How would you like to get paid to talk about hunting and fishing?  If you are dedicated to the union brother and sisterhood and have a deep passion for hunting and fishing that you love to share with others, you may be just the person the USA is seeking for its new Pro-Staff program. 

The purpose of the Pro-Staff program is to help spread the word about the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance and its many benefits to union members through their locals and to sign-up as many new club members as possible.  All USA Pro-Staff members are assigned to a geographic region within their home state.  Equipped with USA organizing tools and the latest hunting and fishing gear, they coordinate attendance and travel to union locals within 100 miles of their home to make four to five presentations per month.  As part of the presentations, Pro-Staff members also manage the very popular firearm raffles, and each Pro-Staff member will be outfitted with a Remington 770 rifle and Benelli Nova shotgun.

Being a member of the elite Pro-Staff team is not without its benefits.  Each member of the team receives $75 per presentation, is reimbursed $.49 per mile traveled and enjoys fantastic new hunting and fishing gear, including hats, shirts, McAlister gear bags, Buck knives and much more.  Plus, Pro-Staff members have the opportunity to accumulate USA Bucks based upon performance, which they can redeem for equipment and trips throughout the year.  One hard working Pro-Staff member will be awarded an all-expense paid trip to hunt monster bucks next fall. 

If you are a perfect combination of a union organizer and an outdoor enthusiast and want to play a key role in shaping the future of the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance, please visit www.UnionSportsmen.org/GoProStaff

If you’re a union local leader interested in having a USA Pro-Staff member make a presentation and hold a firearm raffle at one of your meetings, visit www.UnionSportsmen.org/Meeting.    

Another Friday night means another amazing adventure for a hardworking union member on Escape to the Wild. This week, IBEW member Rick DiBruno tangles with Pacific sailfish that weigh almost as much as he does. Tune in to VERSUS Country tomorrow at 7p.m. Eastern to see who wins.

Escape to the Wild January Schedule (Eastern)

It’s been said that successful hunting is a lot like making a savvy real estate investment. It’s all about location, location, location. When it comes to recruiting and retaining the next generation of hunters, you could say it’s all about access, access, access.        

True enough. Access is a major-league sticking point for many state wildlife managers who are trying to increase youth-hunting participation across the nation. Where you have expanding urban and suburban populations, obtaining hunting access is difficult, because there’s more competition for open space. As a result, youth hunters-not to mention adult hunters-are often squeezed out.

It’s not too complicated a formula, when you think about it. Where you have ample access to hunting lands-be they public lands and/or lands enrolled in public access programs-you are more likely to see higher rates of youth hunting participation. Of course, it goes without saying that having a parent or guardian who hunts is also vitally important. More often than not, parents who hunt are more likely to have kids who hunt. The tradition is handed down from one generation to the next, and so on.  

Since the lion’s share of our conservation heritage is tied to hunting and hunters, it’s distressing to see hunter numbers slowly erode nationwide. Simply put, without a strong, vocal hunting constituency, the conservation of our land and waters will become increasingly more difficult as time goes on.

"You can’t talk about conservation without talking about the contributions of hunters," said Terry Riley, conservation policy director with the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP). "Hunters have always been on the front lines of conservation."

Consider some numbers: New figures from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service show that the number of American hunters 16 and older declined by 10 percent between 1996 and 2006—from 14 million to about 12.5 million. The sharpest drop came in New England, the Rocky Mountains, and the Pacific states, which lost 400,000 hunters during that time frame. In Kansas, hunter numbers decreased about 5 percent in that time, from 291,000 to 277,000.

Why? The primary reason for the decline, according to the research: the loss of hunting lands to urbanization, as well as a lack of time and money hunting sometimes requires.  Truth is, you have to admire the work state wildlife agencies are doing to promote hunting and, by extension, conservation. My home state of Minnesota is attempting to break down barriers as fast as they’re erected-or so it seems. The agency has expanded its youth hunts, reduced the price of youth deer licenses, become a leader in the Archery in the Schools program, launched an apprentice hunter program and is currently developing a new mentoring program. And that’s the Cliff Notes version of the agency’s advocacy campaign.

Perhaps more importantly, Minnesota is targeting women-adult women- to get more involved in hunting. For example, the Minnesota DNR’s Becoming An Outdoors Woman program hosted its first-ever deer-hunting clinic in August. In October, and thanks to a partnership with the Ruffed Grouse Society, there are plans for a women’s grouse hunt and upland bird biology seminar.

Fact is, more state and federal agencies need to start targeting non-hunting adults-male or female-as potential recruits. Think about it. Many non-hunting adults have been exposed to hunting but left the sport because of other commitments and priorities, such as college.  Now many of them have decent-paying jobs and are in position to take up hunting once again. My point is that while we’re doing a respectable job of breaking down barriers for potential youth hunters, we need to start ramping up our advocacy efforts for adults, who will require less overall instruction and training.

The good news is that hunting has strong political and public support. Many states have added hunting as a constitutional right. In addition, most surveys indicate that less than 25 percent of Americans oppose hunting. Just recently, President Bush ordered all federal agencies that manage public lands to look for more room for hunting.

What’s more, many nongovernmental conservation organizations-from Pheasants Forever to the Delta Waterfowl Foundation-go to great lengths to introduce kids into hunting through mentorship programs. To be sure, those hunts, coupled with the conservation message taught at them, are vitally important to recruiting and retaining the next generation of hunters.

As you can see, it’s all about access and opportunity. If we can create more of both, the future of hunting and conservation will be in good hands.
 
Babe Winkelman is a nationally-known outdoorsman who has taught people to fish and hunt for more than 25 years. Watch the award-winning "Good Fishing" and "Outdoor Secrets" television shows on VERSUS (formerly OLN), Fox Sports Net, WILD TV, WFN and many local networks.  Visit www.winkelman.com for air times where you live.