Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Game, Fish and Parks Looks To Next Generation Outdoor Enthusiasts

Lee Strubinger
/
SDPB

The South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks department is bracing for a drop off in hunters and anglers as the baby boomer generation ages.

While that decline is still a few years out, there’s a move now to attract newcomers to hunting and fishing.

The move is designed to keep money from licenses stable to help pay for habitat conservation.

Austin Horerner just moved from Aberdeen to Rapid City with his girlfriend. The twenty-two year old enjoys bait fishing. But on this evening he and his girlfriend are at a night class on fly fishing.

“It’s just a new challenge, something new to try and I just love the outdoors.”

This program is put on by the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks department, at the Outdoor Campus West. It’s not the first time Horerner has fished a stream. He and his father tried fly fishing during a family reunion in the Black Hills years ago.

“We tried trout fishing on a stream and did not catch anything.”

Fly fishing is a challenge, and that could turn away curious anglers like Horerner.

Throughout the year, the state offers a range of courses on fishing and hunting basics. That’s because South Dakota, like the rest of the country, is losing hunters and anglers.

“We definitely have an epic moment coming for us in the outdoor community that’s a nationwide issue,” says Scott Simpson, administrative resources section chief with Game, Fish and Parks. “The issue that we’re seeing is that the Baby Boomers are aging out of the population that hunts and fishes.”

Simpson describes it as a bubble that’s aging and headed toward a cliff.

“We’re not recruiting enough younger folks into these activities to replace those individuals.”

For example, Simpson says over the last twenty years the number of annual fishing licenses has dropped by twenty percent. Multiply that by today’s rate of $28 for a regular fishing license, and that’s around $600,000

Also during that time, the number of senior licenses, which cost half as much as a regular license, has increased. Simpson says other factors may be at play when it comes to a decline in fishing licenses, like habitat quality.

“Mother nature throws us a curveball every once in a while and we can’t necessarily react to that as quickly as we’d like to, but this is something we can defiantly put our finger on and say, ‘We can go out and do something about that,'" Simpson says.
-----------
“What is the goal of fishing? Goal number one, have fun. Goal number two, catch fish.”

That’s Naturalist Keith Wintersteen, who works with the state. He sits alongside Jim Phoenix, an avid fly fisherman who also teaches classes for the Outdoor West Campus in Rapid City.

“You should use techniques… my technique is whatever technique works. I take a very Machiavellian approach to fishing.”

They’re re-hashing an age old debate in the fly fishing community… dry flies versus wet flies. One catches fish on the surface, the other hooks them underwater. It’s clear they’ve had this debate before.

Wintersteen and Phoenix are part of a team of teachers who want to get more people involved outdoors. Technique aside, they also teach about the attitude of outdoor recreation.

“You have a bad day of fishing, and nothing is biting. So, you go up on the bank and you sit there and look at the countryside and say, ‘Gee, this is really pretty out here,'" Phoenix says. "Or if it starts to rain and you’ve got a rain coat, put it on. It’s great fishing during the rain. That’s what brings the bugs down on the water, knocks the bugs out of the trees.”

The fewer people who hunt and fish the more difficult it is for the state to get financial, political and social support for habitat management.

When there are fewer licenses, the operating budget for the department takes a hit. And that affects access to recreational opportunities.

That decline in licenses also concerns people who work with the regional office of Pheasants Forever.
Matt Morlock is the acting director. He says hunters can be a voice for rural farmers and ranchers about habitat in urban communities.

“Without them coming in and having a passion and concern for it, we lose our voice.”

Morlock says federal programs help fund conservation efforts for Pheasants Forever. The same is true for the state Game Fish and Parks department. Money for those programs come from rod and tackle sales, as well as guns and ammo.

“We lose those hunters, we lose that support, but we also lose the excise tax that’s generated that goes on the ground to take care of those wildlife populations.”

Morlock says Farm Bill Biologists with Pheasants Forever work with farmers and ranchers on habitat projects across the state.

On his last fly fishing venture, Austin Horerner didn’t catch anything. But about an hour after picking up the rod at his class, he hooks a fish.

“I mean, I think it’s great for new people to get out and just enjoy the outdoors. There are so many options, whether you’re catching something, or whether you’re just there to enjoy nature at its finest. I just think there’s something here for everybody.”

Hererner says he wants the tradition of outdoor recreation to continue. State officials want to see that too, so there’s money for conservation efforts for the future.