BOISE, Idaho ? At 6 a.m. in mid-January, a trio of hunters sat cloaked in layers of camouflage, waiting for first light when they could begin shooting during what would likely be one of the final duck hunts of the year.
With an hour before the hunt could begin, their decoys already floating in the water, the particle board duck blind disguised by sheafs of reeds and grasses, Brad Brooks, Ian Malepeai and Becca Aceto passed the minutes with fowl-focused conversation.
Aceto, who began hunting only recently, said she?d hunted nearby a few days prior with decent luck. Snowflakes started to flurry, and the hunters, cautiously optimistic, hunkered down with their eyes to the sky.
Brooks, 36, has hunted at the Bruneau-area blind since he was a teenager growing up in Meridian. Malepeai, who grew up in Pocatello, also has spent decades hunting deer, waterfowl and chukar. Both learned the tradition from their fathers, something that?s become less and less common in recent decades.
Across the country, the number of hunters has steadily decreased in the last 50 years thanks to urbanization and a shift in tradition. To an extent, Idaho has bucked the trend but it?s becoming clear that something has to change ? maybe the hunters themselves.
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For the first time in its 120-year history, Idaho Fish and Game has a marketing department ? created last year ? and as the department?s director, Malepeai?s task is to help hunting continue to thrive in Idaho.
?In the past, state agencies didn?t have a marketing problem,? Malepeai said. ?They didn?t need to market.? That?s because existing hunters were doing the work for them. Mentoring has long been the primary way new hunters pick up the practice, just like Brooks and Malepeai did.
But rather than come to hunting largely through tradition, today?s hunters seem to be spurred by a wider selection of catalysts, according to Brooks, director of the Wilderness Society?s public lands campaign. That can be anything from a desire for adventure and new challenges to a love for the environment or gourmet game-based dishes.
Fish and Game is happy to embrace them all.
?In Idaho, we represent all hunters and all anglers in the state, and motivations vary,? Malepeai said. ?We?re looking at newcomers who are moving to Idaho for the outdoors and how we can help them become Idahoan.? He said statistics show the number of people passing the practice on to their children is waning nationwide. Since 2000, the number of hunters in Idaho has only decreased about 3 percent ? from 217,514 license holders in 2000 to 209,967 license holders in 2018. But the fact that Idaho?s population has grown by around 400,000 people in that same time period raises red flags.
?Idaho has actually been able to maintain a steady level of license numbers, but as a percentage of the population, it?s not as large as it was in the past,? Malepeai said. ?Part of it is just the changing demographics of the state.? The percentage of Idaho hunters in their 50s and 60s has increased over the past 20 years, while the percentage of hunters in their teens, 20s and 30s has slightly decreased.
?We?re hoping for the best,? Malepeai said. ?But the fear is the baby boomer generation is just aging out (of hunting). Our hope is we can keep this as part of what makes Idaho great.? Fish and Game offers a hunting passport program as an incentive for novice hunters. Malepeai plans to introduce a virtual reality experience that allows new hunters to mimic field dressing a deer. He hopes it will help boost confidence for less experienced hunters.
Malepeai pointed out that if hunting and fishing numbers continue to falter, so does the agency?s ability to manage Idaho?s wildlife. Though the agency is tasked with overseeing all of Idaho?s game and non-game animals, the bulk of its funding comes from licenses, tags and permits. Fish and Game gets additional revenue from taxes on hunting and fishing equipment, but the state?s share of those funds is determined by the number of license holders in the state.
?Hunting?s trying to stay relevant in a society that?s changing,? Aceto said.
