By Michael Pendley The crowd surrounding the Quality Deer Management Association’s Hank Forester and his grill had been attracted by the enticing scent of grilled venison wafting across the farmers market. Few if any of the urban locavore crowd were hunters, but they were all there that morning to procure locally grown (and preferably organic) food for themselves and their families. As the market’s customers began to gather around the grill, Hank and his coworkers from QDMA took the time to explain that hunting had never really been about trophy measurements. Since the time records were kept as paintings on a cave wall, hunting has always been, at its core, about food. The thought of sustainable, local, additive-, antibiotic- and hormone-free protein appealed to the mostly metropolitan group, and Forester took advantage of the interest to introduce the QDMA’s Field to Fork program to anyone interested in learning to hunt to supply their own meat.

Gathering Food Drives Interest

That scene has been repeated countless thousands of times across the country. Groups like the National Wild Turkey Federation and fish- and- game agencies from just about every state are implementing this same approach. Interested non-hunters attend one or more classes with an emphasis on how to hunt a particular species, how to process the animal into edible portions and how to prepare their game for the table. Once participants go through the classroom portion of the class, they get teamed with mentor volunteers to take part in an actual hunt. The pairing of new hunters with experienced mentors—the cornerstone of NSSF’s +ONE^SM Movement—is the most crucial part of the program. Unlike traditional hunter recruitment where young or new hunters tag along with more experienced friends or family members to learn the sport, many of the Field to Fork participants don’t have anyone in their circle to teach them the ropes. Mentors fill that role by being there to answer questions on planning and gear before the hunt and offer guidance in the field as the hunt unfolds. The approach of QDMA’s Field to Fork, as well as NSSF’s +ONE Movement, has become so successful that it has become a central tool for R3—recruit, reactivate and retain—programs nationwide seeking to attract new hunters. Derek Stoner, Hunter Outreach Coordinator for the Pennsylvania Game Commission, says, “We are working on connecting to non-traditional participants who are interested in learning to hunt and need a quality mentorship experience to guide them through the process. Our hunter outreach team identified the Field to Fork program as an ideal initiative that reaches new adults and provides a well-balanced approach that emphasizes conservation, wildlife management, ethics and harvesting of wild game meat.”

Kentucky Born

The program got its beginning in the Bluegrass State back in 2010. Folks at the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife were frustrated that they didn’t have a program in place to support residents asking to learn about hunting. Since many of those requests were coming from people outside the traditional hunting demographic and seemed to be centered around hunting from a wild game meat-procurement perspective, KDFWR came up with Learn to Hunt, which taught basic hunting skills that included processing and cooking game. The new program was quickly successful, with more applicants signing up than spaces available. Those early attempts taught the department some valuable lessons. At the top was the realization that the locavore movement was gaining steam and there was a vast pool of possible new hunters in urban areas who were interested in learning to harvest their own game. KDFWR knew they needed to expand the curriculum. It immediately started applying for federal grants to expand Learn to Hunt. The agency refined the course while waiting and for good news on the additional funding. In 2014, the grant was awarded. Realizing that food was one of the main reasons for interest in the program, KDFWR had already changed the name to Field to Fork and had designed a new, and now familiar, logo to go along with the new name. Another lesson learned in the years leading up to the grant was that simply spending time in class learning about hunting wasn’t enough to get the participants afield on their own. Since few of the participants had any experience afield or any support network of seasoned hunters who could answer questions and offer advice, class time alone wasn’t providing the confidence necessary to hunt by themselves. The answer was an expanded mentorship component in which classroom participants went afield with a mentor for a hunt or two. The hunts allowed the participants to experience real hunting situations with knowledgeable hunters, instilling that much-needed confidence, and successful hunts were followed by hands-on lessons in processing of game and a wild game dinner. Besides teaming up new hunters with an experienced companion, the expanded program allowed the classmates to form their own peer groups, something that continued well beyond the weekend class itself. The revised program was immediately successful. Soon, the department added classes beyond the original deer format to include other species like dove, turkey and small game. Then, over the next two years, KDFWR began to share Field to Fork with other state agencies, all of which employed it with success. Besides state governments, conservation organization like QDMA and NWTF, private businesses like SIG Sauer and Traeger Grills, and private sportsman’s clubs around the country have taken Field to Fork to heart. QDMA’s Forester says the Field to Fork program is vital to his organization’s recruitment efforts. The program focuses on three angles: hunting for food, because it has a high public approval rating; adults because they have the best ability to pursue hunting as a pastime; and social support, which is critical to getting potential new hunters past the “try it” stage. “We started using Field to Fork in 2016. We followed the data, made a few educated guesses and created a mentored hunting program that is efficient and effective,” he told me. “We created a food-focused program for adults, and we knew that we needed good mentors and community to create social support. How well has this approach worked for QDMA? “Through Field to Fork, we are having success creating new diverse hunters who are then sharing their stories, sharing their venison and, ultimately, becoming tomorrow’s mentors and advocates,” said Forester.

More Than One Way to Talk About Grilled Backstrap

While starting one of the most successful hunter recruitment programs in history might seem like enough of an accomplishment, the folks at KDFWR weren’t finished. Brent McCarty, R3 Branch Manager for KDFWR, says the department is constantly researching new ways to introduce the program to anyone who might be interested in hunting. One of the most promising new initiatives is Cook Wild Kentucky. In a partnership with the University of Kentucky’s Cooperative Extension Service, the KDFWR is working with the University’s Nutrition Education Program to come up with delicious, easy-to-make wild game meals. The recipes and cooking instructions are printed on the back of color-photograph postcards that get distributed through the state’s 120 cooperative extensions. KDFWR is also working directly with approximately 80 county agents to train them to hold their own Field to Fork classes, making the program more accessible to the entire state. McCarty says this increased coverage is a key to stopping the decline in hunter numbers. “We simply aren’t seeing the numbers we need to sustain license sales from traditional sources,” he explained. “We need to recruit new hunters from non-traditional demographics and making proven programs like Field to Fork more accessible to everyone is key to moving the needle.”

Support from Capitol Hill

“Over and over, we hear that one of the biggest problems that new hunters face is a lack of access to land,” McCarty told me. “Unfortunately, a lot of our state is made up of private land. We have landowners who are interested in hosting youth and Field to Fork hunts for new hunters, but their land is already being hunted during our regular firearms season.” KDFWR realized that growing Field to Fork would require additional properties, so KDFWR worked with the Kentucky legislature to pass regulations allowing specially permitted firearm hunts on private land outside of the regular season dates. “We’ve found landowners are much more willing to host these hunts if they are still able to hunt their property or host friends during the traditional firearms season,” says McCarty. *** There is no denying that hunter numbers across the nation are going down. Population centers are becoming more urban, and conventional, familial induction of new hunters is falling as current hunters age and their children and grandchildren don’t remain in the sport. Innovative programs like Field to Fork are reaching out to non-traditional demographics to recruit and train a new kind of hunter—and it turns out those new hunters look surprisingly like those hunters of old who hunted with one goal: feeding their family. About the +ONE Movement NSSF encourages all current hunters to take the +ONE Pledge. Reach out to someone new—someone outside your circle of friends and family who hunt—and teach them what you know about hunting, conservation and the deeply meaningful ability to put food on the dinner table that you harvested yourself. Talk with your local game wardens and state game agency professionals or reach out to QDMA’s Field to Fork program and others like it and let them know you’d like to serve as a mentor. There are thousands of people out there who want to hunt for their own food and don’t know where to turn to get started. With +ONE and programs like Field to Fork, you’re the solution to that problem.  

By Gary Nski As I watch the last sunset of the last day of the last of Wisconsin’s deer gun seasons for 2019, I was remembering, joyfully, my future daughter-in-law Jess’s phone call three years ago. “Hey, Gary, I just got a call from my uncle. My grandfather left me all of his deer rifles, shotguns and a .22-caliber Winchester. Would you please teach me how to use them and how to hunt with them?” The words hadn’t even left her lips before I exclaimed, “Let’s do this!” and I thought this is a perfect match for what the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s +ONE^SM Movement initiative is all about. My father mentored me, and if I could mentor Jess and my daughter, Elizabeth, by introducing them to the sports I love, a life’s mission would be achieved. [caption id="attachment_3303" align="aligncenter" width="650"] My Grandpa’s Remington Model 740.[/caption] Before we could move forward, I advised Jess she first needed to get a Wisconsin Hunter’s Safety Certificate. While she was working on completing that, I started scouring topo maps of northwestern Wisconsin to zero in on deer habitat like my dad and I had done five decades ago. My late father, Henry, started teaching me at the age of five about what would become my life’s passions of hunting and fishing. On fall Sunday afternoons in the 1960s, we’d cruise the fire lanes of Wisconsin’s rural Clark county in the emerald-green, 1952 two-door Pontiac he’d purchased with savings from his combat duty pay in the Korean War. He also used those savings to purchase a Mossberg semi-auto .22-caliber rifle, a Winchester model 94 .32 Win. Spec. rifle and a Winchester Model 12 12-gauge shotgun. We’d explore those back country roads, fire lanes and forests, foraging for edible oak stump mushrooms, hunting for ruffed grouse, gray squirrels and fox squirrels and scouting for whitetail deer sign before the upcoming Wisconsin deer seasons while listening to veteran football announcer Ray Scott call the Vince Lombardi-era Green Bay Packer games on the old Pontiac’s radio. [caption id="attachment_3304" align="aligncenter" width="650"] Jess, the Grouse and my best dog, “The Dude.”[/caption] I cherish those memories with Dad, and I wanted to pay forward the gift of the outdoors he gave me to Jess and Elizabeth. Jess passed her required hunter’s safety course, and in early fall of 2017, I ventured north to the twin ports of Duluth Minnesota and Superior Wisconsin and the public hunting lands of Douglas County to meet up with her and Elizabeth. That trip had a dual purpose. I wanted to spend time inventorying the inherited guns, but I also needed to teach the girls safe firearms handling and how to sight in a rifle before we took to the woods to scout for whitetail sign. I was fortunate to grow up in a small Wisconsin farming community with an active hunting and angling tradition fostered by our local scout troops and a sportsmen’s club. Once a month, we’d gather at a local tavern for a wild game feed. On some nights, we’d have a reel-to-reel movie about hunting moose or grizzlies in Alaska or fishing for huge northern pike and lake trout in Canada. The club raised funds through a variety of raffles, bratwurst feeds and donations from organizations like the NRA and local and state government agencies to build a state-of-the-art shooting range. That rifle range is where many, including myself, learn how to safely and accurately shoot our guns at an early age. Jess and I started sighting in our rifles at the 25-yard line at the George Constance Sr. Memorial Range and completed our sight-in at the 100-yard lanes, satisfied with our accuracy. That’s when Elizabeth asked to shoot one of my rifles. I was surprised. When Elizabeth was growing up on our farm, she’d embraced the outdoors at a very early age, chasing frogs, riding and showing our horses, fishing and occasionally hanging out in a deer blind with me and now and then field-dressing a deer. But she’d never asked to shoot or actually hunt, and I’d never pushed either on her. But it turns out that Elizabeth, now 28, had learned how to shoot with friends. [caption id="attachment_3305" align="aligncenter" width="650"] Our Campfire Buck Camp.[/caption] I asked her which of my two .30-06s she wanted to try. She chose the Browning A-bolt. We loaded her choice and I stood back with the spotting scope to watch the distant target. I had to rub my eyes after she squeezed off her first round: At 100 yards, she’d hit the one-inch bull’s-eye. And there was more, for her next three shots produced a three-inch group. She ejected the last round, laid the A-Bolt down, chamber open, on the bench and looked up at me with a Cheshire cat smile. “Dad, it’s all about the breathing,” to which I replied, “Okay, you two Annie Oakleys, there’s a bit of a different breathing pattern shooting at paper target verses shooting at one with hair. Let’s see what happens when deer season opens in a couple weeks.” *** Wisconsin’s deer hunting traditions, management and future are currently at a major crossroads, just as they are in many areas of the country. In 2019, Wisconsin deer hunting license purchases were down over 15,000. Deer in 50 of our 72 counties have tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), that after a nearly 20-year attempt to control the disease. There’s even bickering amongst us about the firearms we choose to hunt deer with. All of these things, and a lack of seasoned hunters ushering in a new generation to our traditions, threaten the future of hunting. Still, I remain optimistic because of the time I’ve spent with Jess and Elizabeth over the past three hunting seasons. Together we’ve put venison in the freezer each year, including the first season after I taught them to sight in their rifles and took them scouting. Best of all, I’ve learned as much mentoring them as they hopefully have learned from me. [caption id="attachment_3301" align="aligncenter" width="650"] One of our venison dinner.[/caption] The importance of safe gun handling both in and out of the field. The skill of not just hiking but slowing way down to track, hunt and, if lucky, harvest. That your heart rate will indeed greatly differ between a paper target versus one with hair or feathers; Jess learned that after she failed to take her safety off when a deer was standing just 30 yards away. The importance of taking care of your game once killed with proper field-dressing in the woods and processing the meat once back at camp. And, finally, taking these lessons of the guns and of the hunt and becoming mentors themselves. That’s how NSSF’s +ONE Movement is intended to work. That’s how we keep hunting alive.

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Have you ever considered expanding your hunting party and family with a hunting dog? A four-legged partner is the perfect hunting +ONE to make your trips afield more memorable.

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By Michael Pendley State departments of natural resources and fish and game agencies are worried. Their chief function is to manage and protect their state’s wildlife populations. To do that, most rely at least partly on income from license sales and allocated federal tax dollars derived directly from the sale of hunting and fishing gear. The problem: The people they regularly interact with are already enjoying some aspect of the outdoors. To truly expand hunter numbers, these agencies must reach out to the potential hunters.

Wisconsin Turns to Adults for New Hunters

Wisconsin is one of those states actively seeking new hunters. Since 1990, it has lost over 100,000 licensed deer hunters, one-seventh of its deer-hunting population. Emily Lehl is the Wisconsin DNR’s R3 Coordinator. R3 stands for “recruitment, retain, and reactivate” and is a national initiative followed by many state agencies. “In 1996, our department implemented the ‘Learn to Hunt Program.’ Back then, our first inclination was to target young people for introduction to hunting. We set up ‘Learn to Hunt’ as a way to get kids from non-hunting families involved in hunting. We were able to get special seasons and relaxed limits implemented,” said Lehl. After several years of “Learn to Hunt,” the DNR discovered a few things. One, most of the kids involved in the program were from hunting families—not really the target audience the agency needed to attract new hunters. Second, the participating kids who were from non-hunting families had no support network to continue hunting. With that knowledge, starting in 2011, Wisconsin DNR officials shifted its R3 efforts from kids to young adults. “We noticed an increase in interest from young adults who were looking at hunting as a means to procure organic protein for themselves and their families,” said Lehl. Since most of these young adults had neither hunting experience nor a network of hunters to turn to for advice, the department implemented a series of “Hunt for Food” classes designed to provide information, mentorship and hands-on experience the new hunters would need to continue participating in this American pastime. The classes meet once a week for four weeks. The first class is held in a classroom setting where participants get to know one another and get a basic overview of hunting methods, general safety and equipment needs. The second week is spent in the field covering actual hunting situations and methods. Week three moves to the shooting range to introduce the new hunters to either firearms or crossbows. All of this training culminates in the actual hunt weekend. Participants are paired with volunteer mentors and then put their training to use. After the hunt, everyone reconvenes for a hands-on butchering class to process game from any successful hunts, and the final part of the class has participants and their families attending a wild-game dinner. Not only does the meal introduce properly prepared wild game, it gives the attendees a chance to socialize and form bonds that should help form a lasting support group for future hunts. The program has been so successful that the Wisconsin DNR is now encouraging hunting and conservation clubs across the state to adopt the framework and hold classes of their own. “We traditionally see these clubs focusing on youth, but with the success we are seeing from the ‘Hunt for Food’-style programs, we are encouraging these clubs to shift that focus to young adults,” said Lehl.

Kansas Takes a Multi-Pronged Approach

Another agency seeking to stem the decrease in their state’s hunter numbers is the Kansas Department of Wildlife Parks and Tourism (KDWPT). From 2011 to 2016, hunter numbers in the state dropped 16 percent. Tanna Fanshier, R3 Coordinator for the Department, is working to reverse that trend. One of five states awarded a monetary grant from the Association of State Fish and Wildlife Agencies for programs to expand hunter numbers, the KDWPT is attacking the problem on multiple fronts. In addition to re-engaging hunters who have stopped participating in the tradition, Fanshier says the KDWPT is reaching out to non-traditional hunting audiences, including women, college students and Millennials. “Our Becoming an Outdoors Woman (BOW) classes are proving to be extremely popular,” said Fanshier. The classes are held at multiple locations throughout the year with experienced volunteers covering a variety of topics, including basic hunting, species-specific hunting, camping, firearm or archery gear training, bird and wildlife ID and fishing, in hands-on training. “One of the things I’m really excited about is that we have recently scheduled our first BOW class with an all-female instructor group,” Tanna said. “We think having women as instructors for the class will remove some of the apprehension participants might have when signing up for the class.” Like the Wisconsin DNR, the KDWPT is also seeing great return on investment from programs centered on young adults and their desire to learn to hunt as a means of procuring organic protein. “We have seen great success in tapping into the locavore movement among young, sometimes urban populations. We are using both fish and game dishes as a way to introduce a non-traditional segment of the population to hunting and fishing,” said Fanshier. Unfortunately, one of the biggest hurdles for new hunters is finding a spot to hunt. With approximately 98 percent of the land in Kansas being privately owned, this is particularly true for new hunters in the state. To combat this issue, KDWPT began a Walk-In Hunting Access (WIHA) pilot program in 1995. The program paid private landowners to open their land to walk-in hunters. By 2004, WIHA had grown to over a million acres; during the 2018-’19 season, WIHA provided over 1.2 million acres of ground to hunters pursuing a wide variety of game species. To ease liability concerns, Kansas state law has provided landowners who lease their land to the state for recreational purposes immunity from damages or injuries that result from ordinary negligence.

Kentucky Gets Creative with Firearms Seasons and Mentored Hunts

The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife (KDFWR) is also on a constant search for ways to stop falling hunter numbers. Brent McCarty, R3 Manager for the department, says the state of Kentucky has long been at the forefront of new-hunter recruitment. “Our department has a large R3 staff for agency size, an indication of just how important it is to us,” says McCarty. “We were the first to introduce the ‘Field to Fork’ program that has been adopted by so many other agencies and organizations. And we are still the most active with more than 40 ‘Field to Fork’ programs last year, alone.” Brent said. “One of the biggest impediments to new hunters in the state is access to a place to hunt. We have a lot of experienced hunters who would like to mentor new hunters, and landowners who offer their farms to host hunts. Trouble is, the most effective tool for new hunters is a firearm, and both the mentors and the landowners tend to be either hunting themselves or hosting friends and family hunting their property during the relatively short firearms season. To combat this, we’ve recently gotten legislation passed that allows us to host firearm mentor hunts on private land outside the regular season. This gives us the opportunity to pair up experienced mentors with new hunters in the NSSF +ONE^SM Movement-style on farms that don’t have other active hunters on them at the time,” said McCarty. KDFWR is also in the process of switching the required Hunter Safety Certification from an either partial or complete in-person class to a completely online course. “Not only is this going to make it easier for new hunters, it will free up the four regional hunter ed coordinators and nearly 400 volunteers we have across the state to move away from hunter ed and more toward R3 initiatives,” said McCarty. While efforts like these from various state game agencies might not entirely reverse the decline in hunter numbers, they can turn the tide. Introducing a new, non-traditional demographic to hunting is helping to spread the word to a much wider audience, good news for the long-range well-being of the tradition we love. Curious about what your state’s natural resources agency has to offer you, from public hunting lands to game seasons and apprentice hunting license programs? NSSF’s Where to Hunt is your one-stop resource for state-by-state information, and it’s just one of the resources for both new and experienced hunters at LetsGoHunting.org. Give it a visit and see all it has to offer—and then head to the field for a great day of hunting.   You may also be interested in: https://www.letsgohunting.org/articles/fish-wildlife-agencies-use-mentored-dove-hunts-to-introduce-people-to-hunting/