Internet Program Impacts Youth Interest in Hunting
Demographic trends in the USA suggest that the general public will become increasingly isolated from traditional consumptive uses of wildlife. This is correlated with nationwide decreases in hunter initiation and continuation. Because most state wildlife agencies derive a large portion of their funding from hunting-license sales, a decline in this source of revenue could have dramatic implications for future wildlife management programming. The International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (IAFWA) developed the Hunting as a Choice (HAC) project to help its member state fish and wildlife agencies effectively address these trends. HAC products target nontraditional constituents (suburban 10-12-year-old children). As a marketing study, we assessed the effectiveness of HAC to determine whether computer-based educational products (website and computer game) could increase the interest of 10- to 12-year-old suburban children in hunting or hunter education classes. Nearly half of the 91 suburban school children in Jacksonville, Florida, exposed to the website and computer game requested more information about taking a hunter education course from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Participants also became more tolerant of other people who hunt.
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