may be falling, but they are becoming increasingly vocal about the dangers of global warming,” Burnette said. “Right now, we need anyone and everyone to speak up.”

Robertson agreed.

“You have to preserve the land to be able to hunt it,” he said. “The reason I’m such a diehard environmentalist is because I’m a hunter.”

Animal-rights enthusiasts and environmentalists often mislabel hunters as enemies when they are in fact an essential part of a healthy environment, he said.

“I support ethical hunting,” he said. “People who use the outdoors become advocates for conservation.”

The deer population doubles every season, he said. A deer surplus has significantly more negative impacts on the ecosystem than killing deer.

“Hunters are the only way to keep that population in check,” he said.

He said nature needs as much help as it can get right now, which is why the recruitment of a group as involved in preserving nature as hunters is essential.

“Hunters are becoming an ever-diminishing pool,” Robertson said. “And it’s a shame.”

By Elizabeth Leva for The Herald