Hunter Recruitment

I will offer you another angle. We don't need anymore hunters in ON, there's more than enough.
Considering the amount of huntable land and game and the tensions around trespassing - plenty.
Everywhere I go there are hunters. Hunters is not milking cow for MNR, gov agencies should use their funds more efficiently and hunters are not the only source, MNR gets funding from the gov.
OTOH, I don't understand wny MNR doesn't publish number of licenses they sell..?
I read somewhere there were almost one million small game licenses sold, but can't recall where...

It sure does beg the question as to why 'Dad' is forking over $100's of dollars for the Firearm/Hunter courses etc if there is no 'plan'. Shouldn't it be a thought out venture with goals and more than a glimmer of hope that they will use their training.

You would have thought that he/she was able to secure a place to shoot and hunt before they take the courses ?

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To clarify, seniors are not required to purchase a fishing licence, they may have the option to do so if they want to but is not required.

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They likely will be required to pay starting next year.

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Originally Posted by topher

As a fairly new.. still learning hunter a big problem is finding people to hunt/teach about hunting. Everyone is more than willing to help an apprentice hunter learn.. but not adult hunters. I know why, the fear of someone stealing their spot..

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Don't worry you can come out and try to sink one of my kayaks any time you like. I will even be heading over your way for early goose and a few trips this year.

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Originally Posted by redd foxx

Isn't there also fishing license $$ going into the spa? The # of new anglers may be even harder to track.

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Yes, the fishing license revenues are included in the SPA....according to numbers in the EBR to address the license fee increases;

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The number of resident fishing licenses declined from 1.4 Million in 2000 to 932,000 in 2011.

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In the same EBR; they had a survey done as to why;

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A study by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in 2010 has found that anglers do not fish as much as they would like to because of certain constraints, such as time and proximity to satisfactory fishing locations, and competition for their limited leisure time (primarily gardening, reading, television, golfing, hiking, fitness activities, youth organized sport, and computer/internet use

). In a 2013 MNR survey, some Ontarians also mentioned barriers to start or return to
fishing, including a lack of knowledge of where to fish and lack of fishing skills.

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Although those are specific to Fishing; I'm pretty sure that those same survey answers could be used as answer why kids aren't getting into Hunting.

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Originally Posted by Quack_Kills

To clarify, seniors are not required to purchase a fishing licence, they may have the option to do so if they want to but is not required.

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Originally Posted by TPM

They likely will be required to pay starting next year.

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Yes according to the EBR...in 2016 Seniors will start paying a reduced rate (80% of normal) for their fishing license; $13 for a conservation and $23 for Sport.

I finally found some Fishing / Hunter data in the SPA Sustainability Report from the MNR (see link).

a) Hunting and fishing licences (resident and non resident) account for 61% of the funds going into the SPA.

b) In 2013, Ontario had 1.3 million licensed anglers and over 400,000 hunters.

c) The number of resident fishing licences had declined from 1.4 million in 2000 to 932,000 in 2011.

d) Hunters License sales had increased by 125,000 over a 10 yr period….or an increase of about 12,500 a yr for the years 2000-2010..or about 3% per year.

So with those numbers, that means of the 25,000 Hunters recruited thru the Hunter safety course over that same period, only about 50% went on the buy a license. And that would also add credence to the assumption that most new hunters only buy a basic ‘small’ games licences, because we have seen that the numbers of Deer Tags sold continue to decline in most WMUs over that same period of time.

It would be interesting to see how many of them carry it to the next step and put boots in the bush.

I was a little surprised in a province with 13.7 million people there are only 400,000 hunters or about 3% of the population. I haven't found data to support whether that is an increase or decrease over the past decade (considering how many Hunters stop hunting) .


read more (mostly fishing related)..http://apps.mnr.gov.on.ca/public/fil...rod_110525.pdf

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Originally Posted by MikePal

I was a little surprised in a province with 13.7 million people there are only 400,000 hunters or about 3% of the population.
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Remove the population of Ottawa area, GTA, Hamilton area and Windsor just to see how that effects your 13.7 million. A large number with other pass times with no interest or exposure .

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Originally Posted by Snowwalker

Remove the population of Ottawa area, GTA, Hamilton area and Windsor just to see how that effects your 13.7 million. A large number with other pass times with no interest or exposure .

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This was not always the case.

They used to make shotguns that would fold up into a case that looked like a brief case, it was supposed to be used when you took the trolly to the gun range.

People in the city don't have exposure because a lot do not know it even exists. Look at high density residential, much of this is new Canadians, many of whom come from areas where gun ownership is illegal and hunting is not something that the average person can do. I learned to hunt from my dad, I am working on teaching my wife the art as well, but for people who are not part of the culture to want to join there are more than a few hurdles.

To me the situation is reasonably easy to rationalize. Most hunters are older (50+) and are retiring from the sport. Young people don't have the time or the money for the sport which has become increasingly costly (considerably so from when the boomers learned as young people).