Hunter Retention

[mahmoodmahi]

I am wondering if anyone would be intrested in working on creating an organization which seeks to get immigrants and thier children hunting. Hunting is slowly losing participants, and the anti-hunting lobbies are slowly gaining power and support, and this highlights the need to get more people hunting. Immigrant groups besides the Hmong are less likely to take up hunting, even if they may have done so in their original country. Their are a number of factors which make hunting more difficult for immigrants, among them a lack of connections to private land (no grandpa's cabin), The lack of knowledge as to how hunting in Minnesota works, problems with English (we have to give immigrants time to learn, I'm sure that more than a few people in this forum had swedish great grandfathers that had trouble forming coherent sentences in english) and predominalty urban lifestyles. However immigrants and their children represent a great way to reinforce the number of hunters out there, and a way to involve them in a great part of minnesota's culture. The way to go about this would take time and would require working through cultural differnece (for example Moslim hunters have to say allah when they release hunting dogs or take a shot to be able to eat the meat) and looking for ways to create bridges to mainstream hunting culture. It also requires simply teaching kids to shoot and giving them opportunities to hunt. What are people's reactions to this? Any insights or Ideas?

[snow]

Number 1,legal immigrants need to learn and read the english language,then pass a written test to aquire a hunting/fishing license,would'nt be a bad idea to include a hunter safety course as well.Then move on...

[kenhuntin]

Good concientious people in the field are welcome anytime as long as they understand conservation. It is infeasible to create a seperate sect of people to do anything in this nation.  When seperate entities have their own language, rules and clubs that is where the United States will fail. I got a little deeper there than some may think is needed. But I personally feel it is time to get back to heading in one direction.I guess I would also have a problem with somebody hollerin Allah when a big buck is just coming into range.

[mahmoodmahi]

It's true that you have to be able to speak and read English to get a hunting liscence, or else you have to be a citizen of the us. I think the target group for a new hunting encouragement pogram would be more oriented towards children who have immigrant parents, or are immigrants themselves. The kids usually speak english well (kids learn fast) but the parents are the ones who may need help through foreign languange communication. Ken the idea I have is a way to help teach conservation values, and general outdoors culutre to these people and at the same time make the outdoors more accesable to them. Most hunters forget how hostile the country can feel to non-white people, and how much harder they have to work to be accepted. Also, to repsond to your commit, the thing about ahving to say allah before taking a shot has nothing to do with shouting, though I think you may be immagining some kind of CNN suicide bomber video, it is something that can be wispered, or even thought, and it is ment to fufil islamic butchering rules, since shooting an animal cannot in an of itself do it. Similar to a deer camp group having a group prayer before going out to their stands. or a catholic not eating meat on fridays, and hence not hunting on fridays. I can understand why you think it is a bad idea for an organization to focus on a group of potential hunters, rather than all potential hunters, but when it is more difficult to get a ceratin group of people involved it can be necessary. Another thing about many immigrant groups, is that are much less likely to adopted peta type thinking, which often starts small ( people should only hunt animals with over populations) to become full blown vegetarian cat food promoters. For a lot of people coming from the third world that thinking seems silly, as active hunters these group of people could help keep are sport alive and get our numbers up.

[kenhuntin]

An approach like Big Brother/Big Sister is a great idea to be able to teach youth safety and conservation. Class room experience is great as well. the Firearms safety classes are great nowdays with the films and quality intructors. Organizing a group of 15 or more  Individuals to walk abreast can decimate a population.